CARE Names Kasey Wakefield 2024 Person of the Year

Oceanside, CA, May 22, 2025-At the 2025 CARE conference in Oceanside, California, Kasey Wakefield, long-time president and co-owner of Kruse Carpet Recycling in Indianapolis, Indiana, was named 2024 Person of the Year. 

Kruse Carpet Recycling was founded in 1997 by Kasey’s father, Richard D. Kruse, who officially opened his operations in 1997. A graduate of DePauw University, Kasey Wakefield has been an important voice for the recycling community since joining the CARE Board in January 2017. According to Peoples, “This is the first time a generational recognition is taking place, since Dick Kruse was the CARE Person of the Year in 2016. Dick has shared that he is extremely proud of his daughter. And CARE is fortunate to have this talented family continue their Board engagement.”

The theme of the conference was “Carpet Recycling: Riding the Sustainability Wave.”

The conference opened with an inspiring presentation from John Warner, head of Technology Greenhouse. 

Subsequent presentations included:

• Plastics Industry Association Chief Economist Perc Pineda describing the evolving economic conditions that require added resilience from the industry.
• Updates on fiber identification technology from Martin Holicky of Matoha with conference veteran Frank Endrenyi.
• A panel on real circular solutions for commercial carpet tile with John Mello of Conference Premier Sponsor BTR Flooring & Recycling along with Preston Poag of Mohawk and Bailey Robin, co-founder of Matium.
• Dr. Matthew Realff of Georgia Tech described latest results from CARE's annual survey.