Careers at MMFX


Mr. Charles E. Gathers, Sr.
Mr. Charles E. Gathers, Sr.

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
Mr. David C. Pollack

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
Mr. Arthur W. Lupia

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
Professor Gareth Thomas

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.


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. John J. Holland
Non-Officer Independent Member of the Board of Directors

John Holland is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Butler Manufacturing Company (NYSE:BBR), which was acquired by BlueScope Steel, the Australian steel maker, in April 2004.

Holland joined Butler Manufacturing in 1980, as corporate accounting manager and served as vice president-controller of the company’s Buildings Division, and vice president corporate controller. He also served eight years as chief financial officer. Previously, Holland held positions at St. Luke’s Hospital and Andersen LLP.

Holland is on the board of directors for Cooper Tire & Rubber Company and St. Luke’s Health System. He is also a member of the board of trustees for William Jewell College. He actively participates in the Kansas City Tomorrow Leadership Group and formerly served as chairman of the board of the Heart of America Family Services, a United Way agency.

In 1972, Holland received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of Kansas, where he also earned his MBA in 1980. He is a certified public accountant as well as a member of the Financial Executives Institute, Inc. and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.


Mr. Howard Yerusalim
Mr. Howard Yerusalim

Mr. Howard Yerusalim
Vice-President of Infrastructure, an Officer of the Company and 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.


Mr. Jay Zybelman
Mr. Jay Zybelman

Mr. Jay Zybelman
Non-Officer Independent Member of the Board of Directors

From 1973 through 1990, Mr. Zybelman was the managing partner of Zybelman, Paluso, Alter, Graham and Sceper, a law firm emphasizing transactional and business litigation. Mr. Zybelman currently serves as president of Primary Provider Management Company (PPMC). He is responsible for the management and long-term growth of a multi-layered, managed care organization that serves nearly 250,000 people throughout Southern California.

Mr. Zybelman also serves as executive vice president and director of three independent practice associations: Vantage Medical Group, Inc., serving more than 100,000 current members with annual revenues in excess of $40,000,000, and Mission Medical Group of the Inland Empire, serving more than 30,000 current members with annual revenues in excess of $10,000,000. He also served as vice-chairman, secretary, and director of Emerald Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Emerald Health Network, which is a PPO with approximately 400,000 members. Mr. Zybelman brings an understanding of long-term growth management, specifically concerning capital markets. This understanding is especially important as MMFX strives to broaden our offerings and grow our markets.


Amy Van Amburgh
Amy Van Amburgh

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.


Mr. Salem S. Faza
Salem S. Faza, Ph.D.

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.


Gregg Cousins
Vice-President and General Manager of MMFX Steel of Canada Inc. and an Officer of MMFX Steel of Canada Inc.

Mr. Cousins has a wide range of experience in many areas of both senior mill management and sales management. Most recently, as Vice President and General Manager of Centre Salvage Ltd., he conducted the sale of Atlas Specialty Steels’ assets including the assets purchased by MMFX in its acquisition of the Welland mill facility from Centre Salvage. Prior to his role at Centre Salvage, Mr. Cousins spent an additional 12 years with Atlas Specialty Steels, Slater Stainless Corporation, and Atlas Specialty Steels, a division of Slater Stainless Corporation, holding various sales management and management positions, including International Sales Manager, General Manager of Sales and General Manager of the Atlas facility. While serving as General Manager of Atlas Specialty Steels, a division of Slater Stainless Corporation, he was responsible for a work force of more than 600 individuals and sales of over $200 million.

With 14 years experience at the Welland facility, Mr. Cousins brings an in-depth knowledge of our steel-making equipment and the Welland facility. This understanding and his extensive background in the steel industry are invaluable as MMFX restarts the steel-making facility giving MMFX the capacity to capture additional market share.