Our Team
James Thompson, Jr., President
James Thompson, Jr.
James Thompson is a Principal of Waste Business Journal, a research and consulting firm dedicated to the waste management industry. With over twenty years of experience in the industry, he is a leading expert on waste issues, pricing and business trends in the US. In 1991, he created the Solid Waste Digest, the industry's first quantitative business newsletter. That required his development of the industry's most comprehensive database of pricing, volume and supply statistics.
Today, the Waste Business Journal is the source of record for understanding the ever more complex and vertically integrated waste management industry. His company continues to publish important and highly regarded research on the many diverse aspects and segments of the business.
Mr. Thompson regularly consults with clients on issues of strategic, economic, regulatory, and policy issues related to waste management. His clients include corporations, governments, and agencies of the federal government. He has consulted to every major solid waste firm in the U.S. Consequently, his views have been presented in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The Economist and National Public Radio among many other media.
Mr. Thompson holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University and a BA from Yale University.
Kari M. Kilcullen, Research Director
Kari M. Kilcullen
Kari began her career over 25 years ago as a researcher of the waste industry. While her career since then ventured her into teaching, consulting, curating, and running art galleries, etc., we are delighted to have her back on the team. Her skills range from accounting, customer relations, data gathering and analysis, project management, and the putting together and presentation of special industry reports. She holds degrees from both Radford University and Northern Virginia Community College.
Forrest Grey, Research
Forrest Grey
Forrest is an experienced researcher with expertise in many areas. At Waste Business Journal, he has headed special projects to explore and develop new markets, and new product offerings. He is a clever and resourceful researcher — able to find elusive, sometimes difficult-to-interpret data. All the while, he has done much to develop and refine departmental operating standards to maximize the efficiency of our data gathering efforts.
He is a MiraCosta College Honors Scholar and Life Scout (Boy Scouts of America).
Ryan Smith, Research
Ryan Smith
Matthew Rodriguez, Research
Matthew Rodriguez
James V. Thompson, Research
James V. Thompson
James "Jimmy" Thompson is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley with a double major in Conservation and Resource Studies, and Environmental Economics and Policy. At Waste Business Journal he researches the industry, gathering data from a myriad of sources and performs economic analysis to identify and predict key trends. He helps to compile that analysis into special issue reports and assists in custom waste market studies for clients.
Outside of his work here, he has cared for and given lectures on rescued grizzly bears in Montana. He has studied and reported on invasive plant species and has studied nesting habitats of certain bird species for the Audubon Society. He has also researched ethical and policy issues related to genetic sequencing as a UCSD research scholar.
Eliza S. Thompson, Research
Eliza S. Thompson
Eliza researches waste processing and disposal sites to gather vital information on pricing and volumes, types of waste accepted, types of equipment employed to process those wastes and other important operational and ownership data. She assists in the preparation of client reports, various issue studies, and data presentations.
She is currently an undergraduate at UC Santa Cruz majoring in philosophy.