Alex Brown

"I started United Waste Systems with my own money, followed by outside capital from placements with friends and family about a year later. I ran the company privately until 1992, when our IPO launched with the two leading banks in the waste management sector at the time: Paine Webber and Alex Brown. The public capital markets were a whole new world to me, and it allowed me to go full throttle on acquisitions, beyond the initial deals we’d completed. The timing could not have been better. Environmental regulations were forcing municipal dumps to transform into state-of-the-art landfills, and the new bond requirements alone cost millions of dollars. A lot of small landfill owners were eager to sell out and let us shoulder the capital investments. There was also an opportunity to integrate vertically with trash collection companies strapped by rising disposal fees."