Leadership
Learn more about our awesome leadership team and the paths that have led each of them to Gainsborough Waste and Texas Outhouse.
Noble Carl, President of Gainsborough Waste, does not just have an eye for details, but a mind for them as well. While others are satisfied with big-picture information, Noble wants to know the mechanics and processes behind every situation, down to every “how” and “why”, so he can figure out a better way to do it. This drive to “know” would ultimately lead him to create Gainsborough Waste, though entering the waste business was not exactly on his radar when he graduated from Texas A&M in 1987 with a degree in Construction Science.
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After graduating from college, Noble moved to the Virginia area to work in commercial construction before joining his father to run Carl Construction back in Houston. The process to remove construction debris from his high-end residential jobsites was unreliable and inefficient at best, so Noble took it upon himself to come up with a better way to get the job done. And the Gainsborough Waste concept was born. He started off servicing his own job sites with a converted old Montalbano Lumber truck and 15 containers, and was able to quickly grow the business to other contractors through word-of-mouth.
Today, Gainsborough Waste is the one of the larger privately-owned waste removal companies in Houston, and Noble has learned a lot in the 22 years his company has been in business. He has worked every single role in the company at some point along the way, from driving to dispatching to mechanic, and is passionate about running a company that is both clean and safe.
“One of my pet peeves is, when we are rolling down the road, I want us to look good. I want everyone in a uniform and I do not want us looking like a bunch of ragamuffins. It is an image that we are projecting.”
As a business owner, Noble describes himself as an excellent decision maker and prefers to operate with a “rule by reason, not by fear” mindset of reason versus fear or emotion. He goes the extra mile to make sure his customers are taken care of, no matter what.
“If we mess something up, we are going to fix it. If there is one thing that I want our customers to know, it is that we care, we want to do a good job for you for a fair price. We do not want to be the cheapest solution out there, but we do want people to know we are willing to go the extra step to take care of you.”
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
“Probably a rancher. That is why I can speak Spanish pretty well. So, when you have a choice to make in sixth grade, I knew at an early age that Spanish was going to be important, whether for lawn maintenance, construction or ranching. There are not a whole lot of Frenchman out there filling those positions!”
Before owning your business, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had?
“The best job I had was ranch work. I worked for the V8 Ranch, which is in Hungerford, Texas. Sloan Williams got into a business partnership over a telephone call, and they bought 7,000 head of commercial cattle in one summer, and we worked all those cows. It Read Less
was an awesome experience. I guess I worked for him for four different summers. We did a lot of driving because he had lease land all over the place. It was great.”
Paul Carl, President of Texas Outhouse, grew up in a family where owning a business was the family business. As a child, Paul’s father owned and operated a bank, and Paul had the unique opportunity to learn about many different types of businesses from his dad. Intrigued by this, Paul would go on to start his own construction business, PGC Builders, after graduating from Texas A&M in 1993 with a degree in Construction Science. PGC Builders specialized in homebuilding; Paul would eventually merge the company with his father’s construction company, Carl Construction.
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Texas Outhouse was created when a need for port-a-can services arose after Paul’s brother, Noble, started the roll-off container business, Gainsborough Waste, in 1994. The two would rent port-a-cans as an additional service to any roll-off container rental, and the business quickly took off.
“It was then that I decided that there was an opportunity to stop building houses and really focus on Texas Outhouse. I put all my energy into Texas Outhouse, and fortunately it began and continued to grow. We continued to make a lot of decisions, some good, some bad, but in the end more good than bad, because it continued to grow and continues to grow today.”
Paul credits his past experience in construction as a step toward helping him get to where he is today. He is passionate about being part of a solution to peoples’ problems, and wants his customers to know just how sincere the service is at Texas Outhouse.
“I want them to know that once they call us, and we have committed to providing service, we stand behind it. And that we are not perfect, but we will make it right. If someone is not happy with our service, I am the first to say we have got to make this right. I want them to know that our determination to meet and succeed their expectations is sincere. And know that they can call me anytime. We truly are all about providing an outstanding experience.”
One of Paul’s favorite parts about owning Texas Outhouse is providing service to special events. He loves being behind the scenes and making the difference in a great, memorable event experience. Though Texas Outhouse is a provider for many of the Greater Houston area’s most well-known special events, Paul’s favorites are Wings Over Houston and the Lone Star Rally. Through his disaster relief work at Texas Outhouse, Paul has also had the chance to assist with several major natural disasters across the country and loves the challenge of helping people in very difficult situations.
“You have no idea how bad our services are needed when there is no plumbing. To be a part of that relief effort is exciting, and it is moving fast and it is so satisfying to be part of a very much needed solution.”
Before owning your business, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve had?
