Charting Growth: Budgeting and Forecasting Manager Jack Vande Water

With a focus on supporting strategic execution and growth, Budgeting and Forecasting Manager Jack Vande Water thrives on building relationships that help drive success. Passionate about problem-solving and continuous learning, Vande Water embraces opportunities for development in a field that is more than just numbers, but a catalyst for disciplined growth and innovation.

What impact does Finance have at Casella?

There are several roles that Finance plays at Casella. As a team, helping to drive strategy and facilitating growth has been a huge part of our work over the last few years. In my role as Budgeting and Forecasting Manager, I oversee our annual budgeting and quarterly forecasting efforts. Both these processes give us a chance as an organization to evaluate strategy, track performance, drive accountability, and work collaboratively to solve business challenges. In addition to the budget and forecasts, I am deeply involved with work relating to acquisitions and development opportunities, sales analytics, and operational initiatives. The Finance team tries our best to be involved and available to anyone across Casella. Our line is always “give us a call.” We may not always be the right people to talk to, but we do our best to point you in the right direction and help however we can.

How do you work with different cross-functional teams across our footprint?

Right now, we are really focused on the budget for 2025. I am spending a lot of time working with regional and local teams in support of how we are thinking about consolidated goals and targets, and to better understand the local market perspective which will execute against our goals. As this process comes together, there is a natural collaboration that happens, which is very important. We can put together guidance, but if we want it to succeed, we need collective buy-in and a bottom-up approach. Strong relationships with people and operations around the company, ensure budget accuracy and a consistent effort. 

What opportunities have you found to grow your career at Casella?

There have been many opportunities I have found for growth. The whole company is very collaborative, which has been really important for my own advancement. I have had the opportunity to work on lots of different projects with various teams, allowing me to develop relationships throughout the company, as well as grow my own knowledge about the business and our initiatives. The Casella Emerging Leaders Program has also been a great opportunity. The program is facilitated through professors at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and participants are a group of individuals from across the company. It has been a great chance to learn from world-class professors and to take a classroom lesson and apply it to Casella’s daily reality. Additionally, my cohort is made up of many people who I do not have much day-to-day interaction with. Building these relationships, learning their perspectives, and understanding the challenges they face have helped me tremendously in my role.

What advice would you give someone just beginning their career in finance?

I think one of the things that helped me when I started was being a sponge for the first six months to a year. There’s so much, especially about our industry, that I didn’t know anything about until I started. Before Casella, I worked in a few different corners of finance, and while some advice would be a little different for each of them, I think that knowing what you don’t know, listening to the people around you, being detail-oriented, and knowing how to find answers are a big part of success anywhere.

What is your proudest achievement?

The amount the company has grown since I started is really exciting. Five years ago, it was a different company than it is now. Of course, our foundation and core business are the same, but our expansion in the Mid-Atlantic, growth within our existing footprint, and some of the development opportunities that we have taken on are amazing accomplishments. We have almost doubled our revenue since I started, and the share price has almost tripled. Any small part that I have played in that is very cool.