On the other hand, ESPH has a pretty impressive group of directors, very unlike your typical pump and dump. I wonder how aware these directors are. In the past we saw impressive sounding directors on less than savory companies, but not much of that recently. Unusual....
Charles Vinick was appointed a director in August 2006 and has served as the Chairman of the Board since December 22, 2009. He serves as Director of Business Development and Government Relations for Dehlsen Associates, a renewable energy technology development firm in Carpinteria, Carlifornia. Mr. Vinick has more than 25 years of experience directing and managing non-profit organizations and programs. From June 2005 through August 2007, he was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. He served as Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Santa Barbara City College from June 2004 through May 2005 and as Vice President of Fritz Institute from October 2003 to April 2004. Mr. Vinick was Executive Vice President of the Ocean Futures Society from its founding in 1998 through September 2003. Including the Ocean Futures Society, Mr. Vinick has previously held executive positions for over 20 years with organizations headed by Jacques or Jean-Michel Cousteau. Mr. Vinick was selected as a director due to his long relationship with the Cousteau family, his commitment to the environment, and his business experience and judgment.
Joe Allbaugh was appointed a director in October 2005. Mr. Allbaugh has been the managing member of The Allbaugh Company LLC, a strategic consulting firm, since approximately March 2003. From September 2006 to May 15, 2007, Mr. Allbaugh was the president of our subsidiary, Ecosphere Systems. Mr. Allbaugh was Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Inc. from February 2001 to March 2003, and in 1999 was made the National Campaign Manager of Bush-Cheney 2000. In addition, Mr. Allbaugh was Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush from 1995 through 1999 when he was Governor of Texas. Mr. Allbaugh was selected as a director because his relationships could potentially assist us in growing our business and he had administrative experience managing large organizations.
Gene Davis was appointed a director in August 2008. Since 2008, Mr. Davis has been employed as Vice President/General Manager of the Denver Region for NFR Energy, LLC, an independent oil and gas production company headquartered in Houston, TX. He manages the staff and producing assets of the company in Colorado, Utah, North Dakota and Montana. From December 2004 to March 2008, Mr. Davis was the Geological and Geophysical Manager for the Western Business Unit of Forest Oil Corp. where he evaluated and implemented drilling programs. From July 2004 until December 2004, Mr. Davis was a Project Geologist for EOG Resources Inc. From September 2000 to July 2004, he was an Exploration Geologist for Chi Energy, Inc. Mr. Davis has over 28 years of executive geoscience and asset management, successful exploratory and development geology and geophysics experience. Mr. Davis was selected as a director because of his extensive experience in the energy business and his ability to provide valuable insight to our management.
Michael Donn, Sr. was appointed a director in March 2005 and was appointed our Chief Operating Officer on March 27, 2008. Mr. Donn has held a number of senior executive positions with us since January 2000. As part of his duties, Mr. Donn set up and coordinated our relief effort in Waveland, Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Donn was the Project Manager for Ecosphere’s EPA Verification testing of its Water Filtration System. From November 2006 until January 29, 2010, Mr. Donn was a director of GelTech Solutions, Inc. He also served on the Audit Committee of GelTech. From 1994 to 2000, he served as President of the Miami-Dade County Fire Fighters Association, a 1,700-member employee association for which he previously served as Vice President and Treasurer beginning in 1982. His responsibilities included negotiating, lobbying at the local, state and national levels and head of the business operations for the Association. He was also Chairman of the Insurance Trust. Following Hurricane Andrew, Mr. Donn coordinated the fire fighter relief efforts for the Miami-Dade fire fighters. He is the brother of our Senior Vice President of Administration, Jacqueline McGuire, and the brother-in-law of our President and Chief Executive Officer, Dennis McGuire. Mr. Donn was selected as a director because of his administrative experience with the firefighters union and has remained as a director as a representative of management.
D. Stephen Keating was appointed a director in August 2008. Since December 2008, Mr. Keating has served as the Vice President of Taxes at Crocs, Inc. Mr. Keating served as the Vice President of the Worldwide Taxes for CA, Inc. from 1988 through June 2008. Mr. Keating was the senior officer responsible for the worldwide tax, which included tax planning and strategy, tax accounting and day-to-day supervision for the U.S. and international tax departments. At CA, Inc., Mr. Keating was involved with approximately 100 mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. Additional responsibilities included negotiating with the IRS and various countries tax authorities on audit issues and APA reports. Mr. Keating was selected as a director due to his extensive executive experience and his accounting and tax knowledge.
Vice-Admiral George Sterner, USN, (Retired) was appointed a director in March 2002. Vice-Admiral Sterner was our Chairman of the Board from March 2005 until March 1, 2008. Vice-Admiral Sterner was Vice President, Strategic Pursuits for Raytheon Company until his retirement in late 2005. His naval career spanned 36 years and included command of two nuclear submarines. Prior to his retirement from the United States Navy in 1998 he commanded the Naval Sea Systems Command where he had oversight of the design, construction and life cycle support of all Navy ships. Vice-Admiral Sterner was selected as a director due to his achievements with the United States Navy, together with his executive, administrative and organizational skills.
Thomas Wolfe was appointed a director in August 2008. Since July 2008, Mr. Wolfe has been the Vice President of Software at Toray Membrane. From December 2006 through July 2008, Mr. Wolfe was the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of R&D of Open Energy Corporation. In 1998, Mr. Wolfe founded WaterEye Corporation where he served as its President and Chief Executive Officer and until WaterEye was acquired by Open Energy in December 2006. Mr. Wolfe has over 25 years’ experience in the chemical process industries, with particular experience in power, water and wastewater treatment technologies. Mr. Wolfe is one of the pioneers in the reverse osmosis field and has made many contributions to the development and advancement of reverse osmosis membrane technology and wastewater evaporation technology dating back to the early 1970’s. He has participated at all levels in some of the largest membrane and evaporator installations in the world and has hands on experience with a wide variety of evaporator configurations including vapor recompression, steam driven single and multiple effect systems, as well as direct contact and submerged combustion processes. Mr. Wolfe developed much of the software currently in use today for reverse osmosis membrane performance prediction and computational chemistry for recovery determination and scale control. |
