The Quiet Man

Salena Zito
Mon, 04 May 2026 20:09:59 -0700
Opinion

NEW KENSINGTON, Pennsylvania — Thomas Tull is walking along the old wooden brick floor of what began as the Pittsburgh Reduction Company and later became Alcoa, a place where researchers and manufacturers created a hub of foundational aluminum manufacturing for nearly a century.

In truth, this was the center of innovation and manufacturing in America. And after lying dormant for decades, Tull took his vision for remaking and rethinking U.S. manufacturing from an idea and ethos into reality two years ago.

For exactly 80 years, the people who stood along these wooden floors fueled America's leadership and industrial growth, producing things now common in our lives, such as cooking utensils and specialized materials — things that we take for granted today but are conveniences that changed people's daily lives for the better.
Updated: Tue May 05, 2026

NEW KENSINGTON, Pennsylvania — Thomas Tull is walking along the old wooden brick floor of what began as the Pittsburgh Reduction Company and later became Alcoa, a place where researchers and manufacturers created a hub of foundational aluminum manufacturing for nearly a century.

In truth, this was the center of innovation and manufacturing in America. And after lying dormant for decades, Tull took his vision for remaking and rethinking U.S. manufacturing from an idea and ethos into reality two years ago.

For exactly 80 years, the people who stood along these wooden floors fueled America's leadership and industrial growth, producing things now common in our lives, such as cooking utensils and specialized materials — things that we take for granted today but are conveniences that changed people's daily lives for the better.

Tull is giving a tour of Re:Build, an advanced manufacturing company whose goal is to revitalize America's manufacturing base — not just for now but for future generations.

Tull said he bought into Re:Build when Jeff Wilke, former president of Amazon, called and told him that he was very concerned about America losing its ability to make complex things stateside. Wilke explained that instead of continuing at Amazon, he wanted to build manufacturing hubs in the country. And he wanted Tull to invest in that moment and be on board.

"So we did that," Tull said. To say that the Binghamton, New York, native is understated is spot-on — not just in manner but in appearance. Tull, dressed in jeans and a black jacket, blends right in with the western Pennsylvania scenery.

Few would know from his comportment that he is a longtime minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Yankees; or that he is co-chairman of TWG Global, which invests in artificial intelligence and other technologies. He also sits on the boards of Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

Tull is everywhere, yet visibly, he is nowhere. He is the quiet man with a deep-rooted patriotism measured in substance, not flash.

The Re:Build plant is massive, 1 million square feet, part of Tull's vision to restore U.S. factory work that the country has lost overseas. He also wants to revive and rebuild something equally important: the U.S. workforce, and with the same spirit of the U.S. workforce that built the country 100 years ago. For him, those two things are patriotism at its deepest core.

Tull said the reason the region is so important to building the future is threefold, and it begins with the universities located within the city limits.

"There's a lot of local know-how, between engineering, research and robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, but also the legacy of manufacturing expertise that is the heritage of this place," he said.

Tull smiles and points to the high-tech advanced manufacturing, robotics and 3D manufacturing, many of which are being used in aerospace and defense, that are being researched, developed and built as we walk around the plant.

"I think they're going to do some pretty spectacular things out of this building," Tull said.

When you pull up to the building along the Allegheny River, about 18 miles upriver from Pittsburgh, you can see that the decay that has defined New Kensington since the 1970s has left its mark. Alcoa and other supporting manufacturers started shutting down, and the population was halved. That exodus has left its imprint.

It's no surprise to find that Tull is drawn to places such as New Kensington and western Pennsylvania in general. His hometown, Binghamton, shares striking similarities. Both are part of the Appalachian region, surrounded by rolling hills and situated along the confluence of major rivers — in Binghamton's case, the Susquehanna and the Chenango.

As in western Pennsylvania, commerce along the rivers and the railroads made Binghamton a transportation hub for manufacturing, with major employers such as IBM creating a middle class that was able to live the American dream of homeownership through hard work and a sense of purpose.

Looking back at the people he grew up around, Tull said that while his upbringing might not have always been ideal, the community around him was strong.

"They were hardworking," Tull said. "They believed in our country. They believed in community and the value of hard work. That is the kind of place I grew up in."

It remains a sense of place that drew him to Pittsburgh. Not because he has admittedly been mildly obsessed with the Steelers since childhood but because he feels that same familiarity of priorities here. So much so that he left a pretty good home behind when he relocated here years ago from California.

As a high school student who helped the family make ends meet, juggling several jobs, Tull thought law school was where he should go after Hamilton College, until a friend told him it was a lot less "L.A. Law" and a lot more paperwork.

So he began his entrepreneurial career by buying and operating a chain of laundromats. Always a tinkerer, he wanted to make it more efficient and profitable, so he developed demand-based washing machines, beginning a trend of using data mixed with daily cultural habits that would eventually define his successful trajectory in the film industry.

