After graduating from Casco Bay High School in 2012, Alex Perkins headed to the University of Vermont for Environmental Studies. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he stayed in Burlington for an MBA in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation. During the last six months of graduate work, he washed buckets for extra cash with Garbage to Garden Curbside Composting. Conversations with the owner about a full-time job inspired him to create one of the company’s first managerial jobs. Six years later, Alex is Operations Manager, overseeing everything but customer service for Maine and satellite operations in the Boston metro area.
“Because of that experience washing buckets and moving up from there, I understand everybody’s role in the company; I can do every single job. I know what every employee goes through so it’s easy to deal with issues as they come up,“ he explained.
Alex and his wife Marissa live in Gorham on a small homestead with cats, chickens, and fish. For a while he raised quail—from chicks through butchering. “If I’m going to eat meat, I want to be okay with what actually happens during the whole process.”
Pickleball became a minor obsession a few years ago. “It’s all I thought about for weeks—how to get better, the strategy, especially with a teammate on your side. Figuring it out was just so cool to me,” he said. He applies a similar intensity and determination to other sports. He surfs year-round, studying the weather patterns and tidal conditions to better understand the waves. He holds his bowling league record for nine strikes in a row, one shy of a perfect game. Like so much in his life, it’s a simple matter of focus and repetition, something that was encouraged in high school.
“Every morning, there was a group of us and a staff member who would gather and go into the photo darkroom for a meditation session,” he recalled. “At first I was really skeptical, but it ended up being so nice and relaxing. I remember how it set my head straight for the rest of the day. I can’t remember his name or his role. If I could go back I’d thank that person so much.”
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