The Team

Derek McLeish
Chairman and CEO

Derek McLeish has over 30 years of domestic and international corporate management, manufacturing, marketing and sales experience in high technology. In previous companies, such as DISCover, Hasbro/MicroProse, The Gillette Company, Atari, Panavision and Activision, he was responsible for driving innovative strategic direction and successfully creating stockholder value by developing new markets and lines of business. At The Gillette Company, Mr. McLeish managed a large manufacturing plant producing billions of high value parts per year. At Panavision, Mr. McLeish was responsible for worldwide manufacturing. He served on the Board of Directors of Amaze, the largest independent interactive game developer in North America. Mr. McLeish undertook his MBA studies at Pepperdine University and received his BA in Psychology from the California State University at Long Beach.
 

Byron Elton
President and COO

Byron Elton has over 25 years of media and marketing experience with a proven record in pioneering new business development strategies and building top-flight marketing organizations. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Sales for Univision Online. Mr. Elton served for eight years as an executive at AOL Media Networks, where his assignments included Regional Vice President of Sales for AOL and Senior Vice President of E-Commerce for AOL Canada. His broadcast media experience includes leading the ABC affiliate in Santa Barbara, California and the CBS affiliate in Monterrey, California, in addition to serving as President of the Alaskan Television Network. Mr. Elton received his BA in Communications from Brigham Young University.
 

Naveed Aslam, PhD
Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Aslam has over 14 years of research and hands-on process engineering experience in the petrochemical, organic and fiber manufacturing industries. For most of his career, he was a senior process engineer for Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. At SABIC, his duties included responsibility for all aspects of process engineering during the preliminary and detailed design phases of a 125,000 tons per year ethylene manufacturing plant. Most recently, Dr. Aslam served as a Research Fellow at the University of Texas, Houston, and Florida State University, Tallahassee, where he received the Outstanding Research Associate Award. Dr. Aslam received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.
 

Michael D. Wyrsta, PhD
Chief Scientific Advisor

Michael D. Wyrsta, inventor of our GreenCarbon Technology, has more than 10 years of technical experience in chemistry and novel materials as well as business experience in multiple technical start-up ventures. Dr. Wyrsta recently served as the Senior Chemist at GRT, Inc., an innovator in the commercialization of processes in both the fuels and chemicals markets. At GRT, he directed the research and development efforts for a number of large customers in the chemical and petroleum industry in the area of novel materials and catalysts for the conversion of natural gas to liquids and other chemicals. He previously served as the Chief Technology Officer of SBA Materials, establishing strategic business contracts, guiding intellectual property development and breaking new ground in solid-state composite materials for the electronics, photonics and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Wyrsta holds a PhD in Materials from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
 

Sagar B. Gadeware, PhD
Process and Systems Advisor

Dr. Sagar Gadewar is an international specialist in the area of chemical process and product development. Over his career he has worked for numerous industrial companies, such as PDC, Inc., where he helped Fortune 500 companies in the chemical, pharmaceutical and consumer products sector, formulate new process and product solutions. Dr. Gadewar's international accolades include receiving the American Institute of Chemical Engineer's Ted Peterson Award, and Computers and Chemical Engineering's Best Paper of the Year Award. Dr. Gadewar has substantial experience in developing process alternatives to reduce capital and operating costs using hierarchical process design and optimization. His expertise includes reaction combined with distillation, conceptual design for complex chemistries, and gas-to-liquids conversion. Dr. Gadewar is currently a Senior Program Manager at GRT Inc., where he is responsible for developing the technology to convert natural gas to liquids and other petrochemicals. He is also serving as chairperson for the Process Research and Innovation area of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.