Lackinger, who has worked at ThyssenKrupp for 22 years and has been CEO since 2009, also said that while he doesn't know what his next assignment will be, he hopes it lets him stay in Mobile.

"The people were so warm and welcoming, it took just a few weeks for my family to settle in and fall in love with Mobile," he said.

ThyssenKrupp said last week that its Steel Americas division, which includes the Mobile plant and a facility in Brazil, had an operating loss of 3.1 billion euros ($4.1 billion) in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

The result included a 2.1 billion-euro impairment charge based on cost overruns in Brazil and weak markets in the U.S.

At the same time, ThyssenKrupp announced that the Americas unit's chief executive officer, Hans Fischer, will leave the company and made public the plan to move Lackinger to new duties.

Lackinger, who oversees about 1,750 workers at the steel mill in north Mobile County, reflected on building that facility, creating a home in Mobile and larger trends in the economy during an interview with the Press-Register last week.

Q: What has your experience been here in Mobile?

Lackinger: Looking back five years ago, I took over technical responsibility for the project ... about half a year before we selected Calvert as our new home base for our American plant.

During that time, the engineering and plant layout had to be done. Then I took over the assignment of starting to build that plant from a project management perspective, directing all the construction companies, equipment suppliers and really building everything from scratch to what you see now.

In 2009, in addition to that whole technical responsibility, I also (added the) CEO position, being in charge of the whole company, and building up the team in every area.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama _ The beginnings last week of a national rocket propulsion center in Huntsville mark "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" in the unfolding world of next-generation rocket development.

If all goes as planned, the proposed National Institute for Rocket Propulsion Systems will blend the expertise of government, academia and industry into a one-stop national think tank for rockets.

And there is no better place for it to be located than the Rocket City, where Wernher von Braun's rocket team designed and built the rocket engines that put man on the moon. Huntsville today remains a world leader in space and missile technology with a brain trust of engineers ready to meet the challenge.

Strategy teams were named to lay the foundation for NIRPS at the Joint Army Navy NASA Air Force propulsion conference last week at the Huntsville Marriott.

Development of the propulsion institute comes against the backdrop of shrinking government investment in America's space program. Private aerospace companies, working with NASA and research schools like the University of Alabama in Huntsville, will play a vital role in developing the space vehicles of tomorrow.

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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- In recent years Huntsville has been called the new "federal city" and a "Pentagon of the South." The area has been touted as an "oasis of prosperity" with growth from Base Realignment and Closure decisions and government work providing some insulation against the economic chill felt across the country.

But November's failure of the congressional "Supercommittee" to come up with a plan for reducing the deficit by more than $1 trillion has raised the specter of a decade of automatic, massive, across-the-board federal budget cuts beginning in 2013.

If Congress doesn't take action, the Budget Control Act passed last summer - it created the Supercommittee - will cut more than $600 billion from the Department of Defense over 10 years. That's in addition to about $450 billion in reduced defense growth over 10 years already agreed upon.

Is federal-heavy Huntsville facing years of pain after years of prosperity?

"From everything we can tell, we're not," Mayor Tommy Battle said.

First, the cuts to defense may not turn out to be as deep as feared, he said. And second, even under the worst-case scenarios, the kind of high technology, intelligence and program management work done on Redstone Arsenal and by contractors here will have to continue. Technology is one area leaders will turn to for ways of increasing efficiency.

"On Sept. 16, 2011, President Obama announced new steps that will help America's universities and research labs convert ideas into new products, create startups, expand the economy and create high-value 21st century jobs," according to a statement about the series. "In coordination with the Administration, 135 university presidents committed to working more closely with industry, investors, and agencies to bolster entrepreneurship, encourage university-industry collaboration, and advance the nation's social and economic interests."

The webinar will be held at 1 p.m. on Dec. 13 and can be accessed here.