WCTC Moderators

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Eugene (Gene) Jones, CEO, Southern Waste Information eXchange, Inc. (SWIX) and Executive Director, Waste Conversion Technology Association, Inc.

Gene Jones serves as Executive Director of the Southern Waste Information Exchange (SWIX), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which has been operating since 1981 assisting businesses and municipalities with their waste management and remediation issues. 

With over 40 years of experience, Gene specializes in building strategic relationships with waste and remediation firms.  He brings a vast knowledge of various  environmental sectors from organizing and managing conferences such as;

•  the PFAS Forum,

•  the Agricultural Plastics Recycling Conference & Trade Show, 

•  the Waste Conversion Technology Conference & Trade Show, 

• the Southeast Recycling Conference & Trade Show, 

• the New Life for Closed Gas Stations Conference and Exhibition, 

•  the International Symposium on the Redevelopment of Manufactured Gas Plant Sites, 

•  the National Conference on Waste Exchange and Resource Reuse, and 

•  Florida Remediation Conference.

as well as in managing associations such as:

•  Florida Agricultural Plastics Recycling Cooperative

•  Florida BioFuels & BioEnergy Association, Inc., 

•  Recycle Florida Today, Inc.,

•  International Society of Technical & Environmental Professionals, Inc., 

•  Florida Brownfields Association, Inc., and

•  Keep Florida Beautiful, Inc.

Gene is a Martial Arts practitioner and has his 8th degree black belt in Shaolin GoJu and a 5th degree black belt in Nisei GoJu. Gene is also the Author of Instant Self-Esteem: Empowering Self-Confidence and The Mindful Sensei.

Gene is also the inventor of the Soap Bag Saver, which he designed for the reuse of leftover soap bars.  

Steven Torres, Partner, West Group Law PLLC

Part of Eco Waste for more than 20 years, Jean was critical in transforming the business from clean-tech Steven A. Torres is a Partner with West Group Law PLLC and a member of the firm’s Municipal Infrastructure Team. Attorney Torres has over 25 years of experience in  municipal law, including construction and public-private partnerships and has been a project advisor and chief legal counsel who has managed in excess of  two billion dollars in project value in the areas of utilities, water and wastewater, transportation, building construction and renewable energy.  Attorney Torres has significant knowledge and experience in state, federal and local regulations including  zoning, land use planning, and building and environmental permitting. His range of experience in state and federal regulatory permitting, enforcement, compliance and litigation includes work under the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, National and State Environmental Policy Acts, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act among others.  

Richard Olliver, Partner, Energy Transaction Advisors, LLC

Mr. Olliver has over 40 years experience in the global energy and infrastructure  industries. His current focus is on the Energy sector, with an emphasis on energy  process technology commercialization consistent with the concepts of waste-toenergy  (WTE), cleantech, green technologies, sustainability, decarbonization, PFAS  destruction and the circular economy.  He is recognized globally as an authority on PYROLYSIS, GASIFICATION, PLASMA  ARC & SYNGAS GENERATION, and most recently has been engaged on work in the  Renewable Energy sector, mainly biomass and waste conversion and disposal, to  produce syngas and higher value products, including hydrogen, methanol, RNG, DME,  power and other derivatives.  Mr. Olliver is a Partner of ETA – Energy Transaction Advisors, with HQ in Denver,  Colorado, USA, providing technical and commercial advisory services to project  developers, financial partners, and technology suppliers in the oil & gas, refining,  gasification, petrochemicals, plastics and infrastructure arena. Typical recent  assignments in the Energy industry include Due Diligence, Independent Engineer,  Program Manager, and similar roles. Website is www.energytransactionadvisors.com.

David McConnell, National Commercial Development Director, Juno, LLC, A Georgia-Pacific Company

David McConnell joined Georgia-Pacific in 2019 to bring his waste industry expertise to the commercial development of Juno® Technology. He is responsible for creating opportunities for this new recycling technology that processes mixed commercial waste to capture paper fiber, metals and plastics for their respective markets, can convert food to biogas, and ultimately diverts 70% to 90% of material processed from landfills.

