The Board

Robert Kulhawy

Robert is President and CEO of Calco Capital Corporation, a private venture capital firm. Robert had the vision and idea for the Calco Environmental Group Ltd, which he co-founded. In 1992 Robert has been involved in the vision and strategic direction and as the active Chairman of the Board since Calco’s inception. He currently fills the roles of Chairman of Calco Environmental Group Ltd, Maple Leaf Environmental Equipment Ltd, NewTerra Enviromental Services Ltd, Maple Leaf Environmental Equipment Inc (Nevada); Maple Leaf Environmental Systems Ltd, and Pacwill Environmental Ltd. He is a director of Filter Innovations Inc. Calco Environmental group is the largest manufacturer of environmental remediation equipment in North America.

Robert is the Founder, President and CEO of Commerx, a complete internet services provider including web design and development, intranet development, graphic design, content management systems, web and email hosting, email newsletters, ecommerce solutions, and eBuy, eSell, eProcurement, web monitoring (AMF), Material Assets Tracker (MATwerx), Commerx EMS product (Quickchart) and custom software applications.

Robert is a former International President and the structural architect of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization (now EO); currently a member of Young President Organization International (YPO) and a member of L-3; former board member and Chairman of the Environmental committee of the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA). Robert is a regular judge of the finals of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards held annually in Chicago. Robert and his wife Jill have founded a number of programs including the YPO Homes of Hope program and the YPO marriage Program. . Robert advocates businesses donating their excess capacity to charities.

Robert founded HFI Hardwood Flooring Inc., a national distributor of floor covering (sold in 2001). Robert has been featured in a number of publications including Profit magazine, Nikkei, Japan times, Japan Venture, Nation (Bangkok), Calgary Herald, Financial Times (Barbados) and numerous others. Robert has been featured in number of publications and is a featured speaker on the internet, environment, business, entrepreneurship, wine, and business process automation.

Bruce Lounsbury

Bruce Lounsbury co-founded Calco Environmental Group Ltd. in 1992 and is responsible for the strategic direction for the firm. He currently fills the roles of President of Calco Environmental Group Ltd, Maple Leaf Environmental Equipment Ltd, NewTerra Environmental Services Ltd, MLE Equipment Inc (Nevada); MLE Systems Ltd, Pacwill Environmental Ltd, and Chairman of Filter Innovations Inc. In his tenure with Calco he has been intimately involved in all aspects of the operation from equipment design and manufacture to sales, sales partner development, field service, operations and accounting.
Prior to founding Calco, Bruce held a variety of roles with Imperial Oil/Esso Resources in Calgary, AB. His early experience was in operations engineering for oil and gas production. He then held roles in business management, culminating with three years in Esso’s small but highly successful mergers and acquisitions team. While in the M&A role, he led the evaluation and acquisition of several smaller oil companies. He then returned to Operations Engineering/Management, where he lead a team that redefined the business model for the large Redwater oil field, turning it from a money losing operation into one of the key revenue generators in Esso’s conventional oil and gas production division.

During his time in Imperial Oil/Esso Resources Operations Engineering, Bruce worked on the development of environmental action plans for Esso’s oil and gas operations. He was also one of the leaders in the efforts to improve the environmental practices in the Calgary head office and developed his keen interest in the environment that contributed to the formation of Maple Leaf Environmental Equipment.

Bob Kennedy

Bob Kennedy joined Calco Environmental Group Ltd. in 1993 to lead sales development. He currently fills the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Technology officer of Calco Environmental Group Ltd., Maple Leaf Environmental Equipment Ltd., and NewTerra Environmental Services Ltd. In his tenure with Calco he has been intimately involved in all aspects of the operation from equipment design and manufacture to sales, sales partner development, field service, operations and accounting.
Bob provides leadership for the technology direction for the Calco group of companies, while also working with clients to resolve current technical issues and to enhance Calco technology on an ongoing basis. As a key member of Calco’s leadership team, he brings strong technical and project management skills to these projects as well as a fresh and innovative approach to system design and problem solving. Bob has spearheaded Calco’s development of PLC control systems and been instrumental in the use of remote telemetry equipment. Bob leads the design and development of the Calco Automated Production and Engineering System (APES).

Prior to joining Calco, Bob had experience in manufacturing management, manufacturing systems implementation, project engineering and management, and plant engineering. Bob held the position of Operations Manager for Gilbarco Canada, a world class manufacturer of fuel dispensing equipment with annual sales of $15m. In that capacity, Bob was responsible for engineering, production, information technology, inside sales and purchasing with a combined staff of about 60 people. Bob was also Manufacturing and Systems manager for Diffracto Ltd. a high tech manufacturer of vision systems, Manufacturing Systems Manager for Hunt Windows, and a Project Engineer for Fluor Corporation, a worldwide engineering and construction firm

James Iglesias

James Iglesias joined Calco Environmental Group Ltd. as an investor and Board Member in 2001. He currently fills the role as Secretary Treasurer of Calco Environmental Group Ltd, Maple Leaf Environmental Equipment Ltd, NewTerra Environmental Services Ltd; Filter Innovations Inc, MLE Systems Ltd, MLE Equipment Inc (Nevada), and Pacwill Environmental Ltd. James is responsible for the leadership process – organizing and facilitating the annual planning meeting to develop objectives, monthly leadership calls to review objectives, quarterly board meetings, annual shareholders meeting, and the annual operating plan.
James founded Persatt Systems Inc. in Toronto in 2000. The focus of the firm is to seek out and make investments in small business enterprises, then to work closely with the SBE’s to organize and plan to achieve the sales growth objectives. James is a member of the Board of Directors for Advanced Information Services in Washington DC; and a member of the Advisory Board of Nightingale Informatix in Toronto Ontario.

James was an early member of the Firepond senior management team in Mankato, Minnesota. In ten years with Firepond, he held positions as Senior VP of Sales, President of International, and Board Member. In this time period, Firepond grew to $45M US in sales and 400 personnel. James was directly responsible for sales, marketing, and professional services; as well as international operations in Europe and Japan/Korea. James began his career with Caterpillar Inc. In the twelve years with Caterpillar, James moved through positions in Management Training (Peoria), Application Engineering (Geneva), Dealer Sales Management (Johannesburg), and Marketing Systems Development (Peoria). In this last position, he gained systems experience by leading the team that developed and implemented Caterpillar’s first PC based sales and marketing applications.

John Dragasevich

John Dragasevich founded Filter Innovations in 1992 and is responsible for the strategic direction for the firm. He currently fills the roles of President of Filter Innovations, and member of the Calco Environmental Group Ltd. Board of Directors.
In his tenure with Filter Innovations he has been intimately involved in all aspects of the operation from equipment design and manufacture to sales, sales partner development, field service, operations and accounting. John spent ten years with GAF Filter systems, a leading provider of bag filters and filter vessels for industrial applications. In his career with GAF, John advanced from Canadian Sales Manager to North American Product Manager responsible for market research, product development, sales, and product support. John gained his extensive operational experience in the industrial environmental industry in these roles.

John holds three patents in the industrial environmental industry – two product patents for particle filtration and one process patent for filtration of coolants in the steel industry.

John began his career with William R. Perrin, a leading supplier of filter presses for industrial and municipal applications in North America. In the five years with Perrin, John advanced from Inside Technical Sales Support to North American Sales Manager. John gained his extensive industrial process and environmental product technical experience in these roles.