Carter W. Strauss
Carter W. Strauss is a lifelong West Virginian, business leader, veteran, and civic steward whose career helped shape both the regional recycling industry and the broader business community of the Ohio Valley.
A native of Wheeling, West Virginia, Mr. Strauss is a graduate of Linsly School and Bethany College. He deployed with the U.S. Navy’s NMCB-74 Seabee Team during the Vietnam War. In 1971, following his military service, he joined Herman Strauss Incorporated, the family’s scrap and recycling business founded by his grandfather Herman. He entered the company at the operating level, learning the business from the ground up — from yard operations and logistics to markets, transportation, and finance.
In 1982, after the unexpected death of his father Joseph, Mr. Strauss assumed leadership of the company during one of the most difficult periods in the history of the steel and scrap industries. What followed was a defining chapter in his career. Through disciplined leadership, resilience, and a clear vision for the future, he stabilized the business and then transformed it. Over the decades that followed, he expanded the enterprise from a single company into Strauss Industries, a diversified group of related businesses that included Herman Strauss, Automatic Recycling, Strauss Reclamation, River Rail, and Strauss Automotive.
Under Mr. Strauss’s leadership, the companies became the largest scrap recycler in West Virginia, and together they served some of the largest names in the domestic and global steel industry – U.S. Steel, Wheeling-Pittsburgh, Weirton, Aramco, Nucor, and Bayou. He modernized the business through strategic investments and innovations that expanded its reach and competitiveness, including the installation of a shredding operation in Benwood that opened access to river transportation and global markets. He also led the development of specialized processing capabilities, including the “nuggetizer,” a custom-engineered solution that converted difficult industrial byproducts into a high-value product sought by steelmakers. His entrepreneurial vision extended beyond recycling alone, including demolition, automotive recycling, and the redevelopment of industrial property into River Rail, a major logistics and transloading operation.
Across a career spanning five decades, Mr. Strauss built a reputation for sound judgment, long-range thinking, and the ability to adapt in cyclical and highly competitive markets. He ultimately led the successful sale of Strauss Industries and its affiliated companies to Apollo Global Management and a strategic industry leader, capping a career defined by growth, innovation, and stewardship of a three-generation family business.
Mr. Strauss’s impact extends well beyond the recycling industry. He served for 32 years on the board and executive, audit, and compensation committees of WesBanco (NASDAQ: WSBC) and its predecessor institutions, and for 13 years on the board of Wheeling Hospital, where he served on the executive committee and chaired the audit committee. He also gave his time and leadership to organizations including Oglebay Institute, Wheeling Country Day School, and Temple Shalom. He and his wife, Barbara, have long supported numerous philanthropic causes in the region, including Oglebay, Wheeling Park, WVU Medicine, Easter Seals, the Wheeling Symphony, Linsly School, Temple Shalom, and other community institutions.
Mr. Strauss has lived a commitment to the values that define the best of West Virginia business: hard work, ingenuity, loyalty, service, and an enduring devotion to community – values he and Barbara proudly have shared with their two children, David and his wife Carisa, and Lesley and her husband Mike, and their five grandchildren: Caden, Dylan, Ethan, Grayson, and Emersyn.