Steve Preston - Post-Administration Work

Post-Administration Work

Preston was named President and CEO of Oakleaf Waste Management in August 2009. Oakleaf, the nation’s largest company dedicated to providing outsourced waste and recycling services, counts some of the U.S.’s most prominent companies, including Wal-Mart, Sears/Kmart, and PepsiCo, as its clients. Oakleaf provides services in more than 83,000 locations throughout the U.S. and has been named five times to Inc. magazine’s list of the fastest growing, privately held companies in the U.S. The company earned nearly $595 million in revenues in 2008 and was number 35 on Inc.’s list in terms of gross dollars of growth.

In November 2010, Oakleaf introduced “Intelligent Waste Management,” a new approach to waste management the company said would help its clients reduce “the financial and environmental costs” associated with their waste products. The process, Oakleaf says, transforms waste “into an asset,” increasing clients’ reputations for sustainability while enhancing productivity. Preston discussed the company’s new approach when he co-hosted CNBC’s morning show “Squawk Box” on Dec. 22, 2011. The company has also created a blog to update customers on the benefits of the program, and the company’s sustainability efforts in general.

While at Oakleaf, Preston also established Oakleaf Cares, an effort to increase the company’s involvement in its community, and oversaw a January 2011 move to the company's new headquarters in Windsor, Connecticut.

In 2011, Houston-based Waste Management purchased Oakleaf Global Holdings for $425 million. Waste Management CEO David Steiner said he became interested in Oakleaf in part because of its focus on customer relations. Steiner said, “As our strategic focus has changed, as our focus on the customer has changed, what we realized is you’ve got a company out there right now that has a great focus on the customer, a great focus on sustainability solutions.”

Steiner also praised Preston’s tenure at Oakleaf. The two companies had previously worked together, but Steiner said when Preston took over “a lot of the issues we had 10 years ago disappeared. ... Steve came in and put systems in place.”

After Waste Management’s acquisition of Oakleaf, Preston was appointed Waste Management’s Executive Vice President for Finance, Recycling and Energy Services. In that role, he oversaw three business units and served as the principal financial officer for the firm.

Preston left Waste Management in the summer of 2012 to join the presidential transition team for Republican nominee Mitt Romney where he served as a top adviser for the candidate’s transition team. According to an anonymous adviser to Romney, the transition team was “a table setter, a drafter of an agenda, an outliner of what you need to do.” These efforts included determining legislative, outreach, and policy strategies for the first several months of a possible Romney administration. The adviser said the team would ask, “What are the things you can do right away? What are the things you can think about? What can this president still do between Nov. 6 and Jan. 20?”

After Romney was defeated by President Barack Obama in November 2012, Preston returned to private life.