Fresh Perspective

Steven Salloum

Chief operating officer at Regency Technologies

Steven Salloum grew up around the recycling industry. His father, Sam, began his career in the industry in 1983. While Salloum says he enjoyed visiting scrap yards and facilities with his father, he didn’t consider pursuing a career in recycling—originally, he was a premed major in college.

“I dove right into premed and was working, doing research at labs and research at the Cleveland Clinic,” he says.

In the middle of pursuing his undergraduate degree at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Salloum says he decided to work full-time during his summer breaks at Regency Technologies, an electronics recycling and information technology asset disposition provider now based in Stow, Ohio.

“I worked fully on the floor—I wore a vest, glasses and worked in the sorting areas and the teardown areas and the tech areas,” he says. “It was just a fully immersive experience. From there, it was like, ‘This is something that I could do.’”

Salloum received a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Case before working full-time at Regency. Today, he serves as the company's chief operating officer.

"I couldn’t make the decisions I make today if I didn’t fill every single position … earlier in my career.”

“I’m still in operations [and] still involved heavily on the floor,” he says. “I couldn’t make the decisions I make today if I didn’t fill every single position operating the equipment earlier in my career. A lot of people on the floor have seen me do those jobs, as well, so, there’s a level of understanding there that I don’t think would be there if I didn’t do that.”

Salloum isn’t the only up-and-comer at Regency. Recycling Today also had the opportunity to talk with Mitchell Joseph, who works on process improvement and strategic initiatives at Regency, and Eric Levine, an e-commerce specialist, about their experiences in the recycling industry. The latest Fresh Perspective podcast features all three of their stories.

The following interview features excerpts Salloum shared during the podcast.

Recycling Today (RT): What are some challenges Regency is navigating, and how is the company working through those challenges?

Steven Salloum (SS): As we’ve continued to grow, we’ve had to rely on a lot more people, developing those people within our program, building the next level of managers, the next level of regional managers. It’s [about] going out and ... finding the right talent, specifically, and making sure they’re in the right position.

RT: What is Regency’s approach to hiring and retaining solid employees?

SS: It requires a lot of luck. … A lot of our upper-level management, at least on the operations side, are all homegrown. [Some] have worked starting as temps, working their way up through leadership positions and now up to [vice presidents]. We’re very lucky we’ve had long-tenured management on the operations side. That continuity has really helped us develop the processes we have and made us as efficient as we are.

There’s a lot of second-generation [workers] at the management level and the employee level, too. There are a lot of [people] who have worked here after their parents worked here.

RT: Can you share more about the luck you’ve encountered with hiring and retaining employees?

SS: I think a lot of it is a testament to the people who train here. There are a lot of people that really spent the time working with us to show us everything. That kind of developed a culture of people wanting to stay here. That [training] is so valuable— it shapes who we are.

We’re also developing internship programs, seeing how we can make sure to leverage all the knowledge we have and the people we have to begin to train the next people who come in.