Personnel Notes

In memoriam: Jake Farber

The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), Brussels, has alerted its members that Jake Farber, the association’s one-time president and the president emeritus of Alpert & Alpert Iron & Metal Inc., a nonferrous scrap processing and trading company based in Los Angeles, died March 24 at the age of 94.

Farber served as BIR President from 1987 to 1991, with the association saying he was instrumental in further developing the organization.

He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, BIR’s American members’ association, for his commitment and leadership within ISRI and its predecessor organization NARI (National Association of Recycling Industries), of which he was president from 1978 to 1980.

ISRI hires senior vice president

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, has hired Holly Arthur as senior vice president. She oversees communications, marketing, publications and other areas of the organization and assists with ISRI’s overall strategic planning.

“Holly’s experience, vision and knowledge will help ISRI elevate our current delivery of services as well as adapt them for the future of a constantly evolving industry,” says ISRI President Robin Wiener. “Her wide-ranging experience will also help further position ISRI as the Voice of the Recycling Industry in front of external audiences,” she adds.

ISRI says Arthur is an accomplished communications strategist and practitioner, with experience as a journalist as well as in government, public relations firms and large and small trade associations representing highly regulated industries. She comes to the association from the Portland Cement Association (PCA), where she was vice president of communications. In that position, Arthur focused on media relations, social media, advertising, marketing, board and membership communications, reputation management, executive communications and advocacy communications.

Prior to working for the PCA, Arthur served as the principal at Milton Public Relations, assistant vice president of public affairs at the Association of American Railroads and vice president at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. She brings 25 years of experience in the communications and association management arena.

Eriez appoints director of sales and product management

Jeff Kaveney, a 24-year employee with Eriez, headquartered in Erie, Pennsylvania, has been promoted to director of sales and product management, says Senior Sales Director of Eriez – USA Dave Heubel. Kaveney served as manager of product marketing and administration prior to this promotion.

“As director of sales and product management, Jeff’s responsibilities include providing leadership for our separation, vibratory, metal detection and recycling product lines, developing key sales strategies for our light industry markets and overseeing order administration,” Heubel says. “Jeff’s proven dedication, wealth of product knowledge and widespread application experiences make him uniquely qualified to guide Eriez – USA in meeting our continually evolving strategic goals for product standardization and organic product development.”

Kaveney joined the Eriez sales team in 1995 as a technical sales representative.

BIR Plastics Committee appoints new chair

The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), Brussels, has appointed Henk Alssema, chairman of Vita Plastics, Netherlands, as its Plastics Committee chair.

Alssema has been active in plastics recycling since 1994, successfully starting up several plastics recycling companies and restructuring a public company as its CEO, according to a BIR news release.

As Vita Plastics chairman, Alssema is focused on developing a new vision in the area of the circular economy that is centered on value creation.

Vita Plastics produces regrind, regranulate and compounds. An extensive network of suppliers provides Vita Plastics with postconsumer and postindustrial plastic scrap, which the company recycles into standard or customer-specific materials, according to the news release.

“I am pleased to welcome Henk as chairman of the BIR Plastics Committee and strongly believe that both BIR and the plastics recycling industry will greatly benefit from his vision, leadership and industry experience of nearly 25 years that he brings with him,” BIR President Ranjit Baxi says.

NWRA expands government affairs team

The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA), Arlington, Virginia, has hired Teddy Greissing and Jonathan Taylor to its government affairs team. Greissing and Taylor will assist in the Washington office and will train to help with NWRA chapter operations.

“Many of the issues facing our industry are at the state and local level,” NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith says. “The addition of Teddy and Jonathan to our state government affairs team will only make NWRA a stronger voice for the waste and recycling industry.”

Greissing is a manager of government relations with the NWRA. According to NWRA, he previously worked for Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical company in Bridgewater, New Jersey, where he supported the work of the federal government affairs team. Prior to his work with Sanofi, Greissing worked on the John McCain presidential campaign.

Taylor is a manager of government relations with the NWRA. According to NWRA, he was the public policy intern at the Industrial Minerals Association of North America. He also worked to solve regulatory issues with Mercedes-Benz USA as a regulatory and recalls intern.

Hitachi names new president

Hitachi Construction Machinery Loaders America Inc. (HCMA), Newnan, Georgia, has announced that President Masaaki Hirose is retiring from his current position, appointing HCMA Vice President of Operations Al Quinn to succeed him in day-to-day management of the company.

Hirose has accepted a new position within Hitachi, now serving as chairman and director of HCMA and vice president of the Hitachi Americas Operations Group. Quinn becomes managing director, reporting to Hirose.

“Al joined us in 2017 and took the lead in several of our key customer-facing roles,” Hirose says. “His profound expertise and experience in our industry have been crucial to our success in sales, marketing, parts and service and purchasing. Now, as managing director, he will continue to provide leadership in those areas, with additional responsibilities for corporate and production operations.”

Regarding HCMA, which was established in January 2018, Quinn says, “We have certainly gone through tremendous change in the past two years, but I want to say thank you to Masaaki for his dedication and commitments to improving our company. It is very rewarding to see the improvements that we are making in market share, profitability and in better serving our customers.”

Under Hirose’s leadership, HCMA has seen 175 percent growth in revenue and has nearly doubled its market share, the company says.