New Director Opens Asian Market For Central European Waste Management

Online, February 2, 2011 (Newswire.com) - NEW YORK, NY - The Wall Street Journal has reported that former ISCOR director Kristian Schmidt has joined the staff of Central European Waste Management in Wels, Austria. Schmidt will head the recycling conglomerate's International Department focusing primarily on opening new markets for the company in Asia.

Industry sources reveal that Schmidt, who brings with him an intricate knowledge of the steel recycling industry as well as decades of experience in trading in the marketplace in Africa and Asia, reportedly rejected offers late last year from Rio Tinto and Anglo American before joining Central European Waste Management.

"We are excited to have a man of his caliber join our staff," said the CE Waste Management Chairman, Frederick Von Strasser, adding, "we see this as another step forward in our plans for market expansion."

As reported in the New York Daily News last month, the appointment of Schmidt to head the International Department of CE Waste Management falls in line with the company's decision to focus more on exports to Asia, where prices and demand for recycled metals and plastics have remained relatively stable in spite of the economic slowdown experienced in Europe and North America. Further, according to the American TV Network CBS (Market Watch), the company has negotiated reduced rates with Asian sea-freight cargo carriers to facilitate the anticipated expansion.

According to his resume, Dr. Kristian A. Schmidt was born in apartheid South Africa and attended Wits University in Johannesburg. He completed his articles as an auditor for Arthur Anderson before being offered a position at De Beers. He later joined Kolwezi Copper as a trainee trader, and as reported by the South African newspaper, the Rand Daily Mail, Schmidt established a reputation as an aggressive and astute market trader.

Schmidt was engaged by ISCOR a few years later, prior to their acquisition by the Mittal group, and soon became the head of their foreign department. According to inside sources, during these years at ISCOR, Schmidt was able to circumvent the trade sanctions with Tanzania and Uganda with seeming impunity.

In the early 1990s, Schmidt moved to Hong Kong working as a financial adviser to several sovereign wealth funds before returning to South Africa in 2008.

According to inside sources, CE Waste Management's International Department in Wels, Austria, has been overwhelmed with new order inquires from Asian companies since Schmidt's arrival.