Events
2010 Education Panel Discussion
How Education / Business Partnerships Improve Georgia Schools
March 19, 2010 - 7:30 AM to 9:45 AM
Sponsored By:
Georgia Pacific
GE Energy
North Highland
Social Networks
Dan Sterling
Direct Metals Recycling
September 9, 2008
Picture a Wharton MBA graduate in a high-priced men’s suit, driving around in a pickup truck with
nearly $200,000 in cash and purchasing used car parts for his burgeoning business. Sounds like a
bad episode of “The Apprentice,” but this is a chapter in the life of local entrepreneur Dan
Sterling. The year was 2005, and this true scenario was how Direct Metals Recycling was born.
After a 10-year career with Arthur Andersen and four years with NCR, Sterling decided to take
the plunge and start his own business. In 2005, he and his business partner, also a Wharton grad,
purchased a junkyard with the intention of buying and selling used car parts.
Today, Direct Metals Recycling processes, grades and sorts automobile parts – averaging 600
cars a month – and resells the catalytic converters and scrap metal in an environmentally safe
manner. In August, his company moved into a new facility with four bays that can increase
productivity.
“My family has been entrepreneurial since my great-grandfather started a company to support
the family during the late 1920s,” he says. “That company served the family for over 70 years. I
love everything about being entrepreneurial – the self-reliance, the educated risk taking, the
flexibility, financial rewards, and other rewards. Everyone should take charge of their life and
actively pursue their dreams. That is the essence of entrepreneurism.”
» Dan’s “At Bat” Song? “Are You Gonna Go My Way” by Lenny Kravitz.
Click
here to watch 5 Questions
With Dan Sterling to hear more about his road to entrepreneurial success.
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