Waste Connections: Immediate CEO Transition Was Surprising, but Company in Good Hands With New CEO

On April 24, 2023, Waste Connections announced that its board of directors terminated CEO Worthing Jackman's employment effective April 23, 2023. Jackman had been Waste Connections' CEO since July 2019. We were not expecting a leadership change, and this abrupt announcement came as a surprise to us, especially considering Waste Connections' recent strong financial performance. Fortunately, Waste Connections has an experienced executive who can immediately take the helm. Ronald Mittelstaedt is the firm's founding CEO and served in that position until the 2019 CEO transition to Jackman. In 1997, Mittelstaedt raised capital to purchase the bedrock assets of Waste Connections from Browning-Ferris, and he took Waste Connections public roughly a year later. After the 2019 CEO transition, Mittelstaedt became the executive chairman of the board of directors. However, now that he is the CEO, the chairman role was passed on to independent director Michael Harlan. Considering Mittelstaedt’s long history with the firm and the fact that he’s been directly involved as the executive chairman in recent years, we don’t expect material changes to Waste Connections’ operations or business strategy. We've maintained our fair value estimate and wide-moat rating for Waste Connections. We look forward to hearing from Mittelstaedt during the firm's first-quarter earnings on April 27. That said, we don't expect to hear any more details on Jackman's departure.