Dive Brief:
- Food waste diversion company Divert announced its new COO is Bob Watkins, who has served as the company's chief information officer since January 2024.
- Watkins is the third new executive announced at Divert this year. The company previously hired Brad Lukow to serve as its new CFO and Katherine Pazakis to serve as its chief commercial officer.
- "Divert has bolstered its executive team with several strategic C-suite hires to advance our industry leadership," CEO and co-founder Ryan Begin said in an emailed statement about the changes. "We’re well-positioned with the right team in place to drive sustainable growth and achieve our business objectives, as we expand our infrastructure and solutions nationwide to advance circularity."
Dive Insight:
The refresh comes as the company looks to dramatically expand its network of depackaging and anaerobic digestion facilities. Since it was acquired by private equity firm Ara Partners in 2021, Divert has grown significantly. It’s added hundreds of retail stores to its network of partners and announced a $1 billion agreement with Enbridge. That deal helps Divert finance and build its Integrated Diversion & Energy facilities, which can produce soil amendment and renewable natural gas from packaged organic waste.
The company has contracted out nearly all capacity at its first such facility in Turlock, California, which can process 100,000 tons of waste annually. Another facility in Longview, Washington, is also ramping up.
Divert is in the process of finalizing two other sites in North Carolina and Ohio. The company eventually wants to build 30 facilities nationwide, which it says would position it within 100 miles of 80% of the U.S. population. To facilitate that scale-up, Divert grew its headcount by 23% last year, per a news release.
The company’s growth is happening amid a changing of the guard in its C-suite. Divert's co-founder and former chief operating officer, Nick Whitman, recently retired to a position on the company's board. Watkins, his successor, will continue to oversee the company’s business technologies while managing operations. Watkins was previously chief business and technology officer at Triumvirate Environmental.
“Over the past year, Bob’s collaborative leadership has proven instrumental in driving Divert’s growth,” Begin said in a statement. “In this new role, I am confident that Bob will continue to strengthen our operations, deliver better service to our industrial and retail customers, and foster our safety culture company wide.”
Divert brought in an outside hire, Lukow, to replace former CFO Dave Eichinger. Lukow joined Divert from Footprint, an investment and advisory firm focused on sustainable technology. He also previously served as interim co-CEO and CFO of Sprouts Farmers Market. When Lukow's appointment was announced in February, Begin said his financial leadership experience in the retail sector made him an "ideal fit" for Divert.
Divert announced Pazakis’ appointment in January. She had previously served as chief commercial officer for TerraCycle, which manages hard-to-recycle materials. In her role, Pazakis is focusing on “delivering customer innovation, enhancing customer acquisition and defining the strategic playbook for expanding Divert’s solutions nationwide,” per a news release.
