John Dragasevich – President

John Dragasevich founded Filter Innovations in 1992 and is responsible for the strategic direction for the firm. He currently fills the roles of President and CEO of Filter Innovations and is a 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.

Maureen Dragasevich – Operations Manager

Maureen Dragasevich co-founded Filter Innovations in 1992 and joined as the first employee, filling a general administrative role. Maureen currently fills the role of Operations Manager. Maureen's responsibility with Filter Innovations has evolved through multiple areas of the company operation including office management, bookkeeping, accounts receivable, and personnel management. She was promoted to Operations Manager in 2004 and joined the Leadership Team. In this role Maureen is responsible for operations, accounting, and the leadership control system of the company. In her time with Filter Innovations Maureen has been a key resource in the growth of the business, developing many of the policies, procedures, and management control systems used in the operation of the business.

As a member of Filter Innovation's leadership team, Maureen brings a strong sense of operating and financial responsibility to all aspects of the company operations. Filter Innovations has been commended for having an accounting and financial management control system seldom found in a small to medium sized business, largely as a result of Maureen's efforts. These efforts along with her devotion to the success of Filter Innovations have made her a key contributor to the success of the company.

Maureen began her career in nursing as a critical care nurse in the State of California and in the Province of Ontario. Prior to co-founding Filter Innovations, she was a nursing educator in the ICU program at George Brown College and the Educational Coordinator for a Toronto based community hospital.

Irene Hassas – Applications Engineering Manager

Irene Hassas joined Filter Innovations Inc. in 2003 as an Environmental Manager. She assumed the role fo Applications Engineering Manager in 2006 and is currently responsible for inside technical support, technical inquiries, system costing and quotations, internal products information database and operation and maintenance manuals.

Prior to joing Filter Innovations, she managed key components of program activities, analyzed technical reports on emissions to air and water and performed QA/QC practices at Environmental Canada, NPRI Dept. She participated in development of guidance material and involved in the development of the “Joint MOE/NPRI Reporting Software” where a silver medal was achieved in October 2002 in the Public Sector Quality Fair.

She also worked with Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments as a consultant conducting a feasibility study followed by developing an integrated GIS-Surveillance system to conduct a rapid analysis and assess the relationships between environment and health at a geographical level. The pattern of cancer occurrence was studied in the vicinity of the Pickering Station, one of the largest nuclear facilities in the world comprising of 8 nuclear reactors located on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. A comprehensive Data Quality Assessment was conducted at Cancer Care Ontario for preparation of EUROHEIS-GIS Database. At Toronto Public Health (HP&EPO office), she liaised with government agencies in order to conduct a qualitative evaluation of an existing database.

Irene started her career in broadcasting environment. She undertook research, used recording, editing and mixing equipment and coordinated the entire production process of environmental programs with internal and external production teams.

Bruce Lounsbury – Chairman of the Board

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 and CEO of Calco Environmental Group, Maple Leaf Environmental Equipment Ltd., MLE Equipment Inc. (Nevada), NewTerra Environmental Services 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 lead 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 MLEE.

James Iglesias – Secretary Treasurer

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, Maple Leaf Environmental Equipment Ltd., NewTerra Environmental Services Ltd., Filter Innovations Inc., and MLE Equipment Inc. (Nevada). 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.

Jeff Kempson – Engineering

Jeff Kempson joined the Calco Environmental Group in 2004 as a Design Engineer. Jeff assumed the role of Application Engineer in 2005 responsible for application engineering and technical support for Calco’s industrial line of business. In this role Jeff is the focal point at Calco for Filter Innovations for leading all technical inquiries, project management, and follow-up product support for the industrial systems that Calco manufactures for Filter Innovations. In 2006 Jeff became a member of the Filter Innovations Leadership Team.
 
Prior to joining Calco, Jeff held the position of HVAC Engineer, Project Services with Fluor Canada in Kingston Ontario. In this role Jeff worked within a multidisciplinary engineering team to design and specify HVAC components for new and modified systems, produce engineering drawings for site approval and construction, resolve HVAC system problems, and support the specification and design of small fire protection systems.
 
Jeff received his early engineering experience with several automotive and technology companies in eastern Ontario. In these roles Jeff gained experience in three principal areas. First – with the design, manufacture, and installation of mechanical equipment systems. Second – with the design, assembly, and installation of PLC controlled machines. Third – with the troubleshooting of manufacturing and installation problems with downtime equipment systems. As a result of this experience Jeff developed the capability and competence to design, install, and trouble shoot complex PLC controlled equipment systems.