“I had odd jobs. My jobs growing up were maintaining dad’s businesses. He had lots of rental properties, commercial and residential. I installed sprinkler systems at office buildings, at his bank, at rental property houses. It was always easy for me to have a job because there was always lots of stuff to be done growing up with my dad. And in college when I needed money, I would just throw my name in the hat at a staffing company and they would send me different things to do.”
What are you most passionate about professionally?
“I like having a business where people like to work. That means a lot to me. Many of our employees are very happy that they have landed here. I have heard a lot of them say that they wish they would have found us sooner. I like providing a place for people to work where they choose to stay and can support their families.”
“I am also very passionate about being the company that people call when they have a problem. Even though it may not be exactly what we do, we accept the challenge and take pride in solving the issue for them.”
What do you like to do on your days off?
“On weekends, I love doing different outdoor things with my family, whether it is going out to our country home, or the bay or the beach. We are fortunate enough to have a variety of different places to go.”
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Although he is most noted in the Houston community as a broker, developer and builder of high-end custom homes, what few people know is that William Carl is also a builder of dreams.
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As the patriarch of the Carl family, William spent his life developing dreams into reality, including those of his two sons, Noble and Paul. He made it his mission to ensure that they had a chance to succeed, laying the foundation for what would one day become waste industry powerhouses Gainsborough Waste and Texas Outhouse.
Though William helped lay much of the groundwork for each business by building their sales base and connections with local business owners, he credits the companies’ success to the hard work and dedication of Noble and Paul.
“They both learned to work at an early age. A child that doesn’t learn how to work or have chores by the age of 12 is not going to have the enjoyment and love of a job well done. So those kids were both working when they were nine or 10 years old. I think that was the most interesting thing for both of them. They both enjoyed working and seeing a job well done. They wanted to do what’s right.”
As for his own success, William enjoyed a career as a broker, realtor and builder spanning several decades, instead of going into the family business of becoming a lawyer.
“I am the first person in my family in three or four generations not to be a lawyer. I worked in my father’s title company and law firm and didn’t find it all that exciting. I met all the developers, and they drove better cars than the lawyers.”
That was enough to convince him to start a career in real estate.
While most builders were going broke during the economic slump of the 1980s, William saw a need for high-end townhomes that were well-built and modeled after homes in which he himself wanted to live. Each one featured high ceilings, large dining rooms, master bedrooms with vaulted ceilings and his-and-hers bathrooms. This proved to be a blueprint for success for William; he would go on to eventually build more than 300 homes, all in upscale Houston neighborhoods. He welcomed the opportunity to negotiate long-term leases as well.
“I was always eager to lease a home to keep as an investment.”
Despite all of his success in the homebuilding business, William still lists his two sons as his greatest accomplishments. When he’s not spending time with his family or attending weekly Tuesday morning meetings with Noble and Paul at Gainsborough Waste and Texas Outhouse, William enjoys driving his horse-drawn carriage at the family place in Waller County, and going to his home on Galveston Island, his birthplace.
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If the third time really is a charm, then Donna Hunt finally found her Forever Home with Gainsborough Waste and Texas Outhouse. Donna was hired on as Controller for both companies in 2013, after a whirlwind twenty-plus year career that started at the company formerly known as BFI (Browning-Ferris Industries) in the town of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Donna unintentionally fell into the waste business after graduating from college with a degree in accounting from the University of Delaware. She was looking for a job close to home, and an opening in the accounting department at BFI seemed like a sensible fit.
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“At the time, I did not do much research on them. It was hard to do that back then. I am not even sure I knew what they did, I just knew that it was called BFI, and it was in the same town where I was living. And the pay looked reasonable.”
What Donna could not have foreseen at the time was the rapid, often unpredictable path her career would take: working for two major players in the waste business, a move to Houston, surviving two major company mergers and even a couple of brief stints outside of the waste business, all the while acquiring skills that would eventually lead her to Gainsborough Waste and Texas Outhouse.
Donna’s true passion lies not only in numbers, but the correctness and accuracy of those numbers; she finds joy in amortization schedules and balance sheets. She played a crucial role in the purchase of the companies’ new home office on McCarty Street, one of her proudest professional endeavors, and describes herself as “insanely organized” and a “stickler, both professionally and personally”.
When not crunching numbers, or organizing her life into binders, boxes and folders, Donna enjoys scrapbooking family memories and vacations, spending quality time with family, church on Sundays, going out to eat and sailing in Seabrook with her two daughters.
What’s your favorite part of the waste industry?
“I love trucks. I like to go sit in a new truck. I love equipment. I have always been kind of a tomboy.”
What do you like to do on your days off?
“Spend time with my family. I do like to get stuff done. I do not nap, I do not sleep late. I know some people who say, ‘I did nothing this weekend and I feel great!’. I feel great when I have crossed off twenty things on my list.”
