EIA Elects Leadership for the New Year

Jenny Heumann

EIA, NSWMA and WASTEC welcome the new year with new leaders at their helms.

The Environmental Industry Associations (EIA), Washington, D.C., and its two sub associations, the National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) and the Waste Equipment Technology Association (WASTEC), have elected new leaders for 2001.

The new leadership includes Norm Aardema as the chairman of EIA's Board of Trustees. The NSWMA Board of Governors unanimously re-elected Harold Carter as its chairman. Along with Carter, several other key NSWMA positions were filled, including NSWMA's vice-chairman, Mike Paine. WASTEC's board also elected Gordon Shaw as its board chairman.

Aardema, Carter and Shaw all are industry professionals with years of experience and knowledge that will enable EIA, NSWMA and WASTEC to work toward the coming year's goals.

After helping to guide the associations through a period of intense change in 1999, longtime association member Norm Aardema, president of Chicago-based Chemical Disposal Services Inc., has proven himself to be a dedicated, proactive leader for the associations, according to EIA President and CEO Bruce Parker.

As secretary and treasurer of EIA's board in 1999, Aardema was involved in negotiating the sale of WasteExpo and Waste Age Publications to Primedia/Intertec, New York. He also helped to develop the associations' 2000 budget.

In honor of these and other accomplishments, Aardema received a Special Trustees' award at WasteExpo 2000.

"Norm's extraordinary contribution of personal time, energy and commitment to EIA in 1999 was critical in guiding the associations through a creative and challenging period of financial and organizational change," Parker says.

Aardema also has served as a member of NSWMA's Board of Governors and earned an NSWMA Distinguished Service Award in 1997. And, as head of the Chairman's Council, he helped to organize a tour of western U.S. solid waste facilities for council members in 1999.

Aardema replaces outgoing chairman Ted Flood, president and CEO of Waste Technology Corp., Jacksonville, Fla.

In addition to re-electing Carter as NSWMA chair and naming Paine, president of Paine's Inc., Simsbury, Conn., as vice chairman at its Oct. 4 meeting in Keystone, Colo., the NSWMA board also re-elected members Jim Perry, president of Waste Industries Inc., Raleigh, N.C., and Don Williamson, president of West Central Sanitation, Willmar, Minn., to two of three at-large seats on the executive committee. Jim Grogan, vice president of G&G Sanitation Systems, Cumming, Ga., was selected to fill the third seat.

"[These gentlemen] bring with them a high level of leadership and involvement in the association and the industry," Parker says. "I am confident that they will raise NSWMA's profile and lead the board and industry into the 21st Century."

NSWMA members Eddie Dick and Carl Hornberger will continue to represent the association to the EIA Board of Trustees in 2001. Dick is president of Texas Disposal Systems Inc., Austin, Texas, and Hornberger is vice president of marketing for National Serv-All Inc., Ft. Wayne, Ind.

Gordon Shaw was WASTEC's choice as board chairman. Shaw is executive vice president of Marathon Equipment Co., Vernon, Ala., and replaces outgoing board chair Fred Leach, president of Leach Co., Oshkosh, Wis.

Shaw will continue Marathon's long tradition of involvement in WASTEC, according to former WASTEC executive vice president Jack Legler.

"Gordon has been a leader. He embodies new thinking and tradition rolled into one," Legler says, adding, "Right now is a critical time for WASTEC to decide where it wants to go in the future, and Gordon's personal attributes are just what the doctor ordered."

The board also elected two new members: Ron McCracken, president and COO of the Solid Waste Division of HiRise Recycling Systems Inc., Easley, S.C., and Shannon Harrop, manager of engineering for J.V. Manufacturing Inc., Sacramento, Calif.

Outgoing board chairman Leach will join Chris Weiser, president and CEO of J.V. Manufacturing Inc., Springdale, Ark., as WASTEC representatives to the EIA Board of Trustees.