Mark DeVita is a seasoned financial and enterprise executive whose career has been defined by disciplined leadership, strategic transformation, and an ability to understand organizations far beyond the boundaries of a single function. With more than 35 years of professional experience, Mark has worked across public companies, private-equity-backed enterprises, privately held organizations, manufacturing, environmental and industrial services, audit, finance, marketing, business development, and corporate administration. His career reflects a broad operating perspective developed through progressively senior responsibilities and a commitment to connecting people, accountability, governance, and risk management with sustainable shareholder value.
Mark’s most significant chapter of executive leadership has been with Crystal Clean, where his progression through increasingly complex roles gave him an unusually comprehensive understanding of the business. Beginning in marketing, he advanced through business management and executive finance leadership before becoming Chief Financial Officer and ultimately EVP, Chief Financial Officer & Chief Administrative Officer. During his tenure with the organization, Crystal Clean evolved from an approximately $10 million business into an enterprise generating more than $1 billion in annual revenue. That experience shaped Mark’s philosophy that successful growth requires more than financial expertise; it requires leaders who understand how strategy, operations, talent, technology, risk, capital, and culture work together.
As a senior executive, Mark developed extensive experience working directly with boards, ownership groups, investors, lenders, advisors, and management teams. He regularly presented business performance and strategic updates to the Board of Directors, communicated financial results to the Chairman and senior leadership, and oversaw materials for the private-equity sponsor’s VCP Steering Committee. He was also accountable for the company’s multi-year Value Creation Plan. These responsibilities strengthened his understanding of effective governance and reinforced the importance of providing directors with transparent information, thoughtful analysis, and a clear connection between operating performance and long-term strategic objectives.
Mark’s financial leadership is complemented by substantial transaction, capital markets, and M&A experience. He helped lead Crystal Clean through its approximately $1.2 billion sale to J.F. Lehman & Company, representing management during the transaction process and engaging with prospective buyers and advisors on the company’s financial performance, business model, and investment case. Over the course of his career with Crystal Clean, he was also involved in more than 40 acquisitions, including stock and asset transactions ranging from approximately $1 million to $160 million in consideration. His involvement extended beyond valuation and financial diligence into integration across finance, human resources, operations, information technology, environmental matters, and other enterprise functions.
Capital structure and liquidity management have been equally important dimensions of Mark’s experience. In connection with a go-private transaction, he helped secure approximately $625 million in term financing and a $100 million revolving credit facility. His leadership also included managing interest-rate exposure through a fixed-rate swap and executing multiple repricings of the company’s Term Loan B that generated more than $6 million in annualized savings. These experiences have given him first-hand exposure to the financial decisions that accompany acquisitions, ownership transitions, leveraged capital structures, and major corporate transformations.
Risk management, financial reporting, and organizational governance represent another core dimension of Mark’s leadership. With an accountancy background and having passed the CPA examination, he has overseen accounting, treasury, financial reporting, internal controls, and major accounting-standard implementations for a billion-dollar organization. He directed an enterprise-wide risk assessment that identified and ranked risks according to likelihood and potential financial significance while establishing corresponding mitigation actions. His oversight also extended to insurance and risk-transfer programs, cybersecurity penetration testing, and executive cyber-attack preparedness exercises, reflecting his belief that risk should be managed as an enterprise responsibility rather than viewed solely through a financial lens.
Mark’s executive responsibilities have consistently reached beyond finance. He has led a team of approximately 80 to 90 professionals across Finance, IT, Human Resources, Procurement, and Legal while establishing company-wide disciplines around KPIs, cash flow, and accountability. He oversaw the restructuring of the human resources function around HR Business Partners and specialized Centers of Excellence, including compensation, talent acquisition, payroll, workers’ compensation, and training. He also directed significant enterprise technology and systems transformations, including consolidation of multiple general-ledger and transactional platforms into an integrated environment and modernization of procurement initiatives that generated approximately $6 million in annual savings.
The breadth of Mark’s perspective can be traced to the diversity of his career progression. Before assuming senior financial leadership, he worked in marketing and business management roles that required him to think about customers, service offerings, pricing, sales growth, and new business opportunities. Earlier, at Safety-Kleen, he worked in internal audit and later product marketing, participating in acquisition due diligence, operational audits, business planning, and the development of a service offering that expanded from a single team to 24 teams deployed across the company’s branch network. He began his career with Arthur Andersen LLP, where he led financial statement audits primarily for large publicly held manufacturing and industrial companies while also participating in financial consulting engagements. His professional capabilities are further reflected in skills spanning finance, auditing, due diligence, strategic planning, leadership, financial reporting, executive management, and business development.
Mark earned a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy with honors from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Northern Illinois University, where his activities included Beta Gamma Sigma, the international business honor society. His professional exposure has also extended internationally, including experience involving Europe and Canada. Comfortable communicating with audiences ranging from small executive groups to major conferences, Mark has significant investor-relations experience and has represented organizations in meetings, conferences, roadshows, transaction discussions, and other high-stakes settings.
As he considers board opportunities, Mark is particularly interested in business services, manufacturing, waste and environmental organizations while remaining open to opportunities across other sectors where his experience can create meaningful value. He brings an appreciation for organizations at different stages and scales, coupled with the perspective of an executive who has experienced dramatic growth, public-company responsibilities, private-equity ownership, acquisitions, organizational transformation, and a major corporate sale. His past service has also included subsidiary boards, charitable work, and nonprofit involvement, further broadening the perspective he brings to governance and organizational stewardship.
At the center of Mark’s approach is a straightforward belief about what creates enduring enterprise value: great people must be supported by accountability, durable governance, thoughtful risk management, and an enterprise-wide perspective. He seeks to bring to a board the same insight and discipline that helped guide a business through extraordinary growth and transformation. Rather than viewing strategy through a single functional lens, Mark approaches challenges by considering the entire organization—its people, finances, customers, operations, technology, risks, and long-term objectives. His goal as a director is to help leadership teams navigate complexity, sharpen strategic priorities, strengthen accountability, and translate a compelling vision into sustainable execution and lasting shareholder value.
Character:
Mark leads with accountability, integrity, and a strong sense of responsibility to the organizations and stakeholders he serves. His philosophy emphasizes pairing talented people with durable governance and disciplined execution to create value that can endure beyond any individual leader.
Knowledge:
More than 35 years across audit, finance, marketing, business development, M&A, capital markets, risk, technology, human resources, and executive management have given Mark a broad understanding of how enterprises operate. His experience across public, private-equity-backed, and privately owned environments allows him to evaluate business challenges from financial, operational, organizational, and governance perspectives.
Strategic:
Mark has helped navigate growth from approximately $10 million to more than $1 billion in annual revenue, participated in more than 40 acquisitions, and helped lead a $1.2 billion corporate sale. He combines long-range thinking with an execution-oriented approach, connecting strategy to capital allocation, organizational capability, risk management, measurable performance, and value creation.
Communication:
Comfortable communicating with boards, chairmen, private-equity sponsors, investors, lenders, advisors, executives, and audiences at both small and large conferences. His investor-relations and board-reporting experience has strengthened his ability to translate complex financial and business issues into clear, decision-relevant information.
