Richard L. Fruehauf was named Vice President – Strategic Planning and Corporate Development in April 2018 and advanced to Senior Vice President in March 2019. In January 2020, he was appointed Chief Strategy and Development Officer and in April 2021 was named Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer. In this role, he is responsible for creating and driving U. S. Steel’s strategy and sustainability priorities to achieve profitable growth. He also has responsibility for developing policy and methods that will support U. S. Steel’s future by aligning business sustainability and organization opportunities. Mr. Fruehauf has executive responsibility for: Strategic Planning and Business Development, Government Affairs and Sustainability. He is Chair of the U. S. Steel Foundation.
Mr. Fruehauf joined U. S. Steel in September 2014 as Assistant General Counsel – Commercial, with management responsibility for a team of attorneys that provided M&A, real estate and commercial legal advice to the company. In July 2015, he was promoted to Associate General Counsel – Corporate, adding management responsibility for intellectual property and other transactional legal matters, before being named Deputy General Counsel – Corporate in January 2017. Mr. Fruehauf was appointed Interim General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer in December 2017, during which time he assumed the day-to-day responsibility for all of the company’s legal, environmental and compliance matters.
Prior to joining U. S. Steel, Mr. Fruehauf served as Assistant General Counsel – Americas for Westinghouse Electric Company, a global nuclear technology supplier, with responsibility for commercial legal matters for customers in the western United States, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, as well as legal support to the corporate supply chain, real estate, government affairs, government contracts and information technology functions. He previously served as Assistant General Counsel – Compliance, overseeing compliance programs for export control, customs, antitrust, anti-bribery and cyber security across Westinghouse’s global operations in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Mr. Fruehauf has also practiced law with Alcoa, Inc., Cohen & Grigsby, P.C. in Pittsburgh and Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. Earlier in his career, he served in national security positions with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency, and the Department of the Navy.
A native of Pittsburgh, Mr. Fruehauf earned a Bachelor of Science degree in foreign service from Georgetown University, and a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
He is a member of the American Bar Association, the bars of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Mr. Fruehauf serves on the board of directors of the American Red Cross of Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter.