Mr. Charles E. Gathers, Sr.
Chairman of the MMFX Board of Directors
Mr. Gathers has extensive real estate development experience
and has been responsible for the design and construction
of more than
4.5 million
square
feet of commercial
and industrial real estate, as well as more than 100,000
acres of planned development. From project inception to design
completion,
Mr. Gathers
was instrumental in
the design of Dulles Airport in Washington, DC, and the acclaimed
TWA Terminal at JFK Airport in New York, as well as many
other well-known
projects.
Mr. Gathers started his own consulting firm in Denver, Colorado,
and
developed it into one
of the largest firms in the state specializing in architectural
design, project
planning, and comprehensive planning. In addition, Mr. Gathers
has a BA in architecture and is a graduate engineer with structural
training.
Mr. David C. Pollack
Chief Executive Officer, President, and Member of the Board
of Directors
For the majority of his successful 20-year career in mortgage,
corporate, and securities finance, Mr. Pollack has raised capital
for a wide variety of companies. He has been an approved mortgage
broker/banker or loan originator for more than 100 financial institutions,
including some of the largest in the nation. Mr. Pollack has contributed
to the ongoing success of MMFX by playing an integral role in securing
more than $56 million equity capital. Additionally, his wide range
of financial, underwriting, capital-raising, and corporate start-up
experience have been the foundation for meeting the financial needs
of MMFX. Mr. Pollack has also been instrumental in expanding and
securing the intellectual property of MMFX through the filing of
seven United States patents and over 200 foreign applications.
He plays a key role in implementing the technology’s
commercialization from steel production (at third party mills,
both foreign and domestic) to product specification and market
acceptance.
Mr. Arthur W. Lupia
Former Chairman of the Board of Directors, CEO Emeritus and Key Consultant
Mr. Lupia is the former president and CEO of Border Steel,
a major producer of reinforcing steels in the U.S. marketplace,
based in El Paso, Texas. Mr. Lupia has been involved
in all aspects of the steel business for more than 40
years. Before moving to Border Steel, he worked as a
metallurgist at Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) and
at Concast, where he was responsible for the start-ups of numerous
continuous casting plants. During his 28 years with Border Steel,
he researched methods for improving efficiencies, providing value-added
products, developing new products, and reducing costs. During that
time, company sales also grew from $25 million to more than $100
million with 250,000 tons of steel produced annually. Mr. Lupia
is active in many well-established industry-related organizations,
most notably serving as president and former director
of the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA), a large
industry association consisting of 57 North American
companies that operate more than 130 steel plants and
employ approximately 120,000 people. SMA constituents
also encompass nine international steel company members
in countries outside North America, including Canada
and Mexico. This membership generates a minimum of 90%
of the U.S.-produced rebar and wire rods. In the year
2000, the SMA represented approximately 59% of the domestic carbon
steel capacity. Mr. Lupia formerly served as a member of the ISAC
7 Committee of the U.S. Department of Commerce and participated
significantly in NAFTA. Mr. Lupia provides hands-on steel-making
advice, helping MMFX integrate its technology into commercial
day-to-day reality.
Professor Gareth Thomas
Key Consultant
Professor Thomas is the inventor of the MMFX steel technologies.
He has a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, and has been
awarded three honorary doctorates. Additionally, Professor
Thomas holds the title of Professor Emeritus of Materials
Science at UC-Berkeley and has more than 500 publications
to his credit. He is a member of both the National Academy
of Science and the National Academy of Engineers, which
is an honor awarded to very few. He is an internationally-recognized
and highly-acclaimed scientist in the disciplines of
material science, electron microscopy, and nanotechnology.
He helped pioneer the use and applications of the electron microscope and is one of the world’s leading experts in metallurgy and material sciences. Professor Thomas is the former Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of the University of California, Berkeley, and is the founder of the National Center for Electron Microscopy at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has worked with many of the world’s largest industries to refine or reinvent the manufacturing of materials.
Admiral Steve Abbot, U.S. Navy, Retired
Non-Officer Independent Member of the Board of Directors
Admiral Abbot, age 64, is the president and chief executive officer of the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. Until June, 2003, he served as the Acting Homeland Security Advisor to the President, having served as the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor under Governor Tom Ridge. Admiral Abbot’s last military assignment was deputy commander in chief, U.S. European Command, Stuttgart, Germany. He oversaw the daily activities of a Unified Command with an area of responsibility encompassing 89 countries and more than 13 million square miles. Admiral Abbot also served as Commander, U.S. SIXTH Fleet and Commander, NAVAL Striking and Support Forces, Southern Europe. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy and completed graduate studies at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and the Program for Senior Officials in National Security at Harvard University. Admiral Abbot also completed U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and Naval Nuclear Power training.
