Mike Malatesta is an entrepreneur, investor, author and podcaster. He founded, built and sold two successful waste and recycling companies that grossed more than $500 million. Over the years, he has acquired 26 companies and invested in more than 100 others.

Mike is currently CEO of LJP Waste Solutions LLC, an innovative environmental solutions company based in Mankato, Minnesota, that provides a wide range of recycling, product destruction and zero waste services.

In 2021, Mike published “Owner Shift: How Getting Selfish Got Me Unstuck,” a philosophical memoir about why so many entrepreneurs get stuck and how they can shift to get free. In 2018, he founded the “How’d It Happen?” podcast to explore the stories of highly successful people, digging deep into how their success happened and why it matters. He recorded more than 375 episodes before taking a business hiatus to focus on LJP.

Mike is a servant leader with proven talent for developing exciting vision and mission initiatives, building the teams and systems necessary to realize them and executing with a team to deliver desired results.

He is active on various boards and maintains numerous professional affiliations. Mike and his wife live in Nashotah, Wisconsin.