Meet Christie Sylvara

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This month, Christie Sylvara is celebrating ten years with Shred Right! When Christie started with Shred Right in 2009, the company’s primary focus was plant-based shredding within Minnesota and the surrounding states. Through the years, she has watched Shred Right develop into a nationally recognized, full-service destruction company that now coordinates destruction services, both plant-based and mobile, throughout the United States and the globe.

“It’s been exciting to watch Shred Right’s evolution. When I started, we primarily handled paper or document destruction accounts. Whereas today, we’ve developed partnerships with clients that depend on us for all types of destruction needs; paper, IT, product, and other types of projects I could never have dreamed I’d be working on,” Sylvara says.

What is Sylvara looking forward to in her tenth year as the Director of IT & Product Destruction Services?

“I’m looking forward to building my personal knowledge through educational opportunities and membership workshops this year. IT is constantly changing and evolving. Being educated on industry best practices, solutions and continuing education will keep Shred Right on the forefront in the IT Secure Destruction Industry,” explains Sylvara.

Sylvara believes that data storage technology has completely transformed the way companies store information and how they discard it after it is no longer needed. In the past, companies put everything on paper and only had to insure the destruction of confidential documents. But with the advancement of technology in the ways electronic data can be stored it means that hard drives, tapes, and flash-based media must now also be destroyed.

Sylvara goes on to explain how you can see the impact this has had in health care alone, “The HITECH Act (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health), wasn’t signed into law until 2009, and wasn’t fully adopted until 2018.  The days of a doctor coming into the room holding a file containing your medical records is as uncommon as a phone booth.”

So what has kept Sylvara excited about coming to work all these years? “Beyond the obvious, a good work-life balance is the top reason, plus I enjoy the people I work with, both my co-workers and my customers. The thought of going to another company and not talking to them every day, that’s tough to do,” Sylvara says.

When she’s not at Shred Right HQ, or on the road for a Shred Right project, you will probably find her spending time with her three children, three grandchildren, or restoring a camper. Sylvara recently lovingly restored a 1975 Avion travel trailer.

Congratulations to Christie for ten years on the Shred Right team! We are looking forward to seeing all her accomplishments over the next ten!