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Company Founder, President, CEO, & Board Director
Richard MacPherson brings over 30 years of executive experience from a variety of industries across North America. Serving as President and CEO since 2016, Richard MacPherson oversees the expansion, development, and commercialization of the company’s proprietary emissions control technologies across the fossil-fueled energy sector. Mr. MacPherson founded the Company in 2008 to commercialize the Sorbent Enhancement Additive (SEA®) technologies originally developed by the DOE and EERC. Under MacPherson’s strategic direction, these highly innovative and patented SEA® technologies were launched across the coal-fired utility markets in the United States and Canada starting in 2011. Mr. MacPherson negotiated the full SEA® patent portfolio acquisition in May 2017. Since that time, the Company’s patent portfolio has expanded with additional patents and patent applications in North America and beyond in both mercury emissions capture and water purification technologies.
MacPherson’s corporate vision for Birchtech is focused on sustainable, highly effective environmental technologies that address crucial challenges faced by critical infrastructure.
Richard MacPherson is an active member of multiple professional industry organizations, including the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) and the American Water Works Association (AWWA). As a Canadian national, MacPherson is also recognized as a necessary professional in the top 2% of the mercury emissions control technologies industry by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer
Mr. John Pavlish has over 20 years of mercury-related experience and is regarded as an international expert on the topic of mercury. His primary areas of interest and expertise include research, technical consultation, and development of mercury control technologies, in particular, for coal combustion and gasification systems. He is an inventor of 70 patented mercury control technologies and has years of experience in development and testing of these technologies for commercial application. Since the early 2000s, he has spent much of his time evaluating the efficacy of a number of different mercury control technologies/approaches and their cost-competiveness in the commercial market. Mr. Pavlish also has years of power plant experience and has worked for engineering/consulting company Black & Veatch, where he served as Unit Leader/System Engineer.
Chief Financial Officer
Fiona Fitzmaurice is an ACCA chartered certified accountant with over 15 years of experience in accounting and financial control for both private and publicly listed companies including companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. Based in Toronto, Ontario, she has significant experience as CFO for exploration companies and has been involved in numerous private placements, prospectus filings, flow-through financings and corporate audits. Ms. Fitzmaurice holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Athlone Institute of Technology, Ireland.
Director of Research & Product Development
After serving in the US Army, Dr. David Mazyck completed his Ph.D. from Penn State University focusing on activated carbon and reactivation technologies with a degree in Environmental Engineering. Dr. Mazyck was a Professor of Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida (UF) for more than 20 years and held various administrative roles. His research efforts throughout his career have been supported by EPA, NASA, and DOE. He owned and operated an activated carbon company and has commercialized several activated carbons presently in use by multiple international publicly traded and private carbon companies. Dr. Mazyck holds over 20 patents and patent applications in activated carbon technologies and has served as the Chairman of the American Water Works Association’s (AWWA) Activated Carbon standards committee for 10 years, completed a 5-year term on the AWWA Standards Committee, and served a 5-year term as a Trustee for AWWA’s Water Science and Research Division.
Executive Vice President - Operations
Mr. Jim Trettel possesses 25 years of experience in the dry bulk material-handling industry. His experience includes project management and engineering duties for numerous multimillion-dollar turnkey contracts. Additionally, Mr. Trettel has overseen day-to-day operations for 14 years as the Vice President of a sales, systems, and engineering organization specializing in bulk material handling. Mr. Trettel has extensive field experience with systems operating in a large variety of industry sectors including coal-fired utilities. Mr. Trettel graduated Cum Laude with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and holds various state contractor licenses.
Director of National Sales
Dennis Baranik is a seasoned executive who has provided strategic and operational leadership to startup, early revenue, and Fortune 100 companies. As a corporate leader, he has created and implemented results-oriented campaigns and business plans - positively impacting market share, investment opportunities, and bottom-line results. Dennis has executive management experience in the environmental, activated carbon, automotive, consulting, marketing communications, and investment industries including leading roles in a Fortune 100 company. For the past 10 years, Dennis Baranik has been actively working at a senior level at an activated carbon supply firm where he was responsible for business development, partnerships, sales, and new strategic initiatives. Dennis earned both his BA and his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.
Field Technical Manager
Dr. Nicholas Lentz has over a decade of experience conducting mercury research and testing, both in the lab and in the field, with over 30 full-scale mercury test programs and also numerous bench- and pilot-test projects. Dr. Lentz is also an expert in the identification and development of new analytical methods for the advancement of elemental and small-molecule analysis (including PFAS analytes) in a wide range of environmental matrices (air, soil, and water). Dr. Lentz has also been involved in the development of sorbents (carbon and noncarbon-based) for the effective capture of PFAS, mercury, CO2, and rare earth elements. Dr. Lentz is also effective at developing new laboratory techniques and test methods to screen a wide array of technological options to develop the best technologies for a given application.
Corporate Communications Manager
Stacey has more than 20 years of experience as a corporate steward, supporting C-level executives and strategic initiatives aiding the growth of small to medium- sized companies in both the private and public sectors. In this role, she has been an advocate for corporate branding standards, streamlined sales processes, and driven marketing initiatives across various platforms, and has more than 12 years of experience in the specialty chemicals manufacturing industry. Working closely with Birchtech CEO, Richard MacPherson, and executive leadership, Stacey drives strategic growth projects across the executive Team and manages all areas of corporate communication. Stacey enjoys connecting the dots across the corporate landscape. A native Atlantan and University of Georgia alumni, Stacey resides in North Atlanta a, is an active member of her community, and a professed lover of books, knowledge, and nature.
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