Oakleaf Turns To Public Sector For New Leadership

When Steve Preston took over as administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2006, he inherited an organization in turmoil. The agency was under fire for its disaster loan program’s response to Hurricane Katrina, which was by most accounts, a disaster.

Nearly a year after the storm ravaged New Orleans, about 100,000 homeowners were still waiting for SBA loans to rebuild their homes, but the money was tied up in a bureaucratic mess.

“There were so many problems with the process,” said Preston, who was appointed to the SBA’s top spot in June 2006 to fix the organization. “It was a big, complex issue.”

Preston completely revamped the SBA’s disaster operations by streamlining the process for delivering loans and matching every loan applicant with a case manager.

His work helped cut processing times for disaster loan applications by up to 90 percent and got the SBA rated as one of the “Most Improved” federal agencies in the “2008 Best Places to Work” survey conducted by the American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy.

That leadership is what made Preston attractive to the board of directors at East Hartford-based Oakleaf Waste Management, who recently named him president of the company.

By the end of this summer, he will also add the title of chief executive officer.

“I’m thrilled about getting back into the private sector,” Preston said. “I spent most of my career in the services industry, so I saw this as a natural fit.”

Oakleaf is the privately-held waste-management logistics and recycling-solutions company that was founded by East Hartford entrepreneur Jim Barnes, the current CEO who built the business into a $700 million enterprise.

Oakleaf contracts with 5,000 waste haulers across the country to serve residential, retail, commercial and industrial customers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Time For Change

Barnes said the decision to step down from the top spot has been in the works for more than a year, and that when Preston takes over he will become the company’s chairman of the board of directors, where he will focus his efforts on large clients, major vendors, and strategic acquisitions.

He will also be working closely on the company’s new zero-waste initiative, which focuses on diverting materials from landfills by implementing strategies to reduce, reuse and recycle discarded materials.

“I’ve been doing this for 14 years, so that’s a long time to be running the day-to-day operations here,” said Barnes, 47, who is also the CEO and chairman of FM Facility Maintenance, the Hartford-based facility management services company that serves major corporations and retail chains, including ExxonMobil, Blockbuster, and Goodyear. “I felt like this was a good time to make the change.”

Barnes said he will remain chairman of FM Maintenance, but he may step aside as that’s company’s chief executive as well.

He also said there are plans to take Oakleaf public with an initial stock offering over the next two years, so the company was looking to hire someone with experience in that arena.

“As a shareholder, I want to make sure we have the best prospects for success,” Barnes said. “Preston has very relevant experience managing large diverse organizations and service companies.”

Service Background

Preston, 48, spent more than 10 years at Lehman Brothers and First Data Corporation and has a long history in finance and the services industry.

Most notably, he spent nine years with Tennessee-based The ServiceMaster Co., where he was chief financial officer during periods of significant growth and restructuring, and also executive vice president of strategic services.

ServiceMaster provides outsourcing services for 10.5 million homes and businesses each year through a network of more than 5,500 company-owned locations and franchised licenses.

The company earns about $3 billion in annual revenue and its brands include Terminix and TruGreen.

“When I was there, the company had over 70,000 employees and made 45 million service calls a year,” Preston said.

Preston said that job provided him tremendous insight on the services industry and helped attract him to Oakleaf.

For the next two years, he joined the SBA, where he gained the admiration of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

In April 2008, for example, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said, “Preston inherited an agency in disarray, and he’s worked hard to right its course and to improve relationships with Congress. We may have some differences on policy, but he’s always been professional, responsive, and dedicated to the mission.”

Former HUD Secretary

More recently, Preston served under President Bush as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development where, for eight months, he oversaw 8,600 employees and a budget of about $50 billion.

In response to the mounting mortgage crisis, he implemented an aggressive plan to improve Americans’ access to mortgage capital, ensure disaster victims’ access to housing, and rebuild public housing in New Orleans.

Preston has also been considered a Republican candidate for governor in the state of Illinois, where he lived most of his life.

“I did think about it, but it just wasn’t the right thing to do,” Preston said. “Running as a candidate and going through that process with five children at home didn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

When Preston takes over as CEO of Oakleaf, he will be leading a company that has experienced significant growth over the last few years.

The company recently reached $700 million in sales and Barnes said he is projecting that the company will grow another 20 percent this year.

One of Oakleaf’s main services is integrating environmentally sustainable strategies into the waste logistics model.

With increasing concerns about the environmental impact of waste, Preston said Oakleaf is a company that will continue to be cutting edge.

“I believe that Oakleaf can be a driving force in helping customers have much more environmentally sustainable waste strategies,” he said.