Leaders & Visionaries
Paving the Way for a Sustainable Future
Jeff Presley - PyroPhase President
Extensive experience founding, expanding and leading entrepreneurial companies, product development, systems analysis, systems engineering, and managing creative & intelligent staff. Mr. Presley has co-founded multiple startups across 4 industries, cumulating in ~$7B in exit valuations by employing logical, organized, highly intuitive, forward looking approaches to technology. Mr. Presley is the inventor on 5 patents, including:
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Down hole heating devices with Baker Hughes
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The PyroUpgrader to improve low quality heavy fossil fuels at 1/10th the CAPEX of traditional methods
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The PyroReactor, which will be a paradigm shift in energy recovery
Tom Valenti - Managing Director Strategic Initiatives
R&D program manager, who oversaw the research, development, commercialization, and manufacturing of novel technologies. Continued growth in leadership roles and a track record of successes, including the blockbuster launch of eight generations of BruxZir® Zirconia for market giant Glidewell Laboratories. Under Mr. Valenti's leadership, over 20M BruxZir prescriptions changed the restorative industry, representing ~$2B in revenue.
With an MS in Chemical Engineering, Mr. Valenti bridged the gap between technical acumen and business practicality in the corporate world. He established a phase gate processes to evolve technology from the lab into commercial successes by aligning technology & business stakeholders, identifying project requirements & assessing technical feasibility, while leading a team of engineers to simultaneously execute and fulfill major business objectives.
Lance Hannah - VP of Project Development & Land Holdings
Identifies valuable resource opportunities,secures production with PyroPhase technologies, and forms joint business relationships with industry partners. Mr. Hannah has a law degree from Drake University and a 20-year history in the oil and gas industry, primarily focused on managing property holdings for E&P Oil Companies
Dr. Richard Snow - Chief Scientist
With an AB in Chemistry from Harvard; MS in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech; and PhD Chemical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Dr. Snow has always been on the cutting edge of oil technology; with achievements in research & design of industrial processes using computer simulation, as well as pilot and field tests of processes. Dr. Snow served as the Director of the National Institute for Petroleum and Energy Research, where he supervised a staff of 200 researching petroleum production, processing, and utilization. While manager of the chemical engineering research group at IITRI, Dr. Snow and coworkers organized and carried out much of the laboratory and field pilot work on the oil shale and oil sand projects.
Dr. Snow is the author of multiple patents including the underlying technology on the PyroHeater, PyroPole, PyroArray, PyroWell, PyroUpgrader, with more than 60 publications and presentations on hazardous material processing, pollution control and measurements, size reduction, mathematical modeling of chemical and mineral processes, and hydrocarbon pyrolysis.
Arthur Handelman - President of PyroDefense
Mr. Handelman recognized PyroPhase's technology potential for defense and security purposes and leads the PyroDefense initiatives. Deployed underground PyroBorder will create an impenetrable thermal heat barrier capable of deterring covert efforts to tunnel under any border or below perimeter protection systems. Above ground PyroHalt will create a fringing field that will react negatively with metal and electronic devices and aggressively discourage human passage.
Mr. Handelman received a JD from Emory University and a LL.M from Loyola University in Chicago, and has authored and obtained several domestic and international patents for PyroPhase and PyroDefense. He has extensive experience as a trial attorney and has also worked as an Energy Broker and Consultant since 2001.
Dino Pappas - VP of Business Development
A successful oil & gas investor and forward-looking entrepreneur in many advanced technology domains, including the commercialization of the Erbium-Yag eye laser.