Decision Makers
Board of Directors
BENJAMIN P. COWART (39): Mr. Cowart, the president of the General Partner for Vertex LP, has been involved in the petroleum recycling industry for over 20 years. Mr. Cowart is the founder of the Vertex group of companies and has served such companies since 2001. Mr. Cowart is the founder, Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board of Vertex Nevada. As a leader in the recycling field, Mr. Cowart helped pioneer the reclamation industry by developing recycling options for many residual materials once managed as a hazardous waste. Mr. Cowart co-authored the industry's first e-commerce operating system for the digital management of petroleum waste and residual materials. Mr. Cowart was awarded the 2003 Business Man of the Year from The National Republican Congressional Committee, and serves on NORA's Board of Directors and President for 2008. Mr. Cowart has taken an active role in the petroleum industry with his involvement in speaking, consulting, chairing, and serving on various committees and industry associations. Prior to the formation of Vertex LP, Mr. Cowart served as the Vice President of Aaron Oil Company, a regional recycler in Alabama.
ADAM SHORE has served as a consultant to us since February 2008. From 1999 to June 2007, Mr. Shore, age 36, was employed by Calpine Corporation, a public company engaged in the generation and sale of electricity and electricity-related products, where he served in a number of capacities including Vice President-SEC & Financial Reporting and, most recently, Vice President-Financial Planning and Analysis. Mr. Shore holds a BA degree from Tufts University and an MBA, with an accompanying MS in Accounting, from Northeastern University.
Mr. Collins has 23 years experience with Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WMI - $12.7B revenues), most recently as a Vice-President for the Western Region. He was instrumental in managing the growth of the region from six operating divisions generating $20M in revenue with a break-even bottom line in 1975, to 40 operations generating $650M in revenue with a $90 million pre-tax profit margin. Mr. Collins is a CPA and has a BA in Business Administration and Accounting from Quincy University.
Chris Carlson brings a range of experience to his role as the Vice President for Vertex. Chris oversees all risk management, investments, e-commerce applications, and day-to-day financial accounting of the corporation and its subsidiaries. Chris worked for FuelQuest, Inc. before joining Vertex Energy. There he worked as a Project Lead managing implementations of e-commerce services for new customers. In addition, he also planned and developed testing requirements for e-commerce applications. Chris was with Pagenet, a wireless communications company prior to FuelQuest, Inc. where he worked as a Strategic Account Supervisor. Chris earned his BS degree in Business Finance from the University of Houston.
Mr. Strickland joined Vertex LP in late 2007 where he currently serves as the Manager of Supply for Vertex Energy. Mr. Strickland has over 21 years experience in management roles of developing companies in the recycling of used oils and the fuel blending business. In his various positions, he has developed used oil collection fleets, environment services (non-hazardous),Terminal business of #6-oil from water ports and helped develop software for used oil collection fleets. Mr. Strickland was the General Manager of Texpar Energy inc. from 1999 to 2003 and Special Project Manager for Texpar Energy, L.L.C. from 2004 to 2007.From 1986 to 1999, he was the General Manager and Vice- President of Sellers Oil Inc., then one of the largest recycling and fuel marketers of used oil and #6-fuel oil in the southeast.
| Organization |
Position |
Status |
| World Waste Technologies, Inc. |
Manager of Supply |
Current |
| Vertex Energy |
Manager |
Current |
| Texpar Energy Inc. |
General Manager |
Former |
Mr. Braykovich joined Vertex LP in July 2007. Mr. Braykovich brings over 16 years experience in the Water/Wastewater and Environmental Services industry. From August 1991 to 2007, he worked at Siemens Water Technologies Corp., most recently as Business Unit Manager. While at Siemens, Mr. Braykovich had P&L responsibilities for seven operating profit centers within Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana. He also completed the due diligence, acquisition, and integration of Earth Liquids Corporation.
Mr. Wallace provides Vertex Nevada with over 17 years of experience in the petroleum and chemicals trading industry. Mr. Wallace manages several departments for Vertex LP, including processing, used oil recovery technology, purchasing and selling of various petrochemical products, and transportation of lube oils and solvents. Prior to joining Vertex LP in 2005, Mr. Wallace was President of TRW Trading, a company that he co-founded in 2001. Mr. Wallace has served in various management roles ranging from marketing a variety of gasoline blendstocks, various solvents, waste recycling, hazardous/non-hazardous handling, and then later becoming qualified to perform oil spill prevention and response. Mr. Wallace began his petrochemical career with Valley Solvents & Chemicals, where he served as project General Manager responsible for sourcing used feedstocks and selling products into favorable markets.
Mr. Torrens was Executive Vice President of Development at Ogden Martin (now Covanta) during a period in 1980s where he built 8 plants worth over $840M. He founded independent power producer, a medical waste company, and served as advisor to local governments in waste to energy projects.
