Alan McKim
In 1986, just six years after founding the environmental services firm Clean Harbors, Alan McKim’s company was doing $50 million worth of business, and he was ready to take the company public. He had started the business at age 25, without a bachelor’s degree, and at this critical juncture in his career, he felt it was time to get the education to back up his experience. “I realized I needed the education to help continue to run the business,” says McKim. Daniel McCarthy, who had just joined Clean Harbors as one of its first two board members and was a professor of general management at Northeastern’s College of Business Administration, recommended that he apply to Northeastern’s executive MBA program.
Within a year, McKim was sitting in the third row of McCarthy’s classroom, and for the past 20 years, McCarthy has been serving as consultant, mentor, and Clean Harbors board member. From the start, McKim stood out from his classmates, says McCarthy. “When I had him in class, he was running a $50 million business, taking his company public, and handling all his class work,” he recalls. “Alan can handle all degrees of complexity and multitask like no one else. He’s one of the smartest people I know.”
As far as McKim is concerned, McCarthy had tremendous impact on his career. “Dan McCarthy was my first professor and a major influence on my life,” recalls McKim. “I look back at the problems of Enron. Dan’s presence really helped guide me as a person [during my career].” In appreciation, McKim helped establish the McKim-D’Amore Distinguished Professorship of Global Management and Innovation in 2005, which honors McCarthy’s accomplishments in industry and academia.
Today, Clean Harbors is on its way to becoming a billion-dollar business, providing essential services to more than 45,000 customers, including more than 175 Fortune 500 companies, thousands of smaller businesses, and numerous government agencies throughout North America. An outdoorsman at heart—McKim says he’s passionate about fishing—his 33-year career has spanned every aspect of the business, from laborer to foreman to general manager to executive. His experience at Northeastern reinforced for him the value education adds to that kind of work experience. “It gives you the skills to do anything you want. It broadens your horizons and helps you grow as a person.”
