David Borsuk’s Lifetime Achievement Award Acceptance Speech

This week’s Industry Voices is an excerpt from David Borsuk’s Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech on April 28 during ISRI2021.

I am honored and humbled to receive ISRI’s Lifetime Achievement Award. While I am saddened that my parents, Ben and Libian Borsuk, are no longer alive to share this moment, I am pleased that my wife Shelley, our daughters Nicole and Courtney, and our son Ben, are present. I am deeply grateful for their support and sacrifices.

My participation in ISRI could not have been accomplished without the sponsorship, encouragement, and tolerance from Sheldon, Mark, Jason, and Bradford Lasky; and my work family at Sadoff Iron & Metal.

It is often said that participation in ISRI is a commercial, transactional and networking opportunity. While this is true, you cannot undervalue the role that ISRI plays in professional and personal development. These opportunities have resulted in long-term friendships and life lessons. And I have certainly been a beneficiary.

Many people have influenced my ISRI journey – some whom I have privately thanked. I want to publicly acknowledge my long-time friend and past ISRI Chair, John Sacco. Early on in my career, John encouraged me to do the right thing for the right reason.

I will also single out Cap Grossman and Ken Cohen, who organized the ISRI Safety Summit. It was there that I was first introduced to the bedrock of my core value: “Priorities change, values don’t, and safety is a value that we must all hold.”

The challenges that our industry face today are like no other, and threaten the very existence of our member companies. It is essential that we remember the lessons learned by the founders of our industry, who fought for recognition as legitimate businesses and valued members of their community. They understood the power of ONE – that by uniting they could achieve things at the local, state, and national levels that they could not have done singularly. Their active participation in ISRI Chapters and ISRI National brought successful accomplishments in manufacturing tax exemptions, heavy weight truck permits, creative stormwater permits, sane scrap theft laws, SREA, and success at the STB – just to name a few.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for this honor. I hope that as time goes forward, I will continue to be worthy of it. Thank you very much.