Charles E. Williams

Chuck has three degrees in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and began his career in engineering consulting. He was co-owner and principal of a Houston-based consulting engineering firm for fifteen years. During his tenure, the firm grew to a 130-person organization with work in a number of states and on the international front before being sold. Chuck received numerous awards from industry groups for technical achievement and a number of his methods are still being used on major engineering projects. Chuck subsequently entered the waste-management industry as a member of the startup team for an IPO. That original entity grew to more than forty times its original size before being sold. Chuck developed the technical department from scratch and was directly involved in the evaluation and integration of all acquisitions. Chuck participated in four billion-dollar-plus mergers/acquisitions where he integrated various technical and operating groups, created new technical capability, and ultimately managed a technical team of more than five hundred specialists. He was presented with two achievement awards by the two national waste industry groups for technical innovations. In 2000 he became the Senior Vice President for Operations for a Fortune 200 transportation and environmental services company. During his seven-year tenure, safety incidents were reduced by more than 75 percent, more than $400 million in procurement savings were realized, and fleet maintenance costs for a 25,000-truck fleet were reduced by more than 20 percent. In addition, his efforts improved route productivity with a formalized methodology; and he created the industry’s first operations scorecard. Chuck also took over management of the landfill gas to energy business and his team dramatically improved and expanded the business. Since that time, Chuck has worked as a management consultant, helping to turn around struggling entities in the rail and port industries. He has conducted executive team evaluations, made improvements in project management and productivity, coached senior executives, and built numerous processes for various applications. He learned many of the principles highlighted in 'Bad Company/Good Company' during his time in the waste industry and has been able to apply them with success to the turnarounds he has encountered in his consulting business. Chuck also has an executive degree from the Wharton School of Management.