Who owns Priority Waste? Ownership structure explained (2026)

Priority Waste went from a small Metro Detroit hauler to one of the largest residential trash collectors in the Midwest in about six years. The jump came mostly from one deal: its 2024 purchase of GFL Environmental's residential collection business in southeast Michigan, which added dozens of municipal contracts, hundreds of trucks, and roughly 700,000 customers almost overnight.

The growth was financed with other people's money, and that is why the ownership story matters. A private equity firm bought in first, debt lenders followed, and one of those lenders ended up as the owner. Along the way the company struggled to deliver the service its new contracts demanded, its founder was pushed out, and cities began withholding payments.

This article explains who owns Priority Waste today, how control passed from its founder and first investor to TPG, and what the new structure means for the communities that depend on it.

Priority Waste was founded in 2018 by Todd Stamper. It is headquartered at 45000 River Ridge Drive in Clinton Township, Michigan, in Macomb County. The company collects residential, commercial, and industrial waste, with municipal contracts forming the core of the business. Cities and townships hire it to pick up trash, recycling, and yard waste from households, and they pay under multi-year contracts.

When TRP Capital Partners invested in 2020, Priority was a small regional hauler with more than 60 employees and three facilities, including a transfer station. It offered municipal solid waste and construction and demolition services using residential, roll-off, and front-load trucks.

The business looks very different today. As of June 2026, the company says it serves more than 1.3 million households and 125 municipalities across Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. It employs about 1,200 people, runs 625 routes, and operates five transfer stations.

Priority does not publish revenue. The clearest public marker of its size is the GFL business it bought in 2024, which GFL said generated about $150 million in annual revenue. Priority also won a five-year contract to serve about 94,000 Detroit households, which began in June 2024. Total company revenue has not been confirmed in any public source.

Priority Waste is a private company. It has no stock listed on any exchange and files no public financial reports. In April 2026, the company told its municipal customers that it had entered a transaction under which TPG "will acquire a controlling equity interest" in Priority, and that TPG would be its "primary equity owner" at closing. By June 2026, the company's own press release described Priority as acquired by TPG.

The operating company, Priority Waste LLC, remains the party to its municipal contracts. The change of control happened at the equity level above it. Court filings show a layered holding structure that includes Priority Waste Super Holdings LLC, Priority Waste Corporate Holdings Inc., Priority Waste Holdings LLC, and Priority Waste Resources LLC. How TPG's stake sits within those entities has not been disclosed.

Todd Stamper built the company and owned a meaningful share of it, but his stake has never been publicly disclosed. What is known is that outside capital gained influence in stages. TRP Capital Partners took an equity position in 2020, the 2024 recapitalization redeemed "the majority investment of an existing investor," and the 2026 transaction handed control to TPG.

Stamper was removed as CEO and board member effective February 9, 2026. Whether he still holds any equity after the TPG deal, and on what terms, has not been reported.

Priority's capital came from a mix of private equity and private credit rather than venture-style rounds. Amounts were disclosed only for the first deal.

The $190 million figure comes from the company's June 2026 announcement and covers capital TPG injected since the start of 2026, not a purchase price. A South Lyon city official described the commitment in May 2026 as "150 million plus" to address debt and buy trucks and equipment.

TPG is the controlling owner. It is a global alternative asset manager with about $303 billion in assets under management, according to April 2026 reporting. Its relationship with Priority began on the credit side: its private credit arm, TPG Angelo Gordon, financed the 2024 recapitalization, and Priority's April 2026 letter called TPG "a long-time lender and partner." This is a lender-to-owner path, which differs from a typical buyout. TPG has taken control of established businesses before, including TPG's McAfee carve-out from Intel, and it is building a wider waste portfolio. In June 2026 it agreed to buy Waste Eliminator and Liberty Waste Solutions in the Southeast, a deal that closed in August 2026.

TRP Capital Partners was the first institutional backer. The Birmingham, Michigan, private equity firm focuses on transportation businesses and made a $30 million equity commitment in June 2020, alongside three acquisitions. Priority was described as a TRP portfolio company as late as November 2023. The 2024 recapitalization redeemed the majority investment of an existing investor. Stout, which advised on the deal, did not name that investor, though TRP was the only disclosed outside equity backer at the time. Whether TRP retains any stake is not confirmed.

Ares Management entered as a lender. In November 2023, Ares Commercial Finance and other Ares credit funds provided a senior secured credit facility to support growth and refinance part of the company's existing debt, with Ares acting as administrative agent. In its April 2026 letter, Priority listed "TPG and Ares Capital" as key financial stakeholders, which suggests Ares remained involved as a creditor. Its current position has not been disclosed.

The 2024 deal was a leveraged recapitalization: Priority took on new debt and used the proceeds to buy out a large equity holder. That structure makes sense when cash flows are steady, which is why lenders size this kind of debt as a multiple of earnings and why an EBITDA calculator is the natural starting point for judging how much leverage a hauler can carry. The risk is that the extra debt arrived just as Priority was absorbing the GFL contracts. When service problems hit, the company needed fresh capital, and the lender that already knew the business supplied it in exchange for control.

Aaron Johnson has been CEO since June 1, 2026. The company describes him as a fourth-generation waste industry operator with more than 20 years of leadership experience. He spent over two decades at Waste Management in regional roles, then served as president of the Midwest region at Reworld. Priority says he has led or supported the integration of more than 50 acquisitions.

