SERC 2023 Moderators

Eugene (Gene) Jones, CEO, Southern Waste Information eXchange, Inc. (SWIX) 

Gene Jones serves as CEO of Southern Waste Information Exchange (SWIX), a non-profit organization which has been operating since 1981 assisting businesses and municipalities with their waste management issues. 

In addition, Gene is a serial entrepreneur and brings over 40 years of experience with waste management and recycling in senior executive level positions. Over the past 40 years, he has successfully founded, built and sold several businesses including Environmental Management & Consulting Services, Inc., Advanced Derived Fuels, LLC,  Hazardous Substance and Waste Management Research, Inc., Environmental Industry Conference Management, LLC, FieldClean of Florida, LLC, Lawncare Equipment Sales and Services, LLC, and his latest venture Florida Industrial Hemp Company, LLC. 

Gene is based in Florida and specializes in building strategic relationships with waste recycling firms and brings a vast network of associations in the recycling sector from his work in organizing conferences such as;

Conferences:

•  the Agricultural Plastics Recycling Conference & Trade Show, 

•  the Waste Conversion Technology Conference & Trade Show, 

•  the Southeast Recycling Conference & Trade Show, 

•  the New Life for Closed Gas Stations Conference and Exhibition, 

•  the International Symposium on the Redevelopment of Manufactured Gas Plant Sites, 

•  the National Conference on Waste Exchange and Resource Reuse

•  the PFAS Forum

•  the Florida Remediation Conference

•  the Florida Industrial Hemp Conference & Exhibition, and

•  the Florida Medical Cannabis Conference & Exhibition.

Associations:

•  Waste Conversion Technology Association, Inc.

•  Florida Agricultural Plastics Recycling Cooperative,  Inc.

•  Florida BioFuels & BioEnergy Association, Inc., 

•  Recycle Florida Today, Inc.,

•  International Society of Technical & Environmental Professionals, Inc., 

•  Florida Brownfields Association, Inc., and

•  Keep Florida Beautiful, Inc.

Gene is a Martial Arts practitioner and has his 8th degree black belt in Shaolin GoJu and a 5th degree black belt in Nisei GoJu. Gene is also the Author of Instant Self-Esteem: Empowering Self-Confidence.

Gene is also the inventor of the Soap Bag Saver, which he designed for the reuse of leftover soap bars.  

 Brian Hawkinson, Executive Director, Recovered Fiber, American Forest & Paper Association

Brian Hawkinson is American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) Executive Director, Recovered Fiber. In this role, he manages issues and programs that promote increased paper recycling and maintain member company access to mill-quality recovered fiber for use in manufacturing new pulp, paper and paperboard. 

Before joining AF&PA, he held leadership positions with: Hawkinson Group, LLC, where he assisted AF&PA in establishing the Paper+Packaging Board; DDC Advocacy, where he provided strategic counsel to clients that improved the effectiveness of their employee political engagement efforts; Public Affairs Council, where he led the organization’s management consulting practice, helping members adapt effective practices that improved corporate public affairs operations; and, United Way of America, where he managed the United Way system’s engagement with Fortune 500 companies.

Brian is a former adjunct faculty member of The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management. He is also a past member of the boards of directors of The Recycling Partnership and the National Recycling Coalition. Brian holds a BBA from James Madison University and an MBA from the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. 

James R. Keefe, Executive Vice President/Group Publisher, GIE Media, Inc., Recycling Today Media Group

Mr. Keefe joined GIE Media, Recycling Today’s parent company, in 1991 in a sales and market research capacity. In 1992 he was promoted to Marketing Manager for GIE’s recycling business and in 1993 promoted to Sales and Marketing Manager for GIE’s portfolio of media products. 

In 1995 his focus returned to the recycling industry when he was promoted to Publisher of Recycling Todayand its affiliate publications. Since that time Mr. Keefe has remained active in the recycling, waste and environmental services industry, meeting with industry leaders, participating in industry conferences and meetings in North America and globally. He has visited recycling, scrap processing and waste management facilities as well as consumers of recycled commodities across the globe. 

During his career Mr. Keefe has overseen the continued development of Recycling Today magazine and managed the launch of numerous additional publications, including Construction & Demolition Recycling, Storage & Destruction Business, Recycling Today Global Edition, Scrap Management, Renewable Energy from Waste, Plastics Recycling, Scrap Recycling and most recently Waste Today.

Mr. Keefe also launched and manages the group’s event business, which includes the Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference; Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference Europe; C&D Recycling Forum; Paper & Plastics Recycling Middle East; Metals Recycling Conference Middle East; Paper Recycling Conference Asia; Paper Recycling Conference India; the Renewable Energy from Waste Conference, Waste Today’s Corporate Growth Conference and Scrap Expo.  

Mr. Keefe currently serves on the board of directors for the Paper Stock Industries chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) and the Construction & Demolition Recycling Association. He also serves on numerous association committees and boards across the waste and recycling industry. 

Dr. Andrea Neal, CEO, Blue Fuels Holdings, LLC

Andrea Neal, Ph.D.: CEO and Board Member: Explorer, Scientist, and Entrepreneur, Dr. Neal has been at the forefront of Blue economy business and technology development for the last 20 years.  Dr. Neal has been a senior executive and founder of four companies. Dr. Neal has been at the development forefront of blue circular economy models for monetization of non recyclable plastic, blue-energy production, and financing the clean-up of marine litter from the open ocean.  Dr. Neal received a bachelor of science from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. from The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. 

Dave Robau, CEO & Chief Scientist, National Energy USA

Dave is the CEO & Chief Scientist of National Energy USA, a minority-owned environmental engineering firm headquartered in Pensacola, Florida. National Energy USA is a ClimateTech company that brings emerging and innovative energy technologies into the commercial market to promote the Circular Economy. Prior to this, he served as the "Chief Garbologist" with the U.S Air Force.

Timothy LaMontagne, Operations Manager, Lee County Solid Waste Department

Timothy Lamontagne is a Public Utilities Operations Manager for the Lee County Solid Waste Department and has served in both the Private and Public Sector for 26 years. Currently, he manages post collection and recycling facilities, which include the county’s transfer station(s), transfer fleet, yard waste processing, waste tire disposal, construction and demolition debris recovery, and material recovery facility (MRF). Formerly, Mr. Lamontagne supervised both residential and commercial collections in the Private Sector. Timothy serves on the Board of Directors for Recycle Florida Today, Inc. and multiple committees within the organization including, Chairman of the Construction and Demolition Debris Recycling Committee. 

Ray Moreau, Executive Vice President, Southern Waste Information eXchange, Inc.

Ray has over 35 years of experience in solid and hazardous waste management in both the public and private sectors. He has served as the Environmental Manager for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s statewide recycling program. He has also been a Principal with Camp, Dresser & McKee, an international environmental engineering firm, served as the City of Jacksonville’s Refuse to Energy Project Director, and was an associate with the former Florida Resource Recovery Council (an advisory body to the Governor and Legislature on recycling and resource recovery). In addition, he served as staff with the Florida House of Representatives Environmental Protection Committee.

Since 1998, he has been SWIX’s Executive Vice President where he is primarily responsible for project development, grants and workshop development and management, technical assistance to the waste management and recycling industry, and administrative assistance to the Executive Director.

He is a former Board member of Florida’s Sunshine Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) and is also a past member of the Recycle Florida Today, Inc. (RFT) Board of Directors. 

Ray has a BA from Providence College and an MS from Florida State University and resides in Tallahassee, Florida.