Dean Buntrock

Dean Lewis Buntrock (June 6, 1931 – April 17, 2026) was an American businessman and philanthropist most well known for his founding and longtime leadership of Waste Management, Inc., North America's largest waste services company. Buntrock is also well known for his part in the lawsuit in which he and others were charged by the SEC for overstating profits by $1.7 billion.

Early years Born in Columbia, South Dakota, on June 6, 1931, Buntrock began learning about business working for his father, Rudy Buntrock, a community leader who owned a farm services business that included International Harvester farm equipment, tractors and trucks, along with Standard Oil products, hardware and other farming-related needs. He led campaigns to build the local gym and fund War Bonds. Guided by his father's businesses and by his mother, Lillian (née Hustad), Buntrock showed entrepreneurial traits by raising chickens and growing potatoes. At age 14, he drove a truck hauling grain during harvest and at 16 became a salesman for his father's business.

Education Buntrock was raised a Lutheran and his early education was based on his parents' Christian values, such as tithing, saving, respect and pursuing excellence. He attended the one-room St. John's Lutheran School from grades five through eight. Buntrock knew that Waste Management needed to operate on a larger scale in order to attract future investors. In late 1970, in a series of transactions handled by his brother-in-law, Peter Huizenga (a young lawyer in Chicago), Buntrock's vision was put into action. The new Waste Management Inc. acquired all of the Buntrock managed businesses in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota along with Wayne Huizenga's Florida business. A third founding partner, Larry Beck (Buntrock knew from the Chicago Ash and Scavenger Association) merged his Atlas Disposal businesses which operated on Chicago's south side into Waste Management. At the same time, Waste Management acquired the CID Landfill, a 150-acre disposal facility on the Chicago/Calumet City border which Buntrock had developed and opened in 1967. This would become a major company asset for many years to come. On January 1, 1971, these three founding partners, Buntrock, Huizenga and Beck, officially began business together under the new Waste Management brand.

Initial public offering Buntrock and his partners had been supporting their companies' early growth with borrowings from community banks in Berwyn, Cicero and Oak Park, Illinois. They were paying for equipment on time, sending in payments with loan book remittance slips. But Buntrock envisioned that their operations would one day go public. He was not the first to do so. Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI) had gone public in 1969 and pioneered the industry's arriving consolidation, providing a path for Buntrock to follow. Buntrock brought in expert financial help to better organize the company. He had dealt with a number of banks and secured a $6 million credit line from the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Illinois, but a public offering was needed to provide the capital and support the growth they foresaw coming. and serving customers in more than 20 countries in Europe, South America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Buntrock retired as CEO at age 65 in 1996 at which time the company had grown to more than $9 billion in annual revenues.

Colleagues A group of executives who launched successful careers as part of the Buntrock team at Waste Management went on to capture additional achievements once their Waste Management days were over. Wayne Huizenga, Larry Beck (and his son Scott Beck), and retired Waste Management Chief Financial Officer Don Flynn and other former executives and associates invested in and led the development of the Blockbuster Video chain. Members of this group further developed such well-known corporate names as Boston Chicken (now Boston Market), Discovery Zone, , AutoNation, Extended Stay America and LKQ. All received Buntrock's support and, in most cases, his investment.

Industry founder Buntrock and other Chicago haulers understood the value of having a local trade organization. First called the Chicago and Suburban Ash and Scavenger Association, the group evolved to become the Chicago and Suburban Refuse Disposal Association.

Philanthropy Buntrock has been a generous benefactor for numerous institutions, including his alma mater St. Olaf College, the Lutheran Church in America, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, numerous arts organizations, and to conservation and environmental groups such as Ducks Unlimited and the National Wildlife Federation, the last of which he served as a director. the largest single gift donated to the school or any other Lutheran college in the United States. The money was the lead gift to build a new student center which opened on November 5, 1999. Named the Buntrock Commons in honor of Buntrock and his family, the building is a community center housing services to support student academic and social lives. Buntrock served as chair of the St. Olaf Board of Regents from 1986 to 1995. In 2018 Buntrock contributed $21.4 million to Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, the largest single gift in its history. The gift funded a pilot program designed to allow the seminary to educate and train students in two years, instead of the four years typically needed for a master's degree in divinity. The gift was to reduce the cost to students and lower college debt, which has been a detriment to seminary school enrollment. Buntrock philanthropy has supported numerous Chicago civic and cultural institutions. A life trustee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Buntrock funded the development of the CSO's Symphony Center, a multi-use facility used for rehearsals by the Chicago Symphony Chorus and Civic Orchestra of Chicago. The facility is used for chamber performances, dinners, receptions, lectures, trade shows and meetings. He was a founding board member and contributor to Chicago's Millennium Park. He served as a member of the Terra Foundation for American Art board and played a key role in filing a lawsuit with other board members that resulted in keeping the Terra Museum in Chicago. Buntrock has supported a range of health institutions, including Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, the Lurie Children's Hospital and the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California.

SEC Settlement on earnings management fraud In August 2005, The United States Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had reached a settlement with Buntrock and three other former Waste Management executives to resolve a civil complaint issued in 2002. The complaint alleged fraudulent accounting that resulted in overstatement of the company's profits, beginning in 1992 and continuing into 1997. He, among other defendants, was alleged to have engaged in a systematic scheme to falsify and misrepresent Waste Management's financial results, overstating profits by $1.7 billion. The SEC alleged that Buntrock and the executives were responsible for the loss in over $6 billion in shareholder value. Buntrock and the former executives admitted to no wrongdoing but agreed to a range of financial and other penalties to resolve the matter.

Personal life and death Buntrock had three daughters from his marriage to B.J. Huizenga and six granddaughters. The marriage to Huizenga, who died in 2014, ended in divorce in 1983.

Awards Buntrock received the Horatio Alger Award in 1996. The award recognizes "contemporary role models whose experiences exemplify that opportunities for a successful life are available to all individuals who are dedicated to the principles of integrity, hard work, perseverance and compassion for others". In 1992, he was inducted into the Sales & Marketing Executives International Academy of Achievement, established to recognize personal and corporate success in sales and marketing. In 1997, he was named outstanding chief executive in the pollution control industry by Financial World and The Wall Street Transcript. He was inducted into the National Solid Wastes Management Association Hall of Fame in 2007.