Executive Team

Richard MacPherson brings over 30 years of executive experience from a variety of industries across North America. Serving as President and CEO of ME₂C since 2016, Richard MacPherson oversees the expansion, development, and commercialization of the company’s proprietary emissions control technologies across the fossil-fueled energy sector.

Mr. MacPherson founded Midwest Energy Emissions Corp in 2008 to commercialize Sorbent Enhancement Additive (SEA®) technologies. Under MacPherson’s strategic direction, these SEA® products and processes were launched across the coal-fired utility markets in the United States and Canada starting in 2008.  Mr. MacPherson negotiated the full SEA® patent portfolio acquisition in May 2017.  Since that time, ME₂C’s patent portfolio has expanded with additional patents and patent applications for use in Europe, Asia, and North America. MacPherson is actively pursuing licensing partnerships in other regions around the world.

MacPherson’s corporate vision for ME₂C is that of an environmental technologies firm focused on sustainable, highly effective emissions control technologies across the energy sector. This was further reinforced with the Company’s rebranding to “ME₂C Environmental” in early 2021.

Richard MacPherson is an active member of multiple professional industry organizations, including the International Clean Air Committee (ICAC), Southern States Energy Board (SSEB), PRB Coal Users Group, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), and IPAA (Independent Petroleum Association of America). As a Canadian national, MacPherson is also recognized as a necessary professional in the top 2% of the mercury emissions control technologies industry by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Mr. John Pavlish has over 20 years of mercury-related experience and is regarded as an international expert on the topic of mercury. His primary areas of interest and expertise include research, technical consultation, and development of mercury control technologies, in particular, for coal combustion and gasification systems. He is an inventor of a number of patented mercury control technologies and has years of experience in development and testing of these technologies for commercial application. Over the last 10 years, he has spent much of his time evaluating the efficacy of a number of different mercury control technologies/approaches and their cost-competiveness in the commercial market. Mr. Pavlish also has years of power plant experience and has worked for engineering/consulting company Black & Veatch, where he served as Unit Leader/System Engineer.

Mr. Pavlish is a professional engineer, a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a member of the Air & Waste Management Association. He serves on numerous professional and technical committees and is a U.S. Representative on the Mercury Emissions from Coal International Experts Working Group on Reducing Emissions from Coal and a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Global Mercury Partnership, Reduction of Mercury Releases from Coal Combustion. Mr. Pavlish has published over 200 papers, articles, and reports on various mercury-related topics and issues.

Fiona Fitzmaurice is an ACCA chartered certified accountant with over 15 years of experience in accounting and financial control for both private and publicly listed companies including companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. Based in Toronto, Ontario, she has significant experience as CFO for exploration companies and has been involved in numerous private placements, prospectus filings, flow-through financings and corporate audits. Ms. Fitzmaurice holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from Athlone Institute of Technology, Ireland. 

After serving in the US Army, Dr. David Mazyck completed his Ph.D. from Penn State University focusing on activated carbon and reactivation technologies with a degree in Environmental Engineering. Dr. Mazyck was a Professor of Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida (UF) for more than 20 years and held various administrative roles. His research efforts throughout his career have been supported by EPA, NASA, and DOE. He owned and operated an activated carbon company and has commercialized several activated carbons presently in use by multiple international publicly-traded and private carbon companies. Dr. Mazyck served as the Chairman of the American Water Works Association’s (AWWA) Activated Carbon standards committee for 10 years, completed a 5-year term on the AWWA Standards Committee, and served a 5-year term as a Trustee for AWWA’s Water Science and Research Division.

Mr. Jim Trettel possesses 25 years of experience in the dry bulk material-handling industry. His experience includes project management and engineering duties for numerous multimillion-dollar turnkey contracts. Additionally, Mr. Trettel has overseen day-to-day operations for 14 years as the Vice President of a sales, systems, and engineering organization specializing in bulk material handling. Mr. Trettel has extensive field experience with systems operating in a large variety of industry sectors including coal-fired utilities. Mr. Trettel graduated Cum Laude with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and holds various state contractor licenses.

Dennis Baranik is a seasoned executive who has provided strategic and operational leadership to startup, early revenue, and Fortune 100 companies. As a corporate leader, he has created and implemented results-oriented campaigns and business plans - positively impacting market share, investment opportunities, and bottom-line results. Dennis has executive management experience in the environmental, activated carbon, automotive, consulting, marketing communications, and investment industries including leading roles in a Fortune 100 company.

For the past 10 years, Dennis Baranik has been actively working at a senior level at an activated carbon supply firm where he was responsible for business development, partnerships, sales, and new strategic initiatives.

Dennis earned both his BA and his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Nicholas Lentz has over a decade of experience conducting mercury research and testing, both in the lab and in the field, with over 30 full-scale mercury test programs and also numerous bench- and pilot-test projects. Dr. Lentz is also an expert in the identification and development of new analytical methods for the advancement of elemental and small-molecule analysis (including PFAS analytes) in a wide range of environmental matrices (air, soil, and water). Dr. Lentz has also been involved in the development of sorbents (carbon and noncarbon-based) for the effective capture of PFAS, mercury, CO2, and rare earth elements. Dr. Lentz is also effective at developing new laboratory techniques and test methods to screen a wide array of technological options to develop the best technologies for a given application.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Lentz was an Associate Director for Energy Technology Applications in the Institute for Energy Studies at the University of North Dakota. Dr. Lentz also previously was a CATM Program Area Manager and Research Scientist at the Energy & Environmental Research Center, where he was responsible for managing a portfolio of measurement-based research projects in the Analytical Measurement Area of CATM as well as experimental design and analysis-related control technologies to remove mercury, trace metals, and halogens from combustion and gasification systems. Dr. Lentz has a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Bemidji State University and Ph.D. degree in Analytical Chemistry from Iowa State University. He has authored and coauthored numerous publications.

Stacey has more than 20 years of experience as a corporate steward, enabling the growth of small to medium sized companies in both the private and public sectors supporting C-level executives. In this role, she has been an advocate for corporate branding standards, streamlined sales processes, and driven marketing initiatives across various platforms. With more than 10 years of experience in the specialty chemicals manufacturing industry, Stacey navigates the administrative arm of the company. As the direct assistant to Rick MacPherson, Stacey also supports ME₂C Environmental’s Executive Team, Board of Directors, and interacts with all areas of corporate communication, from our website to fulfilling the administrative needs of our loyal investors. Stacey enjoys connecting the dots across the corporate landscape.

A native Atlantan, Stacey attended the University of Georgia and resides in North Atlanta with her family. Actively engaging in her community, Stacey is an avid reader, writer, and nature lover.