EREF elects three to board of directors

The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) board of directors has elected three new members. 

During EREF’s annual summer meeting, the board elected:

• Kristin Kinder, vice president of research and waste stream sustainability, Wastequip, Charlotte, North Carolina; 
• Mike McLaughlin, CEO, New Way/McLaughlin Cos., Scranton, Iowa; and
• Derek Veenhof, executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO), Covanta, Morristown, New Jersey.

EREF’s board represents an array of major waste companies including haulers, equipment manufacturers, consultants and academic institutions. Multiple times per year, the board comes together to approve funding for research and education initiatives that fall in line with the foundation’s mission to advance sustainable solid waste science.

McLaughlin is the CEO of the central Iowa-based McLaughlin Family Cos., a diversified portfolio of businesses that include refuse equipment, animal control and veterinary equipment, vehicle manufacturing, new and used automobile sales and automotive parts and car care products distribution and sales. Scranton Manufacturing Inc. and its New Way Trucks brand of refuse collection equipment is the largest private manufacturer of refuse equipment in North America and the cornerstone brand of this family of companies.

He grew up in the equipment manufacturing business and has held various roles in the organization since 1992. McLaughlin has helped grow the McLaughlin Family Cos. from 50 employees and $3 million in annual revenues in 1992 to over 600 employees and worldwide distribution today. In 2017, he was recognized by the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) as its Member of the Year.

“New Way stands behind EREF’s mission to develop and evaluate new approaches to manage municipal solid waste and to provide scholarships to America’s future waste and sustainability professionals. We are proud to have participated in every aspect of EREF’s fundraising efforts, which have totaled over $670,000 since our initial involvement. I am humbled to have been appointed to the EREF board of directors and [am] excited to offer my insight to such an important organization in its continued efforts,” McLaughlin says.

In her decade in the waste industry, Kinder spent six years at Houston-based Waste Management, focusing on recycling education, behavior change and operations, and three years at Spokane, Washington-based ENGIE Impact in product management and performing waste audits for Fortune 500 companies across multiple sectors and geographies. 

Kinder joined Wastequip as vice president of research and waste stream sustainability in 2018 to manage the firm's corporate responsibility program and serve as an expert on key industry topics, driving positive environmental change, developing partnerships and speaking about sustainability. 

“EREF provides a platform unlike any other—one that fosters collaboration, challenges us to think from different perspectives and leads with objective, defensible data. These approaches are the only way to ignite a truly circular economy. I am honored to become part of such a forward-thinking organization and, with our new mission, cannot imagine a more meaningful time to join the team,” Kinder says.

Veenhof is executive vice president and COO leading the management and growth of Covanta’s North American business, which has an annual revenue of more than $2 billion.

He joined Covanta in 1996 as a business manager. Since then, Veenhof has held a variety of positions with increasing responsibility throughout the organization. From 2007 until 2013, he served as a vice president and then senior vice president, overseeing a $500 million merchant municipal and industrial waste contracting and supply portfolio and related growth efforts, as well as scrap metals commodity marketing. Veenhof was promoted to executive vice president in 2013 and took on COO duties in 2020.

Prior to Covanta, Veenhof worked in the environmental sector as a bioremediation project scientist and land-use consultant and was a research associate with Ontario Agricultural College, part of the University of Guelph and Canada’s leading agricultural research college. He is a published lead author and co-author of several peer-reviewed research papers on the topics of land use, environmental impacts and waste management.

“I’m excited to be a part of an organization that has a very significant alignment to Covanta’s mission of ensuring a safer, cleaner, more prosperous future for our planet by providing sustainable waste and materials management solutions for communities and businesses. In addition, EREF’s commitment to advancing scientific research and educational pathways to enable progress ties closely to my personal life experiences in research, education and sustainability. The waste management industry is comprised of many dynamic individuals and entities, and it is an honor to serve alongside many of them as a board member. I am thankful for the opportunity to work collaboratively to create long-lasting benefits for the entire industry,” Veenhof says.