Common Traits of Effective CEOs

Entrepreneur Louis Paolino Jr. has spent more than three decades growing private and public companies in the security and waste management industries. Over the years, Louis Paolino Jr. has held executive positions in companies such as Girard Point Transfer, Mace Security International, and Soil Remediation, Inc.

Not everyone is cut out to be the leader of a company. Here are several traits that effective CEOs share:

- Strong communication skills. Good communication is a key part of any CEO position. Without strong communication skills, CEOs would struggle with motivating their teams and sharing ideas.

- Willingness to take risks. A certain level of risk exists in starting a company or making major changes in an existing company. For this reason, effective CEOs must be willing to take risks to advance the business.

- Macro management capability. CEOs are not likely to interact with every employee under them. Instead, CEOs must lead a team of managers who are responsible for handling individual employees.

- Ability to think creatively. Sometimes the solutions to problems are straightforward, but most problems require some creative problem-solving. CEOs must be capable of thinking creatively to help their companies and customers.

What Is a Secondary Public Offering?

Louis Paolino Jr., a successful public and private company chief executive, serves as the owner, CEO, and president of Wenonah Investments. Prior to his current work, Louis Paolino Jr. served as the chairman of the board and CEO of Eastern Environmental Services, where he successfully raised over $330 million in cash through two secondary public offerings. 

Also known as a secondary distribution, a secondary public offering occurs when a major shareholder sells a large amount of stock in a firm, or when a company issues new stock. Often, secondary public offerings are undertaken to raise funds for growth, to refinance debts, or to restructure the ownership of a firm. The day that a secondary offering takes place is known as impact day, and the process is assisted by an underwriter and investment banks.

Secondary offerings can only be completed by companies that have already made an initial public offering (IPO). An important distinction between an IPO and a secondary offering is that while an IPO always raises capital for the issuing firm, a secondary offering transfers ownership or spreads the company’s ownership over a greater number of shares.

Waste Reduction and Landfill Solutions

Louis Paolino Jr. has held several leadership roles throughout his career, including as owner and president of Soil Remediation Inc., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and as CEO, board chairman, and president of Eastern Environmental Services in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. In these roles, Louis Paolino Jr. grew both companies and sold them successfully to other waste management and environmental services industry players.

Waste management is an important industry in our times because the waste we produce and how we dispose of it can have a major impact on our environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, each person in the U.S. produces 4.4 pounds of waste every day, and only composts or recycles 1.51 pounds of that. A lot of that waste ends up in landfills, where toxic plastics and other substances interact to create noxious gases. Further, some evidence shows an increase in birth defects in neighborhoods close to landfills.

Reducing waste by reusing products and switching to healthier materials may help address America’s toxic waste issue. Products such as construction materials can also be diverted from landfills and reused in other ways. The toxicity of landfills might also be improved with better rules and regulations around categorizing the substances that are thrown away. There are some effective new technologies for getting rid of waste but many of them have negative consequences such as polluting toxic ash from landfill incineration. Investing in improving these technologies may be a vital move for protecting the environment in a high-waste era.