Former head of Applied Research at Lever Brothers and Philip Morris Tobacco. Founder, Applied Power Concepts, contract laboratory specializing in biochemistry, clean energy, new product development. Dr. Farone has received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, M.S. in Chemistry and B.S. in Chemistry.
DAN BORGEN (47): Mr. Borgen was appointed a director of Vertex Nevada in June 2008. Mr. Borgen currently serves as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of U.S. Development Group LLC ("USD"), where he has worked since May 1995. In his current role, Mr. Borgen guides all senior aspects of USD's corporate activities. USD is comprised of wholly owned subsidiaries that focus on industrial development, logistics, products terminaling, power corridors, financial services and gasification. In addition to his work with USD, Mr. Borgen has served as President of U.S. Right-of-Way Corporation since June 1993. Prior to this, Mr. Borgen worked for eleven years as an investment banker serving as Merger & Acquisition Director, Portfolio Manager and as a member of the Executive Committee for strategic planning and development. His activities were focused on manufacturing, food service, oil and gas exploration/production, telecommunications, banking and Western European finance. In his capacity as an investment banker, Mr. Borgen served as Vice President of The Oxford Group from July 1990 to June 1993, Vice President/Principal of The Paramount Companies from July 1985 to April 1990 and Manager - Investor Relations of Invoil Inc. from April 1982 to June 1985.
| Organization |
Position |
Status |
| World Waste Technologies, Inc. |
Board of Directors |
Current |
| Paramount Companies |
Vice President |
Former |
| The Oxford Group |
Vice President |
Former |
| The Oxford Group |
Investment Banker |
Former |
| Paramount Companies |
Principal |
Former |
Mr. Gutacker has 35 years experience as an industrial executive specializing in waste and energy plant construction, operations and management. Currently, he serves as chief executive officer of Gutacker Group, a consulting firm specializing in evaluating and improving waste-to-energy production projects. Previously, he was interim president and CEO of Agrifos Fertilizer where he led a highly successful two-year turnaround of that company. Mr. Gutacker also spent 14 years with American Ref-fuel, advancing from its first plant manager to president and chief operating officer of this premier $2 billion waste-to-energy company. Earlier, he served 14 years with Occidental Chemical managing complex engineering and industrial plant operations -- including plant manager of one of the first waste-to-energy facilities in the U.S.
| Organization |
Position |
Status |
| World Waste Technologies, Inc. |
Board of Directors |
Current |
| Canisius College |
MBA |
Former |
| University of New York at Buffalo |
B.S. In Industrial Technology |
Former |
| Organization |
Position |
Status |
| Plexus Law |
Partner In the Business Transactions Section |
Current |
| Natural Resources |
Board of Directors |
Current |
| World Waste Technologies, Inc. |
Board of Directors |
Current |
| Energy Limited |
Board of Directors |
Current |
| South Texas College of Law |
Juris Doctor |
Former |
| The University of Texas |
B.S. |
Former |
Mr. Rane served for 6 years (1994-2000) as CFO of the Callaway Golf Company (NYSE: ELY - $940M revenues) where he successfully ushered the company's growth in the public markets from its initial public status through being a micro-cap stock, and into its current mid-cap stature. David also served as CFO of Surebeam, a spinout from the Titan Corporation (NYSE: TTN - $2B revenues), where he raised over $30M in direct investment for the company. David worked 15 years at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, is a CPA, and has a BS in Accounting from BYU.
Dr. Ferris, 63, joined our Board of Directors in 2004. From November 4, 2006 to May 2007, Dr. Ferris served as our Chief Operating Officer and President. Dr. Ferris currently serves as our President. In 2006, and prior to his appointment as an officer, Dr. Ferris provided us with consulting services. Dr. Ferris served as a member of the Board of Directors of Albany International from 2000 - 2004. Dr. Ferris has been a trustee of the Institute of Paper Chemistry Foundation since 2003 and prior to that he was the president and chief executive officer of the Institute of Paper Science and Technology from 1996 to 2003. Prior to that, he was vice president of research for the Pulp, Paper, and Packaging Sector of Weyerhaeuser Corporation, where he was employed for 30 years in various business, manufacturing and research positions. Dr. Ferris completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1992, received his Ph.D. (1972) and M.S. (1969) from the Institute of Paper Chemistry at Lawrence University, and obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington in 1966.
Mr. Cortez has been a principal at KCL Development, LLC since 2003, where he provides business consulting and financial advisory services, primarily to growth companies and new business ventures. Prior to KCL Development, Mr. Cortez spent over twelve years in investment banking, focused primarily in the environmental industry. From 2000 to 2003, Mr. Cortez was a Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers, and prior to that he worked at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Alex. Brown & Sons Incorporated and Morgan Stanley International. He completed dozens of capital raising and mergers & acquisitions transactions for environmental companies, including Allied Waste, American Disposal, Casella Waste, Chem-Nuclear Services, Envirofil, ReSource NE, Sanifill, Stericycle, Superior Services, Synagro, United Waste, USA Waste, and Waste Management. Mr. Cortez received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley.