BOSTON – Veolia North America announced a string of changes this week including three acquisitions, the departure of its CEO and a new office for its headquarters.
Outgoing CEO Frédéric Van Heems, who took on the role in 2021, said he was recently asked to step down for unspecified reasons.
“I'm really very proud of what we've been doing all together for the last four years. We had have great results,” said Van Heems during an event celebrating the company’s new office in Boston. "I believe Veolia North America is really very well-positioned to go on developing strongly in the years to come."
Sébastien Daziano, Veolia’s senior vice president of strategy, innovation and development, will serve as interim CEO of Veolia North America.
VNA moved to a more modern office setup in Boston’s Financial District after nearly a decade at a location just a few blocks away. The investment follows other recent VNA office openings or changes in New York, Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The company is looking to double its North American footprint in the coming years, through a series of facility investments and acquisitions. The latest example is this week’s announcement that Veolia spent an estimated $350 million on multiple deals this spring, including three in North America and two abroad.
The largest and most recent is California-based Ingenium, a provider of hazardous and non-hazardous waste management and consulting services. The company’s estimated 160 employees were informed of the transaction this week.
Ingenium, founded in 2006, has a presence in multiple West Coast states, as well as Texas. It operates eight 10-day transfer stations, with an estimated 50 vehicles according to federal records. The company has also grown through its own acquisitions, such as the 2021 purchase of WSR Environmental and Safety Management.
Bob Cappadona, president and CEO of VNA’s environmental solutions and services business, said Ingenium was a good fit for multiple reasons. It has a similar focus on biotech and pharmaceutical clients of varying sizes, often providing consulting as well as waste management services. It’s also started focusing more on other growth sectors such as technology.
“A few years ago they moved a hub of their group from California to Texas in Austin,” said Cappadona in an interview. “Really the purpose of that move was the opportunity to take what they were doing in the biotech and pharma and apply it into the high-tech industry and the growth that was happening in Austin.”
This follows last month’s news that Ingenium and VNA signed a capacity agreement for the latter’s upcoming hazardous waste incinerator in Gum Springs, Arkansas, which also allowed access to other facilities.
Cappadona said both discussions had been underway in parallel, but there was an advantage to finalizing the capacity agreement before the acquisition because “we now have a two-month head start on internalization of the waste volumes.”
VNA previously announced capacity agreements with companies such as Enviri and Tradebe as it works to finalize construction of the major Arkansas project. Cappadona said these agreements will help guarantee more feedstock when the facility opens and allow it to ramp up more quickly.
While the site was previously projected to open in early 2025, Cappadona said the company is now on track to start operations “at the end of this year and then ramp up into ‘26 and ‘27.”
He said hiring is underway, with an estimated 175 employees now on staff and an eventual target of 250. Employees have been rotating through other sites for training as well as learning about the Gum Springs technology via a simulator. Cappadona noted that “the uniqueness of the facility has added to the complexity of the construction because it will be the only hazardous waste incinerator in the United States that generates electricity.”
VNA also recently purchased two Massachusetts-based companies, New England Disposal Technologies and New England MedWaste.
NEDT, which operated for more than 30 years, provides a range of hazardous waste, remediation and spill responses services with an estimated 20 vehicles.
New England MedWaste, which launched in 2017, is notable for developing the only permitted medical waste treatment and storage facility in Massachusetts. The facility has capacity for up to 100 tons of medical waste per day via an autoclave. It also has a solid waste permit to consolidate special waste, including material that results from the autoclave process.
Cappadona said VNA aims to have medical waste facilities near large clients, but it’s not looking to compete heavily in a space where WM plans to grow via its recent acquisition of Stericycle.
“We have no intention of being a large scale competitor to Stericycle,” he said. “On the other hand, for us to be able to go into a biotech or pharma company and say, ‘we can take your radioactive waste, we can take your hazardous waste, we can take your special waste, and we can take your medical waste,’ that's important.”
These deals are the latest sign of increased investment activity in the broader environmental services sector, at a time when competitors in Veolia’s markets are also growing. Examples include Republic Services’ 2023 purchase of California-based ACTenviro and Berkshire Partners’ 2025 acquisition of a stake in Massachusetts-based Triumvirate Environmental, among others.
VNA has been relatively quiet on waste acquisitions in recent years, reporting one deal in 2023 and a divestiture last year, but Cappadona said that’s expected to change.
Veolia has set a global target to increase its hazardous waste business by 50% by 2030, including via acquisitions. The company also announced this week recent purchases in Brazil and Japan.
Cappadona said VNA is looking to expand in key geographies as well as acquire new technologies that are complementary to the business.
“We consistently are looking at probably 15 different companies for potential M&A opportunities in North America,” he said, noting they range from small to large players and the company’s investment committee is actively reviewing multiple deals. “I believe we'll close on at least one or two of those by the end of next week.”