Mr. Daniel Furlan
Non-Officer Independent Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Furlan currently is the owner of Construction Rehabilitation
Services, Inc. (CRS), located near downtown San Diego. He has been
involved in the construction industry for more than forty years and
has been an investor in real estate for the past twenty years. Mr.
Furlan’s organization is currently one of the leading condominium
conversion companies in Southern California with over 1000 units
converted and sold in the past 12 months.
Mr. Furlan moved to Texas in the 1970’s where he owned and
operated a concrete finishing company and subsequently moved to Canada
in the late 1970’s where he launched his real estate construction
career. During the mid-1980’s, Mr. Furlan relocated to San
Diego, bringing his concrete contracting company with him. Between
1989 and 1994, he began acquiring several multifamily projects for
personal investment purposes.
Mr. Furlan’s vast construction, concrete, and real estate development
experience will contribute to the depth of the board, proving beneficial
to MMFX.
Mr. Howard Yerusalim
Non-Officer Independent Member of the Board of Directors
Mr. Yerusalim is the former secretary of the Pennsylvania
DOT and former president of the American Association of
State Highway
and
Transportation
Officials (AASHTO),
an association composed of the secretaries of transportation
for the 50 states, with their supporting staffs. He started
as an engineer
in the
state highway
department and rose steadily to become secretary of the
state DOT, supervising more than 12,000 employees. He is one
of the most respected
individuals
in the transportation industry and is well known by Federal
Highway Administration officials,
as well as the state Departments of Transportation. Mr.
Yerusalim’s
involvement with MMFX has put the company years ahead in its relationships
with the transportation industry.
Amy Van Amburgh
Vice-President of Strategic Alliances/Special Projects and an Officer of the
Company
Ms. Van Amburgh is instrumental in developing new business
for MMFX and assists in capital-raising endeavors. She also serves
as vice-president of special projects and as a member of the
board of directors for Fasteel, a MMFX subsidiary. Ms. Van Amburgh
has 19 years of extensive financial experience in the oil and
gas industry. Most recently, she served as vice-president of finance for
Atropos Exploration Company, an active oil and gas development
and exploration firm in Texas. In this role, she implemented
all components of oil and gas drilling programs, including raising
capital, directing complicated land and title acquisitions, and
overseeing the financial operations of more than 100 partnerships.
Ms. Van Amburgh has also been very active in raising capital
in the non-profit sector. As a board member of the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), she raised substantial
capital and served as chairman of the most successful fundraiser
in SPCA history. To honor these efforts, Ms. Van Amburgh was
awarded the Philanthropic Society’s 2001 Philanthropic
Person of the Year Award. Ms. Van Amburgh earned a BBA in finance
and a BA in foreign languages from Southern Methodist University
(SMU) in Dallas, Texas.
Salem S. Faza, Ph.D.
Director of Engineering and Specification and an Officer of the Company
Dr. Faza has more than 20 years experience in the concrete industry specializing in conventional and advanced reinforcing products. He has been involved in the development and code acceptance of advanced reinforcing products at the national and international levels. Dr. Faza has been a member of the American Concrete Institute for the past 15 years, and served as co-chairman of the ACI 440-H and 440-K subcommittees on advanced reinforcing materials and currently serves on the ACI 439 steel reinforcing committee. He also serves on the American Society of Testing Materials and the American Society of Civil Engineering committees. Through his involvement with concrete reinforcements, he planned, supervised, and coordinated all phases of application engineering including research programs at over 20 institutions worldwide. In his role as the Director of Engineering and Specification, Dr. Faza has been instrumental in the development and acceptance of the newest ASTM reinforcing bar specification for the high strength steel (ASTM A1035). Dr. Faza is currently coordinating research and code development for concrete designs with MMFX steel reinforcing bars. He is working with a world-class team of concrete design experts incorporating the use of high-strength steel in design codes throughout the world. Dr. Faza received his Ph.D. from West Virginia University in Advanced Composite Applications in Construction with emphasis on rebars for concrete application, design, and analysis. He has published over 30 papers related to concrete reinforcement and construction and has been a reviewer for leading engineering technical journals.