LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky native Nate Morris decided he wanted to solve environmental threats posed by trash disposal more than a decade ago. What resulted was the creation of Rubicon in 2008. Now, it is a global company with operations in 22 countries and five continents. 

With its headquarters located at City Center in downtown Lexington, Morris founded Rubicon by “maxing out his credit cards and a $10,000 line of credit.” The company is now valued at nearly $2 billion and helps Fortune 500 organizations, main street businesses, and municipalities worldwide move toward zero waste. 

“Historically, waste has been an overlooked issue,” Morris said. “But at Rubicon, we have built a different kind of company, one that has sought to address the entrenched shortcomings of the industry and bring the issue of waste into the public consciousness. Our proven track record of environmental innovation shows that transformational ideas can come from anywhere, and demonstrates the power of forward-thinking businesses to drive positive change in our world.”

Rubicon founder and CEO Nate Morris. (Rubicon Technologies LLC)

Rubicon is a software platform that uses technology to drive environmental innovation. The company helps turn businesses into more sustainable enterprises, and neighborhoods into greener and smarter places to live and work. Rubicon’s mission is to end waste, and the company helps its partners find economic value in their waste streams and confidently execute on its sustainability goals, according to its website. 

The annual report shows Rubicon’s revenues are expected to exceed $577 million in 2022. Its roster of customers includes Apple, Walmart, Starbucks, Chipotle, FedEx, and the city governments of Kansas City, Baltimore and Columbus, Ohio.

The company recently entered into a deal with Founder SPAC, a special purpose acquisition company, to become a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Its RUBICONSmartCity technology platform is featured in a new documentary series produced by Amazon. The four-part series, titled "Climate Next," focuses on Amazon Web Services partners using cloud technology to drive innovation and enable their sustainability efforts.

“We believe that every company and organization has a responsibility to manage their waste impact,” Morris said. “We are helping knowledge-sector companies better manage their electronic and digital waste. We are helping food, and consumer goods companies find second lives for their organics. And we are reducing the health, and economic impacts of waste in neighborhoods and communities of underrepresented groups often hit hardest by environmental degradation.”

Under Morris’s leadership as CEO, Rubicon has acted as a transformational platform to the waste and recycling category while being recognized as an “Industry Disrupter” by Inc. Magazine, has twice been named “One of the World’s Most Innovative Companies” by Fast Company, and is the subject of a Harvard Business School Case Study where Morris is featured as the protagonist.

“Everywhere, people are waking up to new and more responsible choices when it comes to waste,” Morris said. “The old ‘burn or bury’ model — as old as the ruins of Rome — is no longer the only choice. We can reduce waste and create a circular economy today. Rubicon is demonstrating that market forces are driving these outcomes and processes.”

Morris highlights waste as a national security threat to the United States through his role as a senior adviser to the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, a member of Business Executives for National Security and the Trilateral Commission.

Morris was the first Kentuckian to be named to Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list and to be recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He is also the youngest inductee to the Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame.

A ninth-generation Kentuckian and product of public schools, Morris was born in Lexington and raised in a union household by a single mother. Morris graduated from George Washington University as a Scottish rite Scholar and attended Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. Morris is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was named a Fulbright Specialist Scholar.

Morris is the founder of the Morris Foundation, with a mission to “promote access to the American dream for all Kentuckians.” A generous benefactor to the University of Kentucky, Morris serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council and as the Entrepreneur in Residence at the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky.

He and his wife, Jane, live in Lexington with their rescue cat, Inky.