Stuart Lurie, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Stuart was named Chairman of the Board in January 2023. He first joined Wilmington Paper - The Program in 1978, six months after the business was founded by his father, Harvey, as a scrap business focusing on industrial packaging plants in the New York metropolitan area. 

As the business of buying and selling scrap paper grew, Stuart developed a unique approach to maximizing revenue and efficiency in a converting facility,  The Program™.  The Program has become a customized series of focus points, including a Waste Audit, and the creation of an Action Plan for each folding carton and converting plant, aiming to maximize revenue within the market for all grades of recyclables. While The Program has evolved, the principles Stuart conceived that are vital to the success of implementing The Program have stayed consistent: Management Commitment, Procedures, Marketing, and Controls. 

Wilmington Paper first became a national company in 1986, when Stuart landed Federal Paperboard as a client and implemented The Program in the company’s eight folding carton plants. Today the Program is in place in over 300 facilities across North America and Europe.

Under Stuart’s leadership, what is now The WIlmington Group has continued to grow, creating Recycling Management Resources (10 Recycling plants), founding Green Logistics and adding Royal Shredding, as well as operating a successful scrap brokering and trading arm which works in all 48 contiguous states and around the world.

A third generation of Luries are now part of The Wilmington Group as Stuart’s sons, Brett (president), and Joshua (Data Analytics and Information), manage key parts of the business. Stuart and his wife Karen, also have a daughter, Erin, and six grandchildren. 

Brett Lurie, President

Brett was named President of The Wilmington Group in November 2021. He first joined Wilmington Paper - The Program™ full time in 2008 after spending his high school and college summers working at the company for his father, Stuart Lurie, and his grandfather, Harvey Lurie.  

After joining Wilmington Paper, Brett worked closely with the leadership team to learn all aspects of the business operations. He spent time travelling throughout the country and internationally with Stuart to all Wilmington Paper accounts for several years, learning the business and the industry landscape before shifting into sales in 2011. 

Brett has worked to build out new segments of the business that complement the core functions of Wilmington Paper while having a positive impact on the bottom line. He’s used the current network of relationships in the industry to create a trash management and landfill diversion business. He’s also leveraged Wilmington Paper’s experience and standing in the industry to build and develop an export brokerage and trading business. 

Brett has been part of the March of Dimes March for Babies Executive Leadership since 2020 and has been one of the leading individual fundraisers in the region over the past three years. 

Brett is a graduate of The Ohio State University.  He resides in Florida with his wife, Paula, daughter, Ella, and son, Henry.  

Joshua Lurie, Head of Data Analytics and Information

Joshua joined Wilmington Paper - The Program™ full time in 2014 after first learning the business in high school, and then full time from 2006-08, where he was immersed in logistics, account management and database/digital management. Currently, he is the Head of Data Analytics and Information for The Wilmington Group.

Along with Brett Lurie, Josh leads The Wilmington Group's fundraising efforts for the March of Dimes' March for Babies and have been part of the Executive Leadership Committee since 2020. For three consecutive years, The Wilmington Group Team has raised over $40,000 for March for Babies, and for two years has been the top fundraising company in the region. 

Josh has extensive experience in the restaurant business, and was also a guitarist in the band Tokyo Rose that recorded an album and toured the US and Japan. Joshua has a Psychology degree from George Washington University and is fluent in American Sign Language. He and his wife, Erin, live in Denville, NJ and have four daughters: Lillian, Faye, and twins, Ruby and Cora. 

DAVID SCHMIDT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, OPERATIONS

David was brought on in 2022 to oversee all operations for The Wilmington Group.

He started his career in the wastepaper and recycling industry in 1989 with Waldorf Paper Corporation, a papermill located in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Over a career spanning thirty-three years of successful plant operations, David has held a variety of leadership positions with Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation, Allied Waste Industries, and RockTenn/WestRock, in addition to Waldorf Paper. He has successfully overseen traditional and complex residential single stream plant systems in markets across the United States. 

He is a graduate of the University of Missouri – St. Louis, with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a focus in Finance, earning his Master of Business Administration in 2010.

David is based in Duluth, GA, the corporate headquarters of Recycling Management Resources.

THOMAS TOPP, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Thomas Topp joined the company in September 2022 as the CFO of The Wilmington Group.

Thomas has extensive leadership experience, most recently as the CFO for Georgia-based, global manufacturer PolyVision and Innio Waukesha Engines. He spent 17 years at Heidelberg USA, a sales and service provider of prepress, press, post-press and digital printing equipment and software, as the Senior Vice President/CFO – Americas and the General Manager, Consumables Division, where he identified major business issues and implemented solutions to resolve rapid growth challenges. 

Thomas has a Master’s degree from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Engineering, Business Administration and Finance.

Thomas is based in Duluth, GA, the corporate headquarters of Recycling Management Resources.

Philip Bellafiore, Senior Director of Trading and Export Marketing 

Philip started at Wilmington Paper - The Program™ in 2009. He is currently responsible for buying and selling scrap from suppliers and customers throughout the country, working with both domestic paper mills and industry customer as well as export agents and overseas paper mills throughout the world. He oversees a team of account coordinators and the inside sales team that facilitates the brokering, trading and movement of scrap out of the folding carton plants, converting plants, multi-wall bag manufacturers and recycling facilities.

Philip, who earned his certification to drive a forklift in 2019, developed The Program+, a landfill diversion and savings program for Wilmington Paper's scrap suppliers that helped build the portfolio of customers for WPC trading and brokerage. Before joining Wilmington Paper, Philip was a financial advisor and insurance agent with MetLife.

Philip played football and lacrosse at Salve Regina University, where he earned a degree in business administration and currently lives in New Jersey with his wife, Michelle and their two children. 

Renata Hartman, Controller

Renata is the Controller for Wilmington Paper - The Program™, preparing payroll for WIlmington Paper and overseeing financial reporting  tof Wilmington Paper and its subsidiaries, including Recycling Management Resources. She first joined Wilmington Paper in 1996, starting as a bookkeeper handling accounts payable/accounts receivable and monthly reporting. 

She graduated from WIlliam Paterson University with a BA in Accounting, and worked as a senior accountant at Meldisco before joining Wilmington Paper. 

Renata was born in Stany, Poland. She and her husband, Ken, currently live in Durham, NC and have one son, Christian John. She enjoys trips to Disney and rooting for the Dallas Cowboys.  

Rick Notar,  SENIOR LOGISTICS Manager

Rick joined Wilmington Paper - The Program™ in 1998. Rick manages a team of seven in Logistics, working directly with plants to coordinate the movement of recyclable waste paper from facilities all over the country on a daily basis.

Rick started working in traffic as one of three representatives of Wilmington Paper responsible for continuously moving recycled scrap out of plants.

Rick is an accomplished drummer and guitar player who has played in bands since he was a teenager. He has a B.A. in Psychology from William Paterson University and grew up in West Caldwell, NJ.