Meet our Dad - Owner/Vice-President Biography
Name: David Shane Mericle
Early Years
Shane was born in Victoria, TX to Benjamin David Mericle and Elaine Hilmers. He attended primary school at Shields Elementary and Our Lady of Victory, secondary school at Crain Intermediate, and high school at Victoria High School. While in high school Shane was a three year football letterman with the Victoria Stingarees.
Military
After graduation from high school Shane enlisted in the United States Marine Corp. He served 4 years of active duty. The bulk of his time with the military was with the helicopter squadron, HMM-365, based out of New River, North Carolina. While with HMM-365 he spent time in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East. He received his Honorable Discharge from the United States Marine Corps in 1991.
Shane?s military accomplishments include: Southwest Asia Service Ribbon 1 star (for service in Persian Gulf), Humanitarian Service Ribbon (for service in Tunisia, Africa), Naval Commendation (for service in Mogadishu, Somalia), Good Conduct Ribbon, and the Marine Corp Rifle Expert Badge.
College
After discharge from the military Shane moved home to Victoria and began college at Victoria Community College. After a couple of semesters he moved to San Marcos, TX and began attending Texas State University. He graduated from Texas State University in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics.
Professional Career
In 1995 Shane began work with Continuum Corporation as a software engineer. He was promoted to Senior Programmer and was responsible for many large Insurance software implementations. He left Continuum shortly after the acquistion by Computer Sciences Corporation.
Next, Shane began a career with Siebel Systems (of San Mateo, CA). He was quickly promoted to Principal Consultant. While with Siebel he was responsible for many successful enterprise wide software CRM application installations.
Family
In 2001 Shane married Jennifer Renee Ruebusch, a co-worker he met while at Computer Sciences Corporation. They were married in Marbella Spain. In November 2004 Shane and Jen had their first child, Simone Elaine (Squeeky), and in June 2006 daughter number two, Téa Grace, was born.
Self-Employed
In 2003, as a part-time endeavor, Shane started Austin Secure-Shred, LLC (Austin Shred), a confidential document destruction service provider to the Austin area. The company grew rapidly and soon became a full-time endeavor.
Balcones Resources
In December of 2007 Shane was making plans to expand operations and offer off-site shredding and recycling services. While discussing plans with his recycling company, Balcones Recources, he discovered that Balcones was wanting to expand into shredding services. As a result Balcones' CEO, Kerry Getter, and Shane decided that a merger would be beneficial for both companies. A merger agreement between the companies was quikly reached and they began operationg as a single company on January 1, 2008.
