New entrepreneur-in-residence Alan McKim on building his business from one truck to a multi-billion-dollar global enterprise
The Presidential Leadership Series showcases fireside chats and discussions hosted by President Aoun and brings leaders who are shaping the future to campus.
In 1980, Alan McKim was 24 years old with one truck, $350 and a $15,000 home equity loan.
Today, Clean Harbors, the company founded by the Northeastern University graduate, is a multi-billion-dollar, global leader in environmental services and the 14th largest transportation company in North America.
And McKim is giving back: educating future Husky entrepreneurs as a namesake of the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, serving as a university trustee and entrepreneur-in-residence, and on Thursday, telling his story during a conversation with President Joseph E. Aoun.
“You’re an entrepreneur with a lot of humility and a big heart,” Aoun told McKim during the Presidential Leadership Series event – a series that brings global entrepreneurs who are shaping the future to campus. Past guests have included trailblazers from eBay, LinkedIn, and Li & Fung shipping company.
“How did it all come about?” the president asked McKim to kick off the conversation held at the EXP complex on Northeastern’s Boston campus.
McKim shared with a packed room how he started a company that has consistently been an industry leader.
Initially working for a local company that primarily cleaned oil spills, McKim told Aoun that he saw opportunity for Clean Harbors after Congress issued new regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the primary federal law in the United States governing the management and disposal of solid and hazardous waste.
“We could not only clean up the environment but also handle companies that were generating waste on an ongoing basis and transporting that to other disposal facilities,” McKim said.
It was risky. But he found success: the company doubled its revenue annually in its early years, went public in 1987, and expanded through acquisitions of roughly 80 companies.
“The biggest corporations that we were servicing – the IBMs and GEs and the Gillettes – wanted us to grow. They wanted us to be able to service not only GE Lynn but GE Albuquerque, New Mexico,” McKim said.
Editor’s Picks
McKim, meanwhile, wanted to understand aspects of his business – so he enrolled in Northeastern’s Executive MBA program, earning his degree in 1988.
“I didn’t have a formal education, I didn’t have an accounting degree, I couldn’t read an income statement,” McKim said. “I was running this business that became so successful at $75 million in revenue, 500 employees… and I didn’t have the education to do it.”
His experience at Northeastern was “a significant part of the journey,” McKim told Aoun.
McKim met his mentor, business professor Dan McCarthy at Northeastern, and recruited him to the Clean Harbors board.
McKim embraced lifelong learning. Clean Harbors built proprietary software to manage accounts and customer information, and McKim was an “early adopter” of artificial intelligence in his business, according to Aoun, who now refers to him as “The AI guy” on the university’s Board of Trustees.
For example, Clean Harbors used AI tools to help developers code and increased productivity by up to 80% and increased quality, McKim said, enabling the company to be more proactive.
“We as a company always felt like we could just never hire enough developers to get through the backlog,” McKim said. “We’re now at a point now where we really can start moving forward with some initiatives that we just could never get to.”
Clean Harbors has also developed applications embedded with AI tools, used the technology to train employees, and employs AI-assisted technology to help chemists collect chemicals in Northeastern laboratories. It has also started to organize and curate the proprietary data it has collected over the years to train AI models and tools.
“We see hundreds and hundreds of cases of using AI to help our business be safer and more compliant,” McKim said.
He said he envisions similar advancements possible with the use of robots and drones.
“I wish I was 30 years old again,” McKim said. “I think it’s so exciting.”
The proud and entrepreneurial Husky is buoyed by the potential of AI to create new businesses, while supporting existing ventures.
“I highly encourage you to start a company and invent something or do something that’s going to change the world, and hopefully AI will help you do that,” he told the keenly attentive audience.
Meanwhile, McKim has also been inspired to pay it forward, not only as a university trustee and benefactor, but by offering advice to the many students in attendance.
He advised students to use co-op opportunities to explore their interests in entrepreneurship, encouraged them to start businesses and suggested taking advantage of available seed funding and venture capital dollars to do so.
“I’ve given back because I’ve gotten so much,” McKim said.
Indeed, mentorship is another area where McKim has excelled.
“My entire career was all about mentoring and developing people,” McKim said.
McKim continues to support student and alumni founders through his role as an entrepreneur in residence at the university.
“Bug him from now on, and … come and see him,” Aoun told students in the audience. “He would be very happy.”
