Tom Herlihy has over 30 years of experience specializing in the design, permitting and operations of organic waste management facilities. He holds a Master’s in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and a Bachelor’s in Physics.
In the first 15 years of his career, he worked as a Consulting Engineer for both municipal and private clients on projects across the solid waste and wastewater fields. He then left engineering and founded his own vermicomposting company for 15 years that established many technological firsts and integrated large-scale vermicomposting with production agriculture (animal and plant production). Currently he is combining his engineering and operational experience while serving as the Director of Composting Operations for Synagro, the largest compost producer in North America, across their national operations.
He is a compost/vermicompost geek and enjoys combining his love of engineering, waste management, and production agriculture. His agricultural background runs deep from growing up working on a producing Dairy Farm (in NY), to teaching at the University of Vermont in the Plant and Soil Science Department. He has authored and been the Primary Investigator on over 16 peer reviewed Federal research and development projects, all centering on organic waste management and the development of vermicompost products for use in production agriculture.