Vincent Hoyumpa served as interim CEO from February to June 2026. He had been Priority's chief of staff and general counsel for more than seven years. He signed the April 2026 change-of-control letters to municipalities.

Robert Simon joined as senior vice president of fleet in 2026, a hire that reflects TPG's focus on replacing and repairing trucks.

Todd Stamper founded the company and served as CEO until February 2026. The board decided on February 7, 2026, to remove him as CEO and director, stating it was in "the best interests of the Company and its stakeholders." April 2026 reporting said the removal came amid an investigation into his conduct, the details of which have not been made public.

Board composition after the TPG transaction has not been published. Before closing, a South Lyon city official said TPG was likely to seek one or two board seats. As controlling equity owner, TPG can be expected to shape the board, but the names and number of directors are not confirmed.

The GFL deal made Priority the dominant residential hauler in southeast Michigan, and service quality became its biggest problem. Residents across Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, and Washtenaw counties reported missed trash, recycling, and yard waste pickups and long customer service waits. Priority blamed poorly maintained trucks inherited from GFL and a shortage of workers. The complaints continued into 2026, and the TPG investment was explicitly aimed at fixing them, with capital earmarked for new trucks and route reliability.

Municipal contracts give cities leverage, and several have used it. Clinton Township, Priority's home community, withheld more than $1 million between July and October 2025 under a contract clause that allowed a $50 deduction per household for each missed service. It later agreed to pay more than $1.1 million at a discounted rate to avoid litigation. West Bloomfield Township took Priority to court over missed pickups and billing. Westland withheld $100,000, and Dearborn Heights demanded invoice deductions. In June 2026, St. Clair Shores approved a switch to Express Waste Services for about 28,200 homes and businesses once Priority's contract expired on June 30, 2026. For a business built on municipal contracts, each lost renewal is a direct revenue risk, the kind of exposure a risk register template is designed to track.

Priority has also faced claims from vendors. Pinnacle Recycling sued in July 2025, alleging unpaid invoices of $783,010.80 for yard waste hauling and processing work. In February 2026, the Macomb County business court dismissed one statutory claim but allowed the breach of contract, account stated, unjust enrichment, and conversion claims to proceed. An Indiana repair company separately filed suit over unpaid work performed between September 2024 and October 2025. Part of TPG's 2026 capital was used to settle outstanding claims, though which cases have been resolved has not been disclosed.

Stamper's February 2026 removal came with little public explanation. Reporting cited an ongoing investigation into his conduct, but no findings have been published. The episode matters for ownership because it cleared the way for the TPG transaction and a management team drawn from the large public haulers.

Priority's ownership shift is a case study in how private credit can turn into private equity. TPG did not arrive as a buyer shopping for a waste company. It arrived as a lender, watched the business strain under its own growth, and then converted that relationship into control when the company needed more capital. The outcome is that the firm most exposed to Priority's debt now also sets its strategy.

For municipalities, the change is mostly about capacity. Priority's service problems stemmed from trucks, staffing, and the pace of integration, all of which cost money to fix. A controlling owner with around $300 billion under management can fund a fleet overhaul that a founder-led company carrying heavy debt could not. The early signs point that way: the $190 million injection, the new CEO from Waste Management, and a dedicated fleet executive. Whether that is enough to win back cities like St. Clair Shores is still an open question.

For TPG, Priority is part of a bigger bet on waste as infrastructure. Trash collection is a steady, contract-based business, and TPG is now assembling platforms in both the Midwest and the Southeast. It has backed consumer brands too, such as TPG Growth's stake in Ipsy, but waste offers something different: long municipal contracts and demand that moves little with the economy. The value of that bet depends on margins, and with no purchase price disclosed, outsiders can only estimate what TPG paid using tools such as a business valuation calculator.

For competitors, a better-funded Priority changes the market. Waste Management, GFL, Express Waste Services, and smaller local haulers all stand to pick up contracts when Priority stumbles, as Express Waste Services did in St. Clair Shores. A structured competitive analysis template shows the core contest: service reliability and price, not scale alone, decide who keeps a city's business.

Priority Waste is a private company controlled by TPG, a global investment firm with about $303 billion in assets under management. In April 2026, Priority told municipal customers that TPG would acquire a controlling equity interest and become its primary equity owner. Founder Todd Stamper's remaining stake, if any, has not been disclosed.

Aaron Johnson has been CEO since June 1, 2026. He previously spent more than two decades at Waste Management and led the Midwest region at Reworld. Vincent Hoyumpa served as interim CEO from February to June 2026.

No. Priority Waste has no publicly traded stock and does not publish financial statements. Its owners are private investors, led by TPG.

Todd Stamper founded Priority Waste in 2018 and led it as CEO until the board removed him in February 2026.

TPG is the controlling owner and was previously a lender through TPG Angelo Gordon. TRP Capital Partners was the first institutional equity investor with a $30 million commitment in 2020. Ares Management provided a senior secured credit facility in 2023 and was still named as a key financial stakeholder in 2026.

Priority Waste's valuation has not been disclosed, and neither has the price TPG paid for control. The company says TPG has invested about $190 million since the start of 2026. The GFL business it bought in 2024 generated about $150 million in annual revenue, but Priority's total revenue is not public.