Shyam Reddy, with BlueLinx Corp. in Marietta, Georgia. Photo: John Disney/ALM

Shyam Reddy has held several titles in his legal career. But it may be his current role—chief transformation officer at BlueLinx Corp.—that may be the most unusual, at least for an attorney who saw his start in the corporate world as a general counsel.

But the position is not totally surprising for a person like Reddy, whose professional philosophy is, “Never say no.”

Reddy joined BlueLinx, an Atlanta-based wholesale distributor of building products, in June 2015 as senior vice president, GC and corporate secretary, overseeing legal, real estate, risk management and information technology matters. He was promoted to chief administrative officer, GC and corporate secretary when he picked up human resources duties in May 2017, and was asked by the BlueLinx CEO and board to serve as chief transformation officer last spring, when it acquired a $1.4 billion company. He also previously held the title of senior vice president, chief administrative officer, GC and corporate secretary at Euramax International Inc., now OmniMax, where he spent two years before joining BlueLinx.

Although he handled the deal as BlueLinx's GC, he now is tasked with integrating the two companies and generating the at least $50 million in synergies it told the market it would create—a role that is wholly business and ideally nothing legal.

“We brought on a new GC, and I'm trying hard not to do legal [work], but when you have a relationship with the organization, it's hard,” Reddy said in an interview with Corporate Counsel.

Although he doesn't hold a CEO title, Reddy is a strong example of the GC-turned-business leader. In his position, he oversees a team of more than 30 people who focus on everything from facility consolidations in overlapping markets to network optimization, from procurement to new organizational structures, policy drafting and the conversion of legacy IT systems onto one enterprise resource planning platform.

“You're working with people in the business in new and exciting ways,” he said. “And I really love being in an executive leadership position on the corporate side because we're in a position to make the decisions that drive value for all of our stakeholders.”

What whetted Reddy's corporate leadership and management appetite, he said, was his three-year stint in the Obama administration, where, as regional administrator of the Southeast sunbelt region of the U.S. General Services Administration, he led a $225 million budget, 1,000-employee organization. When he was offered the opportunity—which, in the ultimate exercise of “never saying no,” he did so without knowing the salary until day one on the job—he was closing in on 10 years at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, where he had spent his entire legal career to date and risen through the ranks to corporate partner.

“When I came back into the corporate world from public service, the CEOs recognized that I had run the regional operations of a large government agency, so even though they brought me in as GC, they expanded my roles when they saw what I could do,” Reddy said.

The key to climbing the corporate ladder in that manner, he added, is the ability to be a good leader and manager—a task accomplished through “caring about your people.”

“You have to strive for excellence, not tolerate mediocrity and push people to their limits while rewarding them at the same time,” he said. “To me, anyone who is in a leadership position has to cultivate that entrepreneurial spirit in their employees to drive them to their best performance. It's important to put people to their highest and best use.”

Although he loved the collegial environment of Big Law, Reddy said he definitely does not want to go back to law firm life. But heading back to the GC chair, and as a better lawyer at that, is not out of the question, he added.

“All the business experience I'm gaining as the chief transformation officer and, before that, the chief administrative officer, make me a better attorney,” Reddy said. “Although I'm not serving in a GC role now, I'm confident the business experience and skills I'm gaining now would make me a more effective general counsel should I take that role in the future.”