A signature on the dotted line during a Monday morning meeting in late October 2011 sealed the entrepreneurial fate of Luke Westerman.
Just three days after leaving his job at Springfield ReManufacturing Corp., Westerman sat down with business partner Jim Conley to finalize their purchase of Computer Recycling Center.
He hasn’t looked back.
In Westerman’s first full year as co-owner and general manager, Computer Recycling Center topped 1 million pounds of material diverted from the city’s landfill, a 30 percent increase from 2011.
“We reduced the waste/landfill portion of the material we process through the facility by at least 75 percent,” he adds of the company that processes and responsibly disposes of electronic waste such as cell phones, TVs, laptops and hard drives. “As general manager, I have full profit-and-loss and facility responsibility, and as co-owner, I have a vested interest in the success of the business and the fulfillment of our obligation to the community.
Our people have bought in and truly feel like they are making a difference with the work they do every day.”
Westerman says early in his career he identified a desire to own and operate a business.
He started working at SRC in 2003 and was quickly placed in a management training program while bouncing between roles as a parts buyer, accountant, materials and marketing analyst and sales representative across a handful of business units.
He moved into a management position with SRC-Heavy Duty, where he rose up the ranks to quality assurance director – the job he walked away from to pursue his entrepreneurial dream.
“I really enjoyed the production environment and the people at SRC, so I knew that a tiny version with some of the same characteristics was what I was looking for,” he says, noting it took six months from discovery to closing on the purchase of Computer Recycling Center.
He’s also dabbled in real estate, and now has a property portfolio of duplexes, single-family homes and a small apartment complex.
Westerman was groomed for leading in business through the Leadership Springfield Academy for high school juniors, and as a working professional, he completed Leadership Springfield in 2005.
“He is the first person in our community to participate in both this high school and adult leadership development and training program,” says Jim Anderson, president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce. “He truly is the epitome of an entrepreneur.”
Westerman also is involved in The Network for young professionals at the chamber, Rotary’s Southeast Springfield club, and with United Way of the Ozarks, including a council chairman position.
“I have been part of the United Way for several years now and have had an opportunity to chair one of the councils for the last two years,” Westerman says. “While I take zero credit for the success of that amazing program, I do like to think that I have been able to add a tiny piece to it and help it last, prosper and serve the community for many years to come.”
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