Tull said he knew after college that he would be better working for himself.

"I always thought that I was unemployable because that would work out very poorly for both parties," he said with a broad smile.

"But that's one of the things that I love so much about this country, is somebody would come from a place like I did, and with some hard work, and knowing that success is rarely measured in a straight line, I might do OK."

There are people who experienced things in the middle of the country, such as he did in Binghamton, and saw a bit of their soul ripped out when their communities started to hollow out.

"I think that is one of the reasons why we've all been called to come to this company and called to serve the higher purpose and the mission," he said of Re:Build.

Mike Rowe, "Dirty Jobs" host and evangelist for the trades, was attending an energy summit orchestrated by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) in July 2025 in Pittsburgh. Rowe had just finished a vigorous back-and-forth on a panel with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the dangerous level of skills gap that is expanding in the country, when Tull made a beeline toward him at CMU.

Rowe said he didn't know who Tull was.

"But he kind of pulled me aside, saying, 'You don't know me, but I'm in violent agreement with everything you just said. I believe our workforce is the most pressing issue of our time, and I would like to talk to you about furthering the goals of your foundation and expanding your scholarship program,'" Rowe said.

Rowe, who launched the MikeRoweWORKS Foundation, which awards scholarships to people pursuing careers in the trades, said he responded in deadpanned fashion: "Awesome."

Tull and Rowe formed a relationship that will soon bring a Pittsburgh-based event, in conjunction with U.S. Steel and CMU, to highlight the importance of both researchers and the workforce needed to build, maintain and power AI data centers. And all while working together to fill the workforce gap and showing young people the future that they can have in building the country's future.

The last time manufacturing employment peaked was 1979, when nearly 20 million jobs were in the trades. But that workforce fell out of favor in our culture, offshoring and free trade became the political pile-on, and those entering the trades dwindled.

That has reversed course, Rowe said, but not quickly enough. And this is why he called Tull a patriot at a critical moment — one who is coming to the rescue while we are hovering over a cliff.

"Thomas is like the epitome of a tech entrepreneur, a blue-collar patriot who is determined to triangulate all of these different things," Rowe said. "He understands that all of these great American companies and our defense production is going to be impacted if we don't fix the skills gap problem."

Rowe isn't wrong. U.S. companies, particularly those in AI, robotics, defense, manufacturing and energy, need skilled labor for their portfolios, their shared price, and their businesses to be successful.

Rowe said all of that is affected by the number of electricians and welders who can fast-track in the next three to four years.

"Thomas sees that, and he is ahead of the curve," Rowe said. "The guy has something in him that you can find in his laundromat story, his auto repair story, his sports franchise story, his philanthropy, his AI. ... It's a default to act."

In other words, Tull is not only the guy who makes the trains run on time. He had the foresight to make sure the engineer was even able to run the train, Rowe said.

"A lot of times in our culture, we don't think about that person," Rowe said. "We just think about the shiny train."

Halfway across the country, Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth said she sees Tull's impact in much the same way. Kornbluth said she can see it applied to STEM programs and research and innovation in engineering, computer science and AI, all working with the trades on a more level playing field.

Kornbluth said she met Tull when the cell biologist-turned-university president arrived on campus in 2022. Tull left a unique impression.

"He's very unassuming if he walks into a room," Kornbluth said. "Nobody would sort of know or think that he was this highly successful entrepreneur who has his hands on so many things that drive our culture."

Kornbluth loves Tull's pragmatic approach.

"He actually understands how things work, so you never get these sort of generalized, aggrandizing statements from him," she said. "He knows he can sort of see all possible avenues of approach, and his advice is never born by 'We always do it this way at MIT.'"

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who was on a tour of MIT with Tull, Kornbluth and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), said that in working with Tull, he has found a man who is profoundly patriotic. And not in a superficial way, but in looking for what is best for the country and what can be done behind the scenes to make it happen, particularly when it comes to military efficiency.

MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics is one of those collaborations with the military, along with the Military Fellows program, in which logistics officers participate in the MIT Supply Chain Management master's program.

The logistics of getting supplies, ammunition and food to soldiers have been a challenge for military leaders since Henry Knox traversed over 320 miles to deliver cannons to George Washington to get the British out of Boston some 250 years ago.

Tull, who has been data-driven since his first laundromat, has not lost that passion. He applies it to the military with a keen interest in improving and investing in defense technology, AI and strengthening the military supply chain.

Cotton said his experience in government has taught him how unique Tull is.

"He works hard for the country's future," the senator said. "And he avoids all credit or publicity for it."

Tull said the story of the America of today and tomorrow is not that we left places like New Kensington behind, but that we made them the center of the future.

"That is not just our obligation," Tull said. "That is our guiding purpose."