Before working at GW or TO, what was the most unusual or interesting job you had?
“In high school, I worked in a bank as a proof operator. I would sit at this giant machine, and I would have batches of checks and deposit slips, and I would key in the numbers. So, I guess that is part of the reason why I became an accountant. And, I can do a 10-key faster than anyone I know!”
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As Operations Manager for both Gainsborough Waste and Texas Outhouse, Jason Odom is the tie that binds two very different companies into one. To say he is busy would be an understatement; there is not a problem he will not try to fix, and if there is one thing he wants his customers to know, it is how hard he tries for them.
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“If there is one thing I would like our customers to know, it is how much heart we put into everything we do.”
Though he originally hails from Louisiana, Jason is happy to call the Lone Star state home. He got his start in the waste business shortly after leaving college, cleaning portable toilets as a yard man. He has worn every hat in the waste business, and this extensive experience has helped him get to where he is today. It was during a chance meeting while doing disaster relief work that he met Noble Carl, owner of Gainsborough Waste, and was recruited on the spot. Nearly ten years later, he is no longer a yard man, but the boss man, and calls many of the day-to-day shots at the main office on McCarty street.
But Jason’s real talent shines in his ability to relate with others.
“I am not a networking guy, but I enjoy a lot of success with people. People like me. People do business with people they like. If you have a problem or need something, call Jason and he will take care of it.”
Jason’s problem-solving skills are not just limited to on-the-job matters; he takes a personal interest in the people that work for him, celebrating their personal victories as if they were his own.
“Every time one of these guys goes and buys their first car, or when they go and buy a house, I have done my job. My best story is a guy that still works here today. He came to us the day after he got out of prison; he owns his own home, has kids. My best day is ‘Hey Mr. Jason, I bought a car.’ It is the best thing in the whole world.”
What is your favorite thing to do in Houston?
“My favorite thing to do in Houston would have to be the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.”
Before working at GW and TO, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?
“I worked for a man named Elton Kelso, and my job every morning was to get up and go feed cows. They looked forward to seeing me every day. And I would go out and feed cows in about three or four different spots. The job was in Oklahoma during the winter, and it was cold. So, I would have to make sure that the cows had hay. And if I was not feeding the cows, I was fixing fence. Did I mention that it was cold?”
What do you like to do on your days off?
“I like to hunt. And more than anything else, I like to spend time with my wife and family.”
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Sometimes the best things happen by accident, when we are not looking for or seeking them out. It was completely by chance that Diedra Hlinsky fell into the waste business, when fourteen years ago, while working on earning a business degree from the University of Houston Clear Lake, a former supervisor came across her resume on a whim. Not long after, she hired on to her
first waste company and never looked back.
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“You kind of get hooked once you are in it. It is hard to describe. There are so many different aspects to it. The front and the back end, just every component.”
So, it would make sense that just as Diedra fell into the waste business, she would also fall into her role as Customer Service Manager for Gainsborough Waste and Texas Outhouse. What started out as a gig through a consulting agency would eventually turn into a permanent job in a field she loved.
“I actually started here as a consultant. I was with a consulting company called Waste Concepts, which specializes in the waste industry. I was helping in operations and just doing some analysis with the job descriptions and things like that. Some of it was a little HR-related. I made suggestions for process improvement. So, it was really totally a fluke.”
Today, Diedra is heavily involved in day-to-day dealings with customers, and as such, has dealt with many personalities and situations. She once had a residential customer threaten to dump her trash on her desk, and she followed through on it. Despite happenings like these, Diedra has made it her mission to do whatever it takes to solve problems and make any situation better. She believes in working hard and going above and beyond for her customers; she once drove out to a residential jobsite to make sure a port-a-can was removed before her customer’s client returned home for the weekend, and has picked up trash in a pickup truck when extra hands were needed.
It is this kind of dedicated humbleness that has driven Diedra to where she is today. She is passionate about respect, and believes it makes all the difference in the workplace.
“Respect, absolutely. Respect in that no one employee is more important than the other one. The guy that is spraying the cans down and washing the port-a-cans in the yard is just as important as the owner of the company. I really do believe that. I do not have a job unless we have a driver.”
What are you surprisingly good at?
“Playing Galaga arcade game.”
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
“Definitely something people related, like a teacher or social worker.”
What do you like to do on your days off?
“Seeing family when we can, although we live in different areas and out of state. We do a lot of hiking, biking, birdwatching, just all outdoors. We like the Texas state parks and camping. When we lived in New Braunfels we did a lot of kayaking. And I am really lucky that my husband likes the same things I do; we both like history and enjoy going to museums. We love going to estate and garage sales. It is fun!”
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