Republic Names Vander Ark President, Appoints Stuart COO

Republic Services just announced that Jon Vander Ark has been named president of the company. As president, Vander Ark will be responsible for the company's ongoing transformation and continued growth. He will oversee operations, sales, marketing and business development and will continue reporting to Don Slager, chief executive officer.

In addition, Tim Stuart has been appointed chief operating officer (COO), succeeding Vander Ark.

Prior to this appointment, Vander Ark served as chief operating officer, developing greater rigor around safety, fleet readiness, labor effectiveness and route optimization, noted the company. He joined Republic Services in January 2013 as executive vice president (EVP), chief marketing officer, responsible for advancing the Republic Services brand, elevating the company's customer-centric service approach and introducing its Priority Based Selling technique and its Capture tablet-based pricing tool.

In 2016, Vander Ark assumed the role of EVP of operations, overseeing performance and financial results across the field organization. Prior to Republic, he served as a partner at McKinsey & Company's Detroit office, managing clients across a variety of industries, including transportation, logistics, manufacturing and consumer products. He received a bachelor's degree from Calvin College and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.

Stuart, who will succeed Vander Ark as COO, has nearly 25 years in the industry. Starting as operations supervisor, Stuart has deep experience across of all aspects of business operations, according to the company. He joined Republic Services in 2006 as director of operations and has since held roles of increasing responsibility, including area president, vice president of customer experience, region vice president, region president and most recently EVP of operations.

During his tenure, Stuart pioneered the company's customer experience efforts, implementing service commitment methodologies and metrics, along with its use of Net Promoter Score as a key customer insight tool. Stuart received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Alabama and an MBA from Florida Gulf Coast University.

As COO, Stuart will be responsible for continuing to operationalize the company's strategy and execute its business plan across field operations. In addition to leading the general management organization, he will have functional responsibility for safety, operations effectiveness, engineering, environmental compliance and fleet management. Stuart will continue reporting to Vander Ark.

"We've built a high-caliber executive leadership team through a commitment to leveraging composite strength and creating deliberate development plans for our people," said Slager in a statement. "Both Jon and Tim work effectively together and have delivered sustainable results for our customers and shareholders. They have built strong teams and remain focused on making Republic a place where the best people come to work. I'm looking forward to working closely with them in their new roles as we continue to strengthen The Republic Way and accelerate the company's growth over the coming years."