Alice Jacobsohn

Norman Aardema bought South Chicago Disposal with his brother in 1981, running four trucks. By the time they sold the company in 1998, they had changed the name to Chicago Disposal and were running a fl eet of more than 100 trucks. In 1999, Aardema merged two medical waste companies in Michigan to form Midwest Waste Services. He joined NSWMA in the early 1980s, serving as Illinois chapter chair, legislative committee chair and representative on the Board of Governors. He was elected to the EIA Board of Trustees Chair in 2000 and played a major role in the sale of WasteExpo and Waste Age. After leaving the board, Aardema continued to serve on the EIA Financial Committee. He received an NSWMA Distinguished Service Award in 1997 and a Special Trustees Award in 2003.

Jim Cosman started his career as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs before becoming a garbage truck driver for Browning Ferris Industries (BFI) in 1972. Within three years, he was a district manager. He oversaw BFI as it became the first publicly held company to enter New York City, and helped implement a strict environmental compliance program. In 1997, he became the president and chief operating offi cer for Republic Services, helping to grow the company from $611 million to $2.1 billion. Cosman retired in 2000 to open a consulting fi rm, Doing Things Better, and helped revamp Pittsburgh’s waste management program.

From 1976 to 1984, Mickey Flood was employed with SCA Services, eventually becoming a regional vice president. In 1986, he became the president of Laidlaw’s U.S. operations. In 1989, Flood was named a regional vice president of Waste Management, and was later promoted to group president. Flood says his greatest accomplishment was assembling the staff to build IESI Corp. in 1995. The company started with two trucks and today runs the sixth-largest company in North America. Flood served as EIA’s Board of Trustees Chair from 2003 to 2006 and currently serves as the Flow Control Task Force Chair. He plays an active role with NSWMA’s Texas and New York City chapters, and serves on the NSWMA Board of Governors.

Steven Krause is the chairman and chief executive officer of Krause Corp., a company his grandfather founded in the 1960s. Krause worked with the company as a teenager before serving in the 1st Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1970 in the Vietnam War. When he returned, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and rejoined the company as a production manager. During his time at the company, Krause oversaw development of a roll-off hoist, a container carrier and compaction equipment, some of which was patented. In 1996, Krause Corp. entered the hook lift business by acquiring American Hook Lift. Krause served as the first chair of WASTEC’s Statistics Committee 10 years ago.

Jerry Schwartz (recognized posthumously) began his waste industry career in 1968 as publisher of Solid Waste Management magazine. In 1980, he joined NSWMA as the publisher of Waste Age magazine. Within 18 months, he had captured 75 percent of the advertising market and created the dominant magazine for the waste industry. He was still serving in an emeritus capacity at the time of his death in 2003. While with Waste Age, Schwartz devised the EIA Hall of Fame and the Driver of the Year Program to recognize waste industry drivers with outstanding safety records. He also pushed for voluntary industry safety standards to be recognized by the American National Standards Institute. His business card read, “Schwartz is my name, garbage is my game.”

Alice Jacobsohn is a director at EIA. E-mail her at [email protected]