Team
Marcus Holt
Founding Editor, Compare ITAD
Marcus Holt covers IT asset disposition as founding editor of Compare ITAD. He has spent the better part of a decade examining the gap between how organizations describe their ITAD programs and how those programs perform when hardware actually leaves the building.
His coverage focuses on three questions: whether a vendor's certifications mean what they claim to mean, whether a buyer's documentation would survive an audit, and whether the value-recovery settlement they received reflects the actual market. He has reviewed more than forty active ITAD programs and spoken with procurement, security, compliance, and finance leaders across manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and higher education.
Before Compare ITAD, Marcus worked in enterprise technology research, where he developed the sourcing and verification methodology that underpins the Compare ITAD directory today. He holds the position that most ITAD decisions are made with inadequate information, and that fixing that information problem is the most useful thing an independent resource can do for buyers.
Published in The ITAD Brief
Articles by Marcus
R2v3 e-Stewards Comparison: Which ITAD Certification is Right for You?
Explore the r2v3 e-stewards comparison to determine which ITAD certification your vendor should hold for responsible electronics recycling.
R2v3 Certification Guide: ITAD Standards Explained (2026)
Learn about r2v3 certification and other ITAD standards including NAID AAA, e-Stewards, and NIST 800-88 for secure IT asset disposal in 2026.
R2v3 Certification & ITAD Standards: NAID AAA, e-Stewards, NIST 800-88
Understand r2v3 certification, NAID AAA, e-Stewards, and NIST 800-88 standards for ITAD compliance. Compare certifications and choose the right one for 2026.
Media Sanitization: Understanding NIST 800-88 Standards
Explore NIST 800-88 guidelines for media sanitization. Understand the standards to protect sensitive information through proper data disposal methods.
Secure Hard Drive Disposal for Businesses in 2026
Learn secure hard drive disposal methods for businesses in 2026, ensuring data protection and environmental compliance with proper destruction techniques.
Certificate of Data Destruction Template: Best Practical Guide
Discover what a Certificate of Data Destruction Template must include for compliance, audit requirements, and secure data disposal documentation.
How to Choose an ITAD Vendor: 12 Simple Expert Steps
Learn how to choose an ITAD vendor with our comprehensive 12-step evaluation checklist to ensure secure and compliant asset disposal decisions.
The Compliance Cliff Is Real. The Date Isn't the One You Heard.
ITAD spent last week being told that audited e-waste reporting starts this November. It doesn't. What the record actually says is less urgent, more specific, and considerably harder to prepare for.
They Knew It Was a Moving Company
The Morgan Stanley data breach is the most-cited cautionary tale in IT asset disposition. The SEC's order tells a different story from the one the industry repeats — and the real one is worse.
The Command Said It Worked. They Recovered the Data Anyway.
A UK operator ran the manufacturer's own sanitization command on the manufacturer's own switches — and pulled the customer's network back off them. Network equipment is the biggest unaddressed data-security gap in IT asset disposition, and the standards have not caught up.
The ITAD Industry's 30-Year Verification Gap — And the Three-Layer Platform Closing It
What the industry's senior operators have been saying about themselves, on the record, at their own conferences — and the structural answer that has been missing.