RETICLE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Vice President, Operations
Mr. Schultz is a principal in a boutique energy firm that specializes in niche power and natural gas opportunities and attendant water problems. He has over 20 years of experience in the energy and attendant water industry including senior positions in the power generation and natural gas pipeline industry. In power generation he a held lead positions in the development of over $5 billion of advanced technology gas turbine power generation projects. In the natural gas industry he was key in the development, permitting, and construction of $2.0 billion worth of pipeline expansion projects. Mr. Schultz has worked for a number of the most important players in the industry (SDG&E, PG&E, PanEnergy, Duke Energy, Reliant Energy) on power, gas, and attendant water development projects.
Mr. Schultz holds a B.S. in Political Science from San Diego State University where he also did his graduate studies in the same field. Upon completion of his graduate studies he went to work for San Diego Gas and Electric where he ultimately testified before state and federal agencies regarding rate structures and revenue requirements.
Dr. Nesbitt is a tenured engineering professor at Michigan Technological University with 20 years of experience in hydrometallurgy, aqueous chemistry, separation technologies, materials science, and environmental processing. Dr. Nesbitt developed the Reticle Carbon technology during a series of dilute solution gold extraction projects at Michigan Technological University. Dr. Nesbitt has subsequently directed Reticle's activities to manufacture, measure, control, implement, and operate Reticle Carbon technology in metal precipitation, toxic ion removal, desalination, and supercapacitance. Dr. Nesbitt combines expertise in material science (which is required to manufacture and measure Reticle Carbon) as well as minerals processing, hydrometallurgy, hydrochemistry, and organic chemistry. Dr. Nesbitt consults with virtually every company in the mining and mineral processing industry on various technical and chemical issues.
Dr. Nesbitt was educated at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and the University of Michigan (UofM). He has two advanced degrees from UNR in metallurgical engineering (an M.S. in 1985 and a Ph.D. in 1990) and two degrees in chemical engineering (a B.S. from UNR in 1980 and an M.S.E. from UofM in 1989.) Immediately after completing the baccalaureate, he worked for three years as a plant metallurgist for the Anaconda Minerals Company on the start-up and operation of a mineral concentrator and leach facility. Immediately upon completion of his Ph.D., he worked as a researcher and professor of metallurgical engineering at Michigan Tech where he managed research projects and over 20 graduate students through the completion of advanced degrees. Over this period, he has generated numerous publications and a number of patents worldwide.
An experienced consultant in the oil and gas, electricity, high technology, infrastructure, and transportation industries, Dr. Nesbitt has co-founded and built four successful companies including Reticle (two consulting and one software development). He cofounded Decision Focus Incorporated (DFI) in 1977 and helped grow it to a world renowned decision consulting business. He remained as a principal until 1995 and thereafter founded Altos Management Partners, a worldwide energy consulting firm. In 1996 he founded MarketPoint Inc. whose product line tradenamed MarketBuilderTM is the industry leading forward market and decision support modeling system used by major companies worldwide.
Dr. Nesbitt was educated at Stanford University, earning a Ph. D. degree in 1975, in Engineering-Economic Systems (Ph.D. thesis defense with honors), an M.S. degree in 1972, in Engineering-Economic Systems, an M.S. degree in 1970, in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis in Nuclear Engineering, and, before Stanford, at the University of Nevada, with a B.S. in 1969, in Engineering Science with high honors.
Job Titles:
- Business Development Consultant
- Member of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan
Dr Sparks is a tenured faculty member of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada with 30 years teaching, research, and consulting experience. Dr. Sparks specializes in engineering economics, emphasizing the application of life cycle costing to public and private sector infrastructure and environmental management. Dr. Sparks also has considerable entrepreneurial experience having co-founded three consulting engineering/software development firms over the past 20 years and been an angel investor and board member of several startups Dr. Sparks was founding Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Environmental Technology Advancement Corporation, a non-profit organization providing commercialization assistance to SME's in the Western Canadian environmental sector.
Dr. Sparks received a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Alberta in 1967, followed by an M.Sc. 1969 and a Ph.D. in Transportation, Urban and Regional Planning and Statistics in 1971, both from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Sun presently resides in China. He received a B.S. in materials science in China, and all of his advanced degrees are from leading American universities. He holds an M.S. in metallurgical engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (1994), and a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from Michigan Technological University (1998). He was a codeveloper of the Reticle Carbon technology with Dr. Nesbitt, who was his dissertation advisor. His research experience includes work in materials processing and characterization, hydrometallurgical recovery of gold and silver, and the preliminary development of the application and manufacture of Reticle Carbon.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Co - Founder
Mike is co-founder Angel Capital Network, a Sausalito based Venture Investment bank. Mike received a BBA in Accounting from the University of New Mexico. After a period with Price Waterhouse in New York, Mike spent much of his early career working in the institutional finance community. He was employee number three at FactSet Data Systems, Inc. (www.fds.com), an institutional investment research company (NYSE: FDS). Mike later became President of Rabbit Ears Productions, Inc., a children's film and publishing company that grew from the kitchen table to Grammy and Action for Children's Television Award winner during his five years with the company. Since 1994, Mike has focused his attention primarily on technology companies, working with over ten companies either as an investor or in senior management roles.
In December 2002, Mike launched a San Francisco based venture capital syndicate, Innovation Investment Partners, LLC, a syndicate of high net worth technology executives who invest and support early stage technology development. This newly formed syndicate supports brings together both financial resources as well as human intellectual capital to support early stage technology growth both within the San Francisco Bay area and nationwide.
Job Titles:
- Business Development Consultant
Hockett Associates Inc. is a senior management search firm established in 1987 and managed by Bill since that time. The firm has twice been listed among the 50 Leading Retained Search Firms in North America by ERN, industry publisher and watchdog. The firm's focus has been life science and advanced technology companies, many of them venture capital backed and in early stages. Immediately prior, he was a partner in other leading search firms. Before executive search, Bill was in corporate roles for SmithKline Corporation, now GlaxoSmithKline, in Venture Management, R&D, Corporate Development, and as Vice President, Administration & Finance for SmithKline Instruments. Bill earned an MBA from the Wharton Graduate Division, University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Life Sciences from Washington and Lee University.