John Shegerian is the Keynote Speaker for the 2021 Valley Made Manufacturing Summit.
He is a serial entrepreneur who focuses on solving global problems through building profitable and innovative impact companies. As cofounder and Executive Chairman of ERI, he has played a significant role in paving the way for the electronic recycling and ITAD industries as a whole.
Building ERI from the ground up, Shegerian has helped lead ERI to its current standing as the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States. Under his stewardship, ERI now has the capacity to process more than a billion pounds of electronic waste annually at its eight certified locations, serving every zip code in the United States.
Shegerian is also a sought-after speaker, panelist and electronic recycling, cybersecurity and ITAD industry authority. Annually he speaks across the world in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. He has also authored articles on the industry for Recycling Today, E-Scrap News and various business journals and regularly provides his expert knowledge to news media, including The Wall Street Journal, TIME, Newsweek, Forbes, Gizmodo and Wired, among others.
No stranger to “recycling lives” and serving up second chances, in 1993 Shegerian co-founded Homeboy Tortillas and Homeboy Industries, which continues to serve as a paradigm for urban renewal in America. Shegerian is also the creator of the popular Bulldog Root Beer brand, which he launched in 1997. Shegerian then co-founded FinancialAid.com, filling the financial aid gap for higher education and generating one of the most successful student loan companies in the country.
Shegerian is currently a member of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business’ Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) Advisory Board and was named the Clean Tech Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California by Ernst & Young.