For Stuart Greene, it was the combination of wanting to improve processes at his work, and the proximity of the University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering, that made it the right choice for him when looking to enhance his education with a master’s degree.
Greene’s initial academic background was in naval architecture and marine engineering, degrees he earned at the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, a specialized engineering college in New York. However, his work at a shipping company, and then Waste Management, exposed him to more logistics problems and projects.
“At the time, we didn’t have a scientific data science team,” he said of WM, which he’s now been at for more than 20 years. “We didn’t have any OR [Operations Research] practice in-house. And I said, ‘You know what, I feel strongly enough about this that I think it’s worth trying to study that.’ I looked around, and UH was in town and offered a program.”
Greene noted that UH was convenient thanks to its location and its course flexibility in terms of content and time, calling it “a menu of options that I was able to really tailor for my needs.” His coursework helped to supplement the excellent foundation he got at Webb.
At Cullen, Greene earned a master’s degree with a focus on operations research from the Industrial Engineering Department, now known as the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department. He cited three professors as critical in his academic success — Gino Lim, Professor & Chair, R. Larry and Gerlene (Gerri) R. Snider Endowed Chair; Christopher Chung, an associate professor; and Tiravat Assavapokee, formerly an assistant professor that joined industry.
Greene has also expanded his knowledge base in business administration as well. He completed a leadership program offered by the Harvard Business School, and he cited Ken Bloom — a former senior vice president with the Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group, and now a senior client partner at Korn Ferry — as a mentor for him.
“He did a great job of challenging me,” Greene said. “On the WM side, it was more about all the support from managers and even the senior leadership team here. They really understand the power of these tools and give my current team a tremendous amount of support and direction as well.”
For WM, Greene manages a team of data scientists in the collections operations department.
“We do everything from designing routing algorithms to measuring driver performance,” he said. “I also have a practice called network optimization, which is not just how to pick up the trash, but once we have the trash, how to have it flow through our network and how to design a network of disposal facilities so that we can process the waste efficiently.”
Because of his success at WM and his experience with UH, Greene was tabbed by Lim to be the latest member of the department’s Industry Advisory Board. With a laugh, Greene noted that Lim can be “persistent and infectious” in a positive way.
“He’s tough to say no to,” Greene said. “But, you know, that’s part of the personal connection there. I truly enjoy the idea though. I truly enjoy hearing about what other people are doing in the field.”
He added, “It’s important for WM to stay at the forefront of the field. And if we can share knowledge and potentially collaborate with projects, I think that would be beneficial to both sides.”