Waste Management : Investor Meeting - Raymond James Transcript

About this update from Waste Management, Inc.

23-Sep-2025 Waste Management, Inc. (WM) Investor Meeting - Raymond James CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS Devina A. Rankin Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Waste Management, Inc. David L. Reed Incoming Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Waste Management, Inc. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... OTHER PARTICIPANTS Patrick Tyler Brown Analyst, Raymond James & Associates, Inc. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION SECTION Patrick Tyler Brown Analyst, Raymond James & Associates, Inc. Good morning, everyone. I think at this point we've got a good quorum. The number of people have kind of leveled off coming in. Frankly, we've got a really good group joining us this morning. But if there's anyone out there that may not know me, I'm Tyler Brown. I'm the senior analyst here at Raymond James covering the environmental services sector. I do transportation. I do some heavy construction materials as well. So, I wear a number of different hats. But the waste sector is one of my favorites and I think most of you - most of you know that. So, I just want to first off, just thank everybody for joining. But this morning, I'm just really excited to have Devina Rankin, Waste Management's outgoing CFO and Mr. David Reed, Waste Management's Incoming CFO, joining us for what we will call maybe a CFO transition-type call to both thank Devina for all her incredible service over the years, but also to introduce David Reed to the street. He is likely new to many of you. But before a little logistics, given the number of people that are on this call, we have elected to put it into a webinar-type format just to kind of keep the background noise to a minimum. I do believe that WM is looking to put this event up on their website post the call. But if you do have any questions intracalll, give me an email, [email protected] . I will try my best. Not really good at multitasking, but I'll try my best if there are any incoming questions. So, with that, Devina, David, great to see both of you. Thank you, guys, so much for joining us. Look, it's an exciting time at WM. There's a lot going on. I mean obviously there's a few wrinkles you've got, your story continuing to optimize your Collection and Disposal business. Obviously, there is a lot of progress being made on WM Healthcare Solutions. And obviously there's going to be some increasing and ramping contributions from your sustainability investments. So, there's a lot going on. But first I just want to say thank you, guys, for being here. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Devina A. Rankin Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Waste Management, Inc. Thank you for having us, Tyler. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... David L. Reed Incoming Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Waste Management, Inc. Yes, thank you. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... QUESTION AND ANSWER SECTION Q Patrick Tyler Brown Analyst, Raymond James & Associates, Inc. Perfect. So, Devina, let's kind of kick it off maybe with you, let's talk a little bit about the CFO transition. I would say it did maybe come as a bit of a surprise to some of us, myself included, maybe many on the street. But can you just kind of start us off, maybe talk about that decision. Look, I've known you for a long time. I know you have a lot of different passions. But maybe just in your words, if you could just talk a little bit about the decision. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... A Devina A. Rankin Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Waste Management, Inc. Sure. So, as some of you may know, I have had the privilege of being with WM, formerly Waste Management, for over 23 years now. And in a lot of ways, my waste management connection started before that because I was an auditor at Arthur Andersen and part of the team that worked through the USA Waste - Waste Management integration process in 1999. So, my entire career really has been dedicated to this great company. I've also had the privilege and honor to serve as the company's CFO for almost nine years now. And I would tell you it just was a time of reflection for me. And one of the things that I decided is that I think my WM CFO era is complete. I've done a tremendous amount here and have so much to be appreciative of most importantly, but also proud of, right. The company's market capitalization has gone from about $30 billion when I took the role and we're hovering at around $90 billion today. I think we should be higher than that frankly. But - so accomplished a lot and done a lot. But those passions, the things that wake me up every day, excited to contribute my time, talent and treasure to the world. I want to start to shift those things in a different direction. I teach at my alma mater, Texas A&M University, and every semester when they ask me to sign up again, I think do I really have the time to drive to college station once a week for five or six weeks a semester? And I really decided that I enjoy that so much and feel so much fulfillment for it that I don't want to give it up. And in addition to that, I spend time with not for profits, in particular, NMDP. It was formerly known as Be The Match. It's the National Marrow Donor Program. My [ph] wife (00:04:35) and I have committed a great deal to that organization over the last almost a decade now. We became connected with them because she was a bone marrow donor to a 13-year-old girl with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. And while I've been able to write checks to the organization, I haven't been able to spend a whole lot of time with them. But I hope to change that. I'm going to join their board and see what I can do to continue their mission. And then as a cancer survivor, I'm fully committed to the mission of MD Anderson and really want to do more to further their ambitions and their - their commitment to making cancer history. So, those are the sorts of things that really drew me to think that maybe the time had come for me to close one chapter and open another. And while I'm sad to leave WM because it's just such a great organization from the front line to the back office, I know that I'm leaving it in fantastic hands. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Q Patrick Tyler Brown Analyst, Raymond James & Associates, Inc. Yeah, perfect. I mean there are just so many sides of you, Devina. I mean I've known you for a long time. So, I just personally just want to wish you the very, very best. And I know a lot of my peers and a lot of the buy-side as well you just - you've been a fantastic CFO, so thank you so much for that. David, so we've had a chance to kind of go through maybe get to know you a little bit, but maybe you can just kind of give everybody just a quick brief history of David Reed, maybe talk about some of your formative experiences, maybe from your background and as you kind of transition into this role. