Jeremy Glaser: I’m Jeremy Glaser with Morningstar.com. This morning we
announce our CEO of the Year for 2009 and here to share with us
is Paul Larson. Paul thanks for joining me

Paul Larson: Thanks for having me again.

Jeremy Glaser: So who’s the winner?

Paul Larson: Mark Miller of Stericycle.

Jeremy Glaser: So what made this Mark Miller’s year?

Paul Larson: He built a company over two decades that has gone from a
essentially a dozen customers up to over 400,000 customers and
really he took a debt-riddled tiny company and created an industry
juggernaut that we think has a wide economic mode.

Jeremy Glaser: So what does Stericycle do exactly?

Paul Larson: They are a medical waste services company. They go around the
hospitals and dental offices and they gather the waste and dispose
off the waste and also recycle when appropriate.

Jeremy Glaser: So what did Mark Miller was able to do kind of carve out. It's
going to sound like a commodity business. I mean could I just buy
a chalk and you’ll go out and start collecting medical waste?

Paul Larson: Well, you could but that would be very difficult to compete with
Stericycle. As you might imagine, this is a heavily regulated
industry and this is also an industry where route density matters
and Stericycle has the densest routes in the industry table to utilize
its assets better than anyone else and because of these factors, we
think that the company has been able to create a wide mode for
itself. This was a small company and through Mark Miller’s
leadership, they were able to acquire over 170 other medical waste
firms and integrate it into a company that really is a leader and has
high returns on capital.

Jeremy Glaser: Will there be any significant moves that the company made in
2009 that set it apart for this reward right now?

Paul Larson: They’re actually weren’t any specific moves within 2009 but in
2009 the company really did show how resistant it is to the
recession. The company basically didn’t skip a beat in 2009 and
continued to grow while the rest of the economy contracted and I
think that’s one of the attractive parts of this particular business is
the fact that it’s not affected by the recession

Jeremy Glaser: So while the banks are trying to get rid of the toxic wastes on their
books, Stericycle was actually making money by taking away other
people’s toxic waste.

Paul Larson: It’s one way of putting it.

Jeremy Glaser: Alright, Paul thanks so much for talking to me today.

Paul Larson: Thanks for having me.

Jeremy Glaser: For Morningstar.com, I’m Jeremy Glaser.