Tom Szaky

Tom Szaky is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of TerraCycle, Inc., producer of the world's first product made from and packaged in waste. TerraCycle Plant Food was recently named the most eco-friendly product in Home Depot and has received a number of awards for its business model and environmental stewardship, both of which led to Tom being featured on the cover of Inc. magazine.

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1982, Mr. Szaky emigrated from Hungary to Holland. In 1989 he and his family emigrated again from Holland to Canada. At 14 he started his first business, a web design company called Flyte Design, which employed three associates and earned its young proprietor a five-figure income. Flyte Design also earned a number of Canadian national design awards. Mr. Szaky then engaged in the start-up of three small 'dot.com' companies: Werehome.com (an online home improvement site), piority.com (an online fundraising school), and studentmarks.com (an online grade tracking software).

More about Tom

Biggest obstacle overcome...

Gaining distribution into the world's biggest retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Target has always been a goal of ours and a tremendous challenge. It took shear persistance - hundreds of phone calls, then a our passion for the product is what closed the deal.

Biggest mistake...

There is no biggest mistake since we make mistakes all the time and so I've got a bunch of big ones. The key lesson for me was to learn from the mistake, take full responsibility and not to make it again.

Biggest vice...

Being impatient, especially with the people around me who care the most.