The Professional Successes of Don Paul Richards

To some, Waste Management may not seem like the type of field that produces professional success, but Don Paul Richards, Area Manager for Loomis Fargo & Company and District Manager for Certified Waste Management, Inc., proves that even in less glossy and glorious fields, individuals can still shine with skills and expertise.

A self-proclaimed “turnaround specialist,” Don Paul Richards has devoted his professional career to identifying problem areas in waste management systems and underachieving business units, and subsequently helping those problem areas meet goals and objectives year after year until they are once more self sustaining. As an area general manager, Don Paul Richards has taken charge of a safe and profitable business unit, and has done so with skill and with pride, consistently taking troubled areas and turning them into examples of a finely and expertly managed waste management system.

Don Paul Richards has received a number of recognition for his skill in turning high-risk situations and areas around. At Loomis Fargo & Co, Don Paul Richards was the recipient of the 2001 Best Overall Risk Performance award, the 2002 Most Improved Area award, and the 2006 Snake Pit Award, given in acknowledgement of the general manager who has handled the most difficult project in a given year. Don Paul Richards has also managed to climb his way up the company ladder, taking on larger and larger management areas as he gained more expertise and proved his capabilities as a waste management specialist.

Don Paul Richards credits his success to a number of personal attributes. A quick thinker, logical problem solver, and cool-headed leader, Don Paul Richards is exactly the type of person you’d want working on a high-risk project. He has clearly demonstrated achievements in waste management, and has a clean track record of meeting safety and financial goals, no matter what the project.

The Football Career of Don Paul Richards

A college football great of the 1980s, Don Paul Richards began seriously playing football in high school after a childhood of casually tossing around a football in his family’s backyard. While attending high school, Don Paul Richards dabbled in a number of sports, and received varsity letters for multiple seasons of basketball, baseball, track, and football. Although he participated in and lettered in other sports during his high school years, Don Paul Richards’ true love was always football, which he played every year without fail, and it was football that he saw through to greatness. Don Paul Richards not only received varsity letters for each season of football that he played as a high school student, but received larger honors as well. Don Paul Richards received All District and All Area honors as a quarterback and punter, and was awarded the Kiwanis Key award as a high school senior in 1980.

When he graduated from high school, Don Paul Richards was awarded a full scholarship to play football as McNeese State University in Louisiana. Once again, as in high school, Don Paul Richards lettered a full four years running. During his junior and senior years, Don Paul Richards was McNeese State University’s starting quarterback. Don Paul Richards set a number of school passing records as a senior, and received All Conference honors in the same year. Don Paul Richards continues to be an advocate of sports scholarships; he acknowledges his own educational opportunity, thanks to his football skills, as the source of his professional success, as well as the inspiration to pursue a master’s degree in education at McNeese State University.

Don Paul Richards never joined the professional leagues, but he continues to play football recreationally, and is a devoted fan of the New Orleans Saints and the Dallas Cowboys. 

Safety is Key for Don Paul Richards

Don Paul Richards is an area manager for Loomis Fargo & Co, a waste management company operating in Louisiana and Texas. He is one hundred percent committed to achieving consistent safety records, and ensuring that future leaders in the waste management industry are similarly devoted to promoting both a safe working environment, and a safe environment for the communities that they work within.

In recent years, Don Paul Richards has won a number of awards for his work at Loomis Fargo & Co. In 2001, he was voted to have the Best Overall Risk Performance. In 2002, Don Paul Richards was awarded Most Improved Area. And most recently, Don Paul Richards was awarded the Snake Pit Award in 2006, which is given to the General Manager who tackled the most difficult and extensive assignment in a calendar year, and overcomes all of the obstacles to its completion with distinction.

Because Don Paul Richards routinely works in high-risk areas, safety is a number one priority for his teams. A self-described “turnaround specialist,” Don Paul Richards enjoys taking on the toughest projects and turning problem areas into examples of waste management solutions. He says that safety is key to this philosophy—if a job is done safely, it’s pretty safe to say that it has been done well.

Don Paul Richards is always sure to impart his views on safe practices to younger waste management specialists. In 2011, Don Paul Richards participated in Certified Waste Management Inc.’s Southern Group Leadership Forum, and surely influenced future leaders of the industry to think not only about solid problem solving, but problem solving based on finding safe alternatives without sacrificing quality or speed. With his many years of experience and excellent track record, Don Paul Richards is certainly a waste management specialist to admire in terms of safety records. 

How Football Helped Don Paul Richards Professionally

Don Paul Richards is a waste management specialist in Texas. He works on high-risk waste management situations, and has a track record of being able to vastly improve even the worst waste management areas. So what does football have to do with that?

Don Paul Richards, who played football in college and high school, and went to McNeese State University on a football scholarship, says that his experience in the sport, especially as a quarterback, helped him to be a better leader, team player, and decision maker. All of the skills that he learned playing football translate into making him a better team member in the business world.

As a waste management specialist, Don Paul Richards works with a team of coworkers to figure out how to solve problems ranging from the financial to the environmental. He says that this kind of work requires the ability to work with diverse groups of people all performing different tasks to reach a similar goal, very similar to coordinating a pack of football players on the field.

As a quarterback, Don Paul Richards gained the experience of making quick fire decisions under huge pressure. While he says that so far in twenty years of experience no one has tried to tackle him in the office or on job sites, Don Paul Richards has to utilize his problem solving skills in pretty high-risk situations, just like when starring as McNeese State’s prize quarterback.

Whether or not Don Paul Richards learned these skills playing football, the evidence is clear that his leadership skills and high-pressure problem solving abilities have made him an expert in his field. Don Paul Richards has won awards for tackling and successfully completing the biggest, toughest project in the company and for performing best overall in high-risk situations.