Quick Facts
Biography
John S. Shegerian (born November 16, 1962) is the chairman and CEO of Electronic Recyclers International (ERI). John is also the founder of other related brands in the sustainability space, including RecycleNation.com, a website geared at providing consumers with locations to recycle over 300 different materials, and GreenIsGoodRadio.com, a sustainability radio show.
In 1992, John co-founded Homeboy Industries, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing job opportunities for reformed gang members. John was also the co-founder and CMO of FinancialAid.com. In October 2004, John and his partners sold FinancialAid.com and additional affiliated properties (CampusDirt.com, CampusClix.com, and RateYourCampus.com) to Education Lending Group, which was purchased in February 2005 by CIT (NYSE: CIT).
John also co-founded Bulldog Brewing Company in 1997 in Fresno, CA. Bulldog became one of the most successful brewery's & restaurants in Fresno. The company became famous for its Bulldog Root Beer product, which is stocked in grocery stores along the west coast.
John served as a member of the California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth and was appointed to serve on the Gang Advisory Committee.
John has also been cited in numerous resources as an expert in electronic data destruction and cyber security, including TIME, Wired, and Newsweek.
Early life and personal life
John Shegerian was born November 16, 1962.
In his early life, John was immensely interested in harness racing. In 1977, at just 15 years old, John wins his first harness race as the youngest driver in America. In 1979, John Shegerian, Sr. was featured by Sports Illustrated in a piece on harness racing. The piece centered around Shegerian's attitude towards horse racing, and quoted him saying "I don't want to just beat the other guys, I want to bury them". It was later that same year that Shegerian would do just that, setting the world record for the fastest 5/8 mile dash at Liberty Bell Park Racetrack in Douglasville, PA at the age of 17.
In 1984, John graduated cum laude from New York University with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. A year later, he would marry Tammy Shegerian on October 25, 1985 and the following year their first child, Cortney Shegerian, was born. In 1992, John and Tammy's second child, Tyler Shegerian, was born.
Media appearances
As part of an examination of marketing and social responsibility, John was featured in a case study in the fourteenth edition of Contemporary Marketing, a resource utilized by marketing students and instructors. The study describes how John purchased the ERI firm in 2002 (then Computer Recyclers of America) and "transformed it into a recycling operation dedicated to the responsible dismantling of consumer electronics."
John was invited to speak at the 2014 ISRI Conference in Las Vegas which included other speakers such as Hillary Clinton and Steve Wozniak.
John was featured in a segment titled "Men We Love - Revolutionaries" piece which was part of the fall/winter 2014 edition of CoCo Eco Magazine.
John was interviewed as an expert in e-waste data security by Time Magazine in December, 2014. The piece was published on the Time website titled "Why You Should Never Throw Away Your Old Tech".
John was featured in CocoEco magazine's Spring 2015 magazine in a piece titled "In The Eye Of The Cyber Storm", which highlighted the ongoing growth of e-waste and Electronic Recyclers International's large role in solving the e-waste crisis as well as ERI's unique operations and technology.
John wrote an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal with Allen Hershkowitz, PhD, titled "Garbage Out, National Security Threat In". The piece was published May 4, 2015 in The Wall Street Journal.
John and Senator Carl Levin were interviewed by Shockwave's P.J. Tobia hosted on PBS Newshour in May, 2015 in a segment titled "How the Pentagon gets fooled into buying back its own garbage". The piece centered around how electronics are being sent overseas for end of life recycling, and are then used to make counterfeit new parts and sold back to the US government.
John Shegerian appeared at a New York Streets and Sanitation event on July 15, 2015 commemorating 1 million New York City residents served as part of the e-cycle NYC program. The program was designed by Shegerian and ERI to deal with the growing issue of urban e-waste misappropriation. The event was covered by a variety of local and national media outlets.
John Shegerian was featured by Forbes as a cyber security expert following his presentation at the 2016 Cyber Investing Summit. During the presentation, John shared with the audience a canister of metal remains of a server which was hacked. Forbes hailed it as "the coolest demo at the security event".
In May, 2016, John Shegerian was interviewed by PBS and PBS Radio as an expert in e-waste and cyber security following an article highlighting the growing security and environmental concerns of e-waste being sent overseas.
In June, 2016, John Shegerian was interviewed by Inc.com and cited as a "world renowned cyber security expert".
In September, 2016, John Shegerian was interviewed by Vice.com in an article titled "A Shocking Amount of E-Waste Recycling Is a Complete Sham".
Investment agreement
In 2009, John reached agreement with LS-Nikko, one of the world’s largest copper smelting firms. LS-Nikko invested in ERI as an “urban mining”resource for precious metals.
Awards and memberships
Shegerian is a member of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business’ Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) Advisory Board and is a Presidio Fellow in Sustainability and Sports with the Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco.
Shegerian serves on the Corporate Board for the Environmental Media Association (EMA).
Shegerian was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted into the International Green Industry Hall of Fame.
Shegerian was named the 2012 recipient of the Harold Zinkin Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
In 1981, John Shegerian set a world harness racing record at the age of 17, becoming the youngest person ever to set a world harness racing record.
in 2008, he was an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner in the Northern California region