Date: June 18, 2009
Source: OAKLEAF
OAKLEAF Names Steve Preston President
Former Cabinet Official Brings Deep Service Industry Experience to Leading Waste and Recycling Company --
OAKLEAF, a leading provider of sustainable waste logistics and recycling solutions, has announced the appointment of Steve Preston as President. He will assume responsibility as President effective immediately and will add the title of Chief Executive Officer later this year. At that time, current CEO Jim Barnes will transition to his new role as OAKLEAF's Chairman of the Board of Directors. As Chairman, Barnes will remain active in the business, focusing his efforts on large clients, major vendors, and strategic acquisitions.
Preston is a highly-regarded leader with demonstrated success in advancing business strategies, managing people and improving service quality and efficiency through better business processes and technology. His tenure includes nine years with The ServiceMaster Company, where he was Chief Financial Officer during periods of growth and restructuring, and then as Executive Vice President of Strategic Services, where he led initiatives to improve customer experience, provide employees with better tools and increase productivity. ServiceMaster serves 10.5 million homes and businesses each year through a network of over 5,500 company-owned locations and franchised licenses. With over $3 billion in annual revenue ServiceMaster brands include Terminix(R), TruGreen(R), Merry Maids(R) and American Home Shield(R).
"Having developed and led OAKLEAF over the past fourteen years, I am delighted to have someone of Steve's extraordinary talent join our organization to help guide it to the next level," Barnes said.
More recently, Preston served under President Bush in the Cabinet as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from 2008 to 2009. In response to the mounting mortgage crisis, he implemented an aggressive plan to improve Americans' access to mortgage capital, ensure disaster victims' access to housing, and rebuild public housing in New Orleans. HUD has 8,600 employees and a budget of over $50 billion.
Prior to his Presidential appointment to HUD, Preston was Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from 2006 to 2008. Under Preston's leadership of the SBA, the organization significantly improved Federal programs which assist disaster victims and small businesses and implemented the most extensive employee development initiative in the agency's history.
SBA was rated "Most Improved" among large federal agencies in the "2008 Best Places to Work" survey conducted by the Partnership for Public Service and American University's Institute for the Study of Public Policy.
Preston received his B.A. from Northwestern University with Highest Distinction and his M.B.A. from University of Chicago. He, his wife Molly and their five children are looking forward to relocating to the Hartford area.
About OAKLEAF
OAKLEAF, founded in 1995, is a leader in providing sustainable waste logistics and recycling solutions for a broad base of multi-location retail, restaurant, hotel, manufacturing, property management and mall clients including Sears/Kmart, General Electric, United Technologies, Camden Property Trust, CVS, P.F. Chang's and many more. As the most rapidly growing waste outsourcing company in the nation with operations throughout the United States and Canada, an employee base of more than 750 employees, and a nationwide network of over 5,000 certified haulers, recyclers, and waste diversion experts, OAKLEAF provides services to over 100,000 locations throughout North America. OAKLEAF is backed by New Mountain Capital which provides significant financial and strategic resources to help continue OAKLEAF's strong growth and superior service to its customers. OAKLEAF has been recognized twelve times since 2001 by Inc. Magazine, including being named five times to the Inc. 500 List (now the Inc. 5000 List) and being recognized seven times by ICIC, the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. Subsidiary operations include Valet Waste (doorstep trash pickup for multifamily communities), IEM (mall and shopping center services), WasteLess Environmental Services (waste logistics solutions for Canadian companies), and Greenleaf Compaction (equipment rentals, leasing and maintenance). OAKLEAF is also the exclusive provider of dumpster services for The Home Depot Dumpster Rentals. For more information on OAKLEAF, please visit www.oakleafwaste.com.
About New Mountain Capital
New Mountain Capital is a New York-based private equity firm investing for long-term capital appreciation through direct investment in growth equity transactions, leveraged acquisitions and management buyouts. The firm manages private equity and public equity capital with aggregate assets under management totaling more than $8.5 billion. New Mountain seeks out the highest-quality growth leaders in carefully selected industry sectors, and then works intensively with management to build the value of these companies. For more information on New Mountain Capital, please visit www.newmountaincapital.com.
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