Bios

Richard Cristina (President)

Richard Cristina has over 30 years of experience in the solid waste industry. In the early 1970s, Mr. Cristina was a co-founder of the first transfer and recycling center in Santa Clara Valley. In 1985, Mr. Cristina co-founded the Zanker Road Landfill. Through vision, innovation, and astute management, he and his Zanker partners increased the landfill’s recycling rate from 50 percent to 95 percent. In 1991, Mr. Cristina co-founded GreenWaste Recovery, Inc. and began providing yard waste collection services to over 110,000 San Jose residents. Building upon his earlier successes, he co-founded GreenTeam of San Jose in 1992 to provide solid waste collection and recycling to an additional 80,000 San Jose households. Mr. Cristina is a lifelong San Jose resident and is widely recognized as a community leader. He has previously served on the Boards of The Friends of the Guadalupe River Park, The San Jose Sports Authority, The San Jose Repertory Theatre, The San Jose Homeless Shelter Foundation, Bellarmine Alumni Council, and was the first Chairperson of the San Jose Arena Authority.

Murray Hall (Vice President)

Mr. Hall has over 25 years of experience in the solid waste industry. He co-founded Zanker Road Landfill, Greenwaste Recovery, Inc, and Green Team of San Jose. Mr. Hall is a former CPA having worked for the accounting firm of Ernst & Young as well as the San Jose Medical Group. He serves on the Board of Directors of Zanker Road Landfill and Greenwaste Recovery, Inc.

Greg Ryan (General Manager)

Greg Ryan has been with Zanker for 17 years and has worked in all aspects of the business over that time. He started at Zanker Road Landfill in 1993 with varied responsibilities including Health and Safety, Equipment Maintenance, Compliance, and Operations. In 1997 Mr. Ryan began permitting and developing the Z-Best Composting Facility in Gilroy to meet the growing demand for organics recycling in the Bay Area.

Over the next ten years The Z-Best Composting Facility grew from a small green waste composting site into the premier organics facility in the state, processing over 200,000 tons per year of greenwaste, foodwaste and municipal solid waste. Z-Best Organic Compost is widely used in area landscaping and is a staple in the agricultural industry.

Mr. Ryan is currently the General Manager of all Zanker Operations, where he directs a team of industry veterans who continue to lead the field in recycling expertise and innovation.

Scott Beall (Operations Manager of Zanker Road Operations)

Scott Beall has been in the recycling and solid waste industry since 1983. He began his career as a wood waste operations foreman. Currently, he is the Operations Manager for the Zanker Road Resource Recovery and Landfill and the Zanker Materials Processing Facility, responsible for operational health and safety, equipment maintenance and general administration. His communication ability and adept labor relations enable him to supervise over 140 employees.

Mr. Beall has been in the recycling and solid waste industry since 1983. Currently, he is the Operations Manager for the Zanker's Operations.

During his career at Zanker, Mr. Beall has contributed to many cutting edge achievements in recycling; including innovations such as the first patented curbside commingled portable picking line, the co-development of a glass cullet to process sand, the development of a model yard waste composting facility and a grinder and screening process that creates a high grade planter mix. He also helped develop a vibrating sorting conveyor, which processes commercial mixed waste.

Michael Gross (Marketing Manager)

Michael Gross has been in the waste and recycling industry for 30 years. His current responsibilities include overseeing all marketing of recycled products from the Z-Best Composting Facility, the Zanker Road Resource Recovery Operation and Landfill, and the Zanker Material Processing Facility.

Mr. Gross started his career in waste management at the age of 18 in Redding California. He left in 1983 to pursue his business degree in Arizona where he also operated a refuse collection company. In 1989, Mr. Gross joined Zanker Road Landfill as the site engineer and assistant manager. Working with Zanker, Mr. Gross was instrumental in implementing the very successful yard waste pilot program with the City of San Jose. In 1995, Mr. Gross became the marketing manager for Z-Best Products and the Zanker Road Landfill. He is currently in the process of developing new and innovative markets for recycled products throughout California. Mr. Gross obtained a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

Don Dean (Controller/CFO)

Don Dean joined the GreenWaste team in 1999 after 10 years in the transportation industry, 10 years in product distribution and manufacturing. His varied career includes working as a Certified Public Accountant in Washington State with the International Public Accounting Firm of Deloitte and Touche, and six years as Laidlaw Transit's Northern California District Director of Operations where he was responsible for managing the operations of more than 1,000 school, Paratransit, and public transit buses.

