Nan Drake, Community Relations Director for Santa Clara Dispsoal

(Fillmore, California) Nan Drake, community relations director for Santa Clara Dispsoal, has been named one of the Top 50 Women in Business in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. Tri-Counties
Drake was feted by the Pacific Coast Business Times at a special reception at Fess Parker’s Double Tree Resort in Santa Barbara.

Drake, who represents Santa Clara Disposal which serves the cities of Fillmore and Santa Paula has been very active in the Santa Clara Valley. She was co-chair of the 2008 Santa Clara Valley Boys & Girls Club Auction and is the president-elect of the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce.

Her tireless commitment to recycling has made Ventura County the most lauded and praised county in California. The California Integrated Waste Management Board frequently cites Ventura County as an excellent example to follow in recycling. She is an enthusiastic speaker for environmental issues and a sustainable community that makes her a favorite for Rotary Clubs and the like.

Nan is the voice of one of the largest family owned trash-hauling companies in the United States. She also represents Gold Coast Recycling, Agromin and California Wood Recycling.

She launched and named the “Trash Flash” recycling newsletters, which are published for the various cities served by Harrison, including Fillmore. She served on the California Integrated Waste Management Board and helped gain approval for the establishment of Gold Coast Recycling, one of the first major recycling centers in California. She served on the Ventura City Council when Ventura established the first citywide recycling program in the county. She has been recognized as a state leader in championing recycling.

Nan has a 30-year record of public service in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties both in the private and public sector. She is a former board member of the Salvation Army, Community Memorial Hospital Foundation, Ventura County Medical Center, Ventura Friends of the Library, Ventura Council on Economic Vitality, executive committee of the Workforce Investment Board (it oversees all of the federal and state funding for the welfare and work programs in Ventura County) and is a past president of the Assistance League of Ventura County. She currently serves as an advisory board member of the Ventura Music Festival. She sits on the advisory board to Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance—a group that is working to find ways to cut energy costs and to pave the way to an energy sustainable Ventura County. She is also a board member of the Ventura County Economic Development Association (VCEDA).

Drake was elected to the Ventura City Council in 1985 and served until 1990. She became involved in environmental issues in 1986, when serving as a board member of the Ventura County Regional Sanitation District. In 1988 she was appointed to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Board by Governor George Deukmejian, where she served as Chair and reappointed by Governor Pete Wilson in 1991.

In 1990, she was appointed by Deukmejian to the newly established Integrated Waste Management Board, which is responsible for carrying out the state mandate to reduce materials going to landfills by 50 percent, a goal she has helped the City of Fillmore achieve.

Drake’s son, Peter, is a Senior Vice President of Bank of America in downtown Los Angeles Corporate Offices.