Personnel

Clean Harbors names co-chief executive officers

Photos courtesy of Clean Harbors Inc.

Clean Harbors Inc., a Norwell, Massachusetts-based provider of environmental and industrial services throughout North America, has announced the appointment of Eric W. Gerstenberg, current chief operating officer (COO), and Michael L. Battles, current chief financial officer (CFO), as co-CEOs, effective March 31, 2023.

As part of the transition, Gerstenberg and Battles will succeed Clean Harbors’ founder Alan S. McKim, who has served as CEO for the past 42 years. McKim will become executive chairman of the company’s board of directors and chief technology officer and will continue to spearhead Clean Harbor’s merger and acquisition and technology initiatives.

“Clean Harbors’ four decades of success stems from Alan McKim’s vision and extraordinary foresight of what the company could become,” says Gene Banucci, Ph.D., lead independent director of Clean Harbors’ board. “His determination and leadership took a four-person startup and fashioned it into a multibillion-dollar provider of environmental and industrial services that is relied upon for safe, sustainable solutions.”

Battles and Gerstenberg will work as co-CEOs to direct the company’s day-to-day operations.

“Eric and Mike are proven leaders here at Clean Harbors, and each brings a unique set of talents to their new roles as co-CEOs,” McKim says. “Both have made valuable contributions to the company, and keeping this management team in place has been a top priority of mine.”

Since joining Clean Harbors in 1989, Gerstenberg has held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility throughout the organization, including his role of COO since 2015.

Battles joined Clean Harbors in 2013 as chief accounting officer before being promoted to CFO in 2016. He has overseen the company’s finances, including multiple debt raises and refinancings, and has taken on some strategic and operational oversight.