Tracy Adams (Controller)

Tracy Adams has been with GreenWaste for the past two years. Prior to joining GreenWaste, Mr. Adams spent 10 years in the hospitality industry for a variety of hotel chains, including Sheraton, Gaylord and the Ritz Carlton. His experience has been primarily in the customer service side of the industry, controlling the revenues for the rooms divisions in these chains. Mr. Adams graduated in 1995 from Northwestern University.

Jose Monarrez (Assistant Operations Manager of Zanker Road Operations)

Mr. Monarrez began his solid waste career in 1991 as a collection vehicle operator for GreenWaste Recovery, Inc. Proving himself as an important asset to the company, Mr. Monarrez was awarded the position of Assistant Operations Manager for the Zanker Road Operations in 1998.

As Assistant Operations Manager, Mr. Monarrez is responsible for human resource management at both sites managing over 140 employees. He has been very instrumental in maintaining an enthusiastic and productive work force.

Alex Sharpe (Marketing Manager, Z-Best Products)

Alex Sharpe has been in the solid waste industry since 1984. He began his career as a marketing representative for Waste Management, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia, where he worked in the operations department from 1987 to 1997. Mr. Sharpe was instrumental in the successful startup of several municipal contracts that included residential and commercial garbage service and recycling. When he arrived at Zanker in 1997, Mr. Sharpe was tasked with expanding the market for recycled green waste compost into the agricultural sector. During the past 10 years, he has developed this market from one that was virtually nonexistent to Z-Best’s most dominant market sector. With a strategy that revolved around the building of long-term relationships with farmers and eco-friendly innovations such as the custom blending of compost with other additives, Z-Best now boasts sales of over 100,000 tons per year into agricultural/ landscape markets.

Jeff Cristina (Public Relations/Marketing)

Jeff Cristina began his solid waste career with GreenWaste Recovery, Inc. in 1994. At GreenWaste, he was involved in various aspects of operations, thereby, gaining useful exposure and knowledge for furthering his career. In 2000, Mr. Cristina joined the Zanker team, becoming a significant component to our marketing team. He has since been involved in numerous outreach and operational projects including: working with local residents of San Jose to help increase the city's recycling rate, working with the organizing committee of the CRRA 2006 conference to organize two separate events, serving on the Reach Foundation’s committee to award scholarships, and assisting on the start-up of GreenWaste Petaluma.

Paul Lineberry, P.E. (Company Engineer)

Paul Lineberry is a civil engineer who has specialized in solid waste for over 20 years and is familiar with all aspects of waste handling, recycling and disposal. He specializes in permitting, construction, regulatory compliance, and operations. Mr. Lineberry has a civil engineering degree from New Mexico State University and is a professional civil engineer in the states of California, Arizona and New Mexico.

Abel Pereira (Senior Environmental Compliance/Engineering Assistant)

Abel Pereira has been with Zanker since 2001. Prior to working at Zanker, Mr. Pereira assisted in the management of the Center for Development of Recycling, which assists the public with sources of reuse and recycling via the Santa Clara County Recycling Hotline. Mr. Pereira manages the Florin Perkins Public Disposal Site Material Recovery and Transfer Station located in Sacramento, California. Mr. Pereira has an environmental studies degree, with emphasis on waste management, and a public administration degree from San Jose State University.

William Lineberry (Environmental Compliance/Engineering Assistant)

William Lineberry is the newest addition to the Zanker team. He joined Zanker after graduating from California State University Long Beach in 2009. While at CSULB, Mr. Lineberry was heavily involved in Engineering-Without-Borders, American Society of Civil Engineers and Order of Engineers. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in water. Mr. Lineberry is responsible for the reporting, permitting, and compliance aspects for Zanker facilities. He assists Zanker’s engineer in obtaining necessary permits and providing CEQA compliance for the proposed expansion of the Zanker Material Processing Facility and the GreenWaste MRF.