Wastequip, a North American manufacturer of waste handling equipment, announced the close of its acquisition by an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, LLC, a global private equity investment firm. As part of the deal, which was originally announced in early February, Wastequip has appointed Andreas Gruson as chairman of its board of directors. 

Gruson brings more than 20 years of global waste industry and financial expertise to his role.  He started and subsequently led the Industrial and Environmental Services investment banking practice at UBS from 1998 to 2003.  Following UBS, he served as chairman and chief executive officer of Regus Industries, LLC, a solid waste logistics and disposal company based in the northeastern United States. More recently, Gruson has served as partner, director, and member of the Strategic Planning Committee of Grupo Sala, the leading environmental services company in Colombia. 

“Wastequip will benefit immensely from having a person of Andreas’ caliber to help shape the vision of our company,” said Marty Bryant, Wastequip CEO. “With him as our chairman of the board, I believe we are well positioned to execute on strategies to drive even greater sales and earnings through both organic growth and acquisitions.”

Gruson also offers extensive board-level experience, currently serving as chairman of Estre Ambiental, Inc., a leading provider of waste-related and environmental services for municipal, commercial and industrial customers in Brazil, and as executive chairman of Compology, Inc., a U.S.-based hardware and software company which builds the only dynamic routing and waste volume monitoring system designed specifically for the environmental services industry.