Heritage Environmental Services Leadership

Teri Myers is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of commercial, operations, and financial leadership experience. She has held multiple Chief Executive Officer roles in private equity-owned portfolio companies and has a wealth of experience in board governance. Currently, she serves as an independent board director in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors, including Heritage Environmental Services. Her educational background also reflects her versatility, including a Master of Business Administration from Southeastern Louisiana University and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University.

As the Managing Partner at 633 Group, a consulting firm specializing in Environmental Services based in the Gulf Coast, Teri provides industrial advisory services to a diverse range of firms. Her expertise includes due diligence and integration consulting, and supporting clients in navigating complex environmental challenges and opportunities. Teri’s successful tenure in the Environmental Services industry includes work with private equity (EQT, KLH, Berkshire) and publicly traded Clean Harbors (CLH). Early in her career, she contributed as a Process Contact Engineer at Exxon Mobil Corporation.

David serves as Executive Vice President, Strategy + M&A at The Heritage Group. David has broad investment, finance, and strategy experience across a wide variety of industries in both public and private equity investments.

Prior to joining The Heritage Group, David was an Investment Partner at Pritzker Group Private Capital, leading the firm’s services sector investing. He previously served as Managing Director at Equity Group Investments, the holding company for the corporate investments of Sam Zell. He was also a Partner of the Zell/Chilmark Fund, a private equity fund that invested in distressed companies. David received his B.A. in economics from Northwestern University.

Seth Myones is an Operating Executive, Advisor, and Board Member with 35 years of experience in the environmental and related industrial services business sectors. He currently serves on the Boards of Heritage Environment Services and Reworld Waste (formerly Covanta).

Seth has served as President of Ridge LLC, focused on providing interim leadership to portfolio businesses in transition, as well as Operating Executive and Advisor to private equity firms and served on several private and public company boards over the past ten years. He was also employed at Covanta Corporation, a leader in environmental services and sustainable material management, for over 25 years with senior roles as Chief Operating Officer, President, and Senior Vice President of Business.

Seth holds an MBA from New York University, a B.S. in industrial engineering from University of Buffalo, and CPA licensed in Maryland.

Kelly Gast is an accomplished finance executive with business experience in over 60 countries. During her 35-year career, she maintained P&L responsibility and completed numerous acquisition integrations and business transformations. She served as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Head of Finance for the Crop Science division of Bayer and was a member of the Crop Science Executive Leadership Team and the Global Finance Leadership Team. Based in St. Louis, Missouri and in line with Bayer’s vision – Health for All, Hunger for None, Gast led the global Crop Science finance team driving strong financial performance for the division’s $21 billion in annual revenues.

Kelly has a breadth of financial experience including accounting, budgeting, treasury, tax, and long-range planning. With Monsanto Company (1995-2018) as Vice President of Commercial Finance (2011-2018), she led multinational teams of over 800 people across many countries in support of a $13B business.

She held P&L responsibility throughout most of her career with Monsanto. Prior to her roles as Assistant Controller and Division CFO, Kelly spent two years leading the U.S. Strategic Accounts for Monsanto. She had responsibility for $3.5B of revenue and brought a long-term approach to key customer relationships. Under Kelly, the first long-term agreements were put in place and the business grew 50% by seizing the opportunity to launch new traits for agricultural seeds.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics/accountancy from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and earned her CPA in 1993.

JD Vargas joined EQT Partners as Managing Director in January 2021 in the Infrastructure Team.

Prior to joining EQT Partners, JD worked at First Reserve, an energy and infrastructure private equity firm, and focused on investments in the utilities, transportation and logistics, telecommunications, downstream and resources sectors. Previously, JD worked as an analyst in the Financial Sponsors and Latin America Groups at Morgan Stanley in New York.

JD holds a B.S. in business administration from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the London Business School.

Elliott Laws joined the Board of Heritage Environmental Services in 2024 and has been a member of the Board of Directors of Reworld (formerly Covanta) since 2022. He is a retired partner from the law firm Crowell & Moring. Elliott has served as Administrative Trustee for the Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response, or RACER, Trust since 2011. This is the environmental response trust established to remediate and position for redevelopment the former properties of “Old” General Motors Corp. He formerly was President of Safety, Health and Environment for Texaco Inc. and Assistant Administrator for Solid Waste and Emergency Response (Land and Emergency Management) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Elliott was elected a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers in 2008. In 2023 he received the Charlie Bartsch Lifetime Achievement Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the International City County Managers Association.

Howard L. Lance has a distinguished career serving public and private technology and industrial companies as Chief Executive Officer, Board Chair, and Director. He currently serves as Board Chair for Reworld (formerly Covanta) and for Heritage Environmental Services, both EQT Infrastructure portfolio companies. He also serves as Board Chair for Summit Materials, a leading provider of aggregates and cement, and as a Director of Mercury Systems, a leading defense electronics systems supplier. 

Howard was President and Chief Executive Officer of Maxar Technologies, a leading provider of space technology solutions, from 2016-2019. He was Executive Advisor-Private Equity at the Blackstone Group from 2012-2016. Howard was Board Chair, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Harris Corporation, a leading global provider of defense and aerospace communications solutions, from 2003- 2011. He was Co-President of NCR Corporation and Chief Operating Officer of its Retail and Financial Group from 2001-2002. Previously, he spent 17 years at Emerson Electric Company as Executive Vice President of its Electronics and Telecom businesses, Chief Executive Officer of its Astec PLC listed subsidiary based in Hong Kong, Group President of its Climate Technologies businesses, and President of its Copeland Refrigeration business. Howard earned his B.S. degree in industrial engineering at Bradley University and his M.S. degree in Management at the Daniels School of Business at Purdue University.

Jeff Laborsky serves as Board Member of Heritage Group Holdings. Jeff successfully led affiliate, Heritage Environmental Services, to a successful partnership with EQT Infrastructure after having served for twelve years as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer. 

Jeff serves as a Board Director for Energy Systems Network (ESN), a cross-industry collaboration of organizations focused on technological innovation in the renewable energy, as well as PIZO Operating Company, an international partnership with zinc recovery operating plants that use a feedstock derived from hazardous waste. Additionally, Jeff serves as Independent Director of the Board of Indy Eleven, the USL-league professional soccer team in Indianapolis, and Jet Access, a leading charter and private jet management company based in Indianapolis.

Jeff has founded and sponsored several new ventures and growth equity businesses alongside The Heritage Group. Jeff is the founder of Heritage Battery Recycling, now operating as Cirba Solutions. Jeff is co-founder of Inteactif, based in Istanbul, Turkey. Jeff is co-founder and board member of Waelz Sustainable Products and is also co-founder of RTI. Jeff co-sponsored The Heritage Group’s investment in Romeo Power Systems, Climeco, Renew Global Energy, and Battle Motors.

Prior to Heritage, Jeff worked in the investment banking, commercial insurance, and venture capital sectors. He graduated with a B.S. in finance from Lehigh University with high honors and later earned an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Jeff and his family live in Indianapolis, Indiana.