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... A David L. Reed Incoming Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Waste Management, Inc. Sure, sure. I'd be happy to. Just kind of going way - way back after graduating, I started my career in investment banking, where I developed strong analytical foundation, completing over 50 transactions across a range of industries and business situations. So, I think that - that early access to whether it's capital markets or M&A gave me a front row seat to see how strategic decisions shape enterprise value across - across against - again different situations. From there I did transition, I did my tour of duty in investment banking. I transitioned into corporate roles, starting with Kimberly-Clark and then LyondellBasell before - before joining WM almost eight years ago. And I joined as the VP and Treasurer, actually backfilling Devina as she was moving into the CFO role. And as Treasurer I led a team across Treasury, Risk Management and Capital Markets, and really was able to participate and advise on some of our major milestones, including the Advanced Disposal acquisition and a number of financings, I think of over $10 billion in financing while my time in the role. And then as part of that role also really focused on driving shareholder return strategies and in our enterprise risk management framework as well that we still deploy today. The last three years has really been quite an interesting role for me. I've been in more on the operations side of the house as the Vice President Business Partner for our Western Tier. And I oversee strategic and financial planning for roughly half of our collection and disposal operations. And then I also get to act as a corporate and field advisor on things such as M&A and growth initiatives in the areas. So, that's been a great - a great opportunity for me. So, as I think about formative experiences and how [ph] it will shape (00:08:12) me in my transition into the CFO role, it's really those involvements around integration efforts and complex acquisitions, that enterprise risk management work I alluded to. And then just working on building lean and high performing teams, that's been something that's helped shape how I think about what I want to accomplish in the CFO role. I view the role as not just as a financial steward, but as a strategic partner, someone who can translate complexity into clarity, guide long-term value creation, and foster a culture of accountability and innovation. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Q Patrick Tyler Brown Analyst, Raymond James & Associates, Inc. Yeah, perfect. So, one clarification because I did get some questions kind of polling just kind of prior. Can you talk about your last role? Because I think it was - you're Vice President and Business Partner of the Western Tier. Can you just kind of rehash that? What exactly was the role and kind of talk a little bit about kind of what you did day-to-day? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... A David L. Reed Incoming Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Waste Management, Inc. Yeah. I would - I would most equate it to like using kind of more external terms as like a divisional CFO for the Western Tier. And so it - you wear a lot of different hats, but all capital decisions, all growth decisions kind of run through. We have eight areas in the west and eight areas in the east. And so those eight areas, the business partners in those areas have a dotted line to me and so I'm an advisor to them to help them drive their and execute their financial plans. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Q Patrick Tyler Brown Analyst, Raymond James & Associates, Inc. Okay, perfect. That's great clarification. So, Devina, I think David has been with WM now for I think it's almost nine years. I think you originally hired him. Maybe if you could confirm that or not. I believe that's true. And just kind of I'm sure you played a really key role in helping kind of shape him into this role. Can you just talk a little bit about how you guys have worked together and how closely you've worked together maybe over the last few years? ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... A Devina A. Rankin Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Waste Management, Inc. Yeah. So, I did hire David a little over eight years ago. And one of the things that I'll highlight first for anyone listening who is thinking about this is networking is not overrated because I will tell you that I was lucky enough to have met David during a treasurer's forum that one of the large investment banks had here in Houston. And without that connection, I don't know that we would be sitting here together today. And so certainly appreciative of that networking opportunity and the fact that he took my call when I picked up and said I was looking for someone to backfill my role as Treasurer when I got the CFO seat all those years ago. And David was a better treasurer than I was. He had really great contributions to the organization from minute one. And we worked hand-in-hand on a lot of complicated things. Funding the ADS acquisition kind of stands out of all of them. But things like building the right risk management framework and enterprise risk management framework for the organization. It may sound like something that the street doesn't necessarily think about. But what I will tell you is it helps guide long-term strategy for the organization in a way that maybe most people don't ever have to realize if you don't sit within a large corporate enterprise. And when you think about what we've navigated through, whether it be a global pandemic for the first time in a 100 years, it is a great indication of the strength and resilience of not just WM, but the industry that David was involved in building some of the frameworks that have been valuable to us, to thinking about not just running the business every day, but expecting the unexpected and preparing for the unexpected with the benefits of such a resilient business. And we've been partners in so many ways. And what I will tell you about this last role that he took, the one that he talked about with the West Tier as business partner, it was really my encouragement that resulted in that set. David has a hunger to learn and grow and develop professionally. But it was also something that in my own journey at WM over the 23 years that I can tell you I regret is that I didn't spend more time close to the business. And so it was really important to me in thinking about what would position him to be really well prepared to take this next step in his career. So, with that encouragement, I kind of had to let go of the direct partnership that I benefited from with him being the treasurer, because while we still engage day-to-day in the Western Tier business partner role, he really was serving the business and therefore not serving the corporate elements of the CFO title. And so we've worked together really as strong partners every step of the way. And I love his hard work, his professional skepticism, but also drive and determination. But I also really respect that the partnering and collaboration that he demonstrates every single day, not just in the back office, but at the front line, and that's one of the things that I think will serve him so well as he takes on this next role. .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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