Houston-based Waste Management Inc. has announced that Pat DeRueda, president of Waste Management Recycle America (WMRA), will be switching positions within the company. He will serve as vice president of Waste Management’s Arizona/New Mexico area beginning Jan. 1, 2012.
WM says it will name DeRueda’s replacement as president of WMRA by the end of December 2011.
DeRueda, who was president of WMRA for seven years, will succeed Dan Vermeer, current area vice president for Arizona/New Mexico. Vermeer will join a newly formed Waste Management unit that is focused on optimizing the company's enterprise-wide network of materials recovery, transfer and disposal assets. DeRueda will report to Western Group Senior Vice President Duane Woods.
"Pat leaves WMRA in great shape,” says David Steiner, WM CEO. “What was once a majority owned subsidiary of WM known as Recycle America Alliance became under Pat's leadership a fully integrated, wholly owned subsidiary that is now regarded as the leader in the global recycling industry. WMRA has experienced record profitability for the last two years. More importantly, by extracting more value from the waste stream, WMRA has demonstrated multi-year revenue and EBITDA growth well above company averages."
At the end of 2010, WMRA operated 91 recycling plants, including 31 single-stream recycling facilities. The company handled approximately 8.5 million tons of recyclables in 2010.
WM credits Vermeer with developing a network of recycling, transfer station and disposal assets in the Arizona/New Mexico market.
Steiner says, "We appreciate Dan's valuable impact on the Arizona/New Mexico Area and look forward to him continuing that success in this key transformation initiative across our enterprise."