He brings to this initiative more than 25 years of experience in the solid and hazardous waste industry across the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. Before joining Georgia-Pacific, David worked for Enerkem as vice president, business development in North America. He spent most of his career at Waste Management in roles including vice president of supply chain and area vice president overseeing financial and operations in North Florida and Puerto Rico.

David lives in the metro Atlanta area and holds a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry from Louisiana State University.

Ron Sherga, Sustainability Advisor, CheckSammy

TRecently, Mr. Sherga served as the first ever Circular Economy programme director for INEOS/BP, between January 2019 and April,2021. Key advisor on a sustainable strategy team for a large wealth fund with large chemical firms as part of their portfolio between June 2021 and December 2022.

In this role, he was part of the leadership team developing a large chemical recycling project for PET polymers back to basic feedstocks. His primary task was developing large scale, sustainable, raw material sources for the plants. Ron convinced BP leaders to scale up from a small pilot project to a billion-dollar global rollout named Infinia. Ron was also tasked with exploring other areas within BP that were seeking guidance on Circular solutions; retail, Castrol Oil, Wind/Solar, and Carbon offset group. Most recently, Ron was VP of innovation and membership for Cyclyx from10-2022 thru 5-2025.

Ron has played key roles in various end of life materials solutions:

1.  Textile recycling industry 
2. E scrap
3. Packaging scrap 
4. Auto scrap recovery 

He has also advised on other solutions/processes regarding polymer waste:

1. Plastics to oil
2. WTE
3. Plastics to monomers
4. Integration with virgin polymer usage

Key business activities since 2005:

• Director of one of the five largest plastics recyclers in North America – oversaw multiple facilities and operations- Infiltrator Water Systems/Champion Polymer Recycling
• Pivotal role in C-11 turnaround and successful exit acquisition
• Various Plastics industry associations committee member or founder
• Advisor to Cradle to Cradle on polymer value chain
• MIT CERTIFIED in Clean Energy Ventures
• CALRECYCLE CLIMATE CHANGE GHG OFFSET GRANT RECIPIENT
• Key strategy and commercial advisor to numerous large waste companies, recyclers, and polymer Mfrs.
• Due diligence advisor to Private Equity groups as subject matter expert in materials, equipment and procurement for M&A projects
• Advisor on alternative financing instruments-Green Bonds, Grants and Transition Bonds
• Recognized leader in alternative materials and procurement/feedstocks
• ISRI.org Design for Recycling Award winner 2017
• Recycling Trailblazer Award by Recycling Today and GIE MEDIA
• Issued patents in Recycling related technologies- Founder Ecostrate SFS Inc.-acting chairman
• First ever Programme director of Circular Economy for BP (now INEOS)
• Led feedstock efforts and pre-process design for large-scale project for chemical Recycling of plastic in EU and NA
• Key creator of consortium to support chemical recycling of polymer waste
• Featured in Circular Economy for Dummies released in April 2021 

Personal; Ron enjoys golf, running, trail biking, hiking, fly fishing and advocacy work for people with disabilities. Ron Sherga is married with three grown children and his 4 year old grandson the center of his universe and has been active on a national basis on issues regarding children with disabilities and chronic illnesses.

Norbert Barszczewski, President, JP NetQuest, Inc.

Norbert Barszczewski is the founder and president of JP NetQuest, Inc. The company was founded in Chicago in 2007 and has over the years served a great number of successful local businesses. Norbert Barszczewski serves as the chief web developer and internet marketing expert. In 2009 JP NetQuest was accredited by the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois. 

Norbert Barszczewski is a web developer and internet marketing expert. His area of expertise includes all aspects of professional, high quality and dynamically driven modern web development. His comprehensive internet marketing approach is demonstrated by a number of successfully completed HTML email marketing campaigns, on line advertising management and vast search engine optimization experience. No stranger to graphic design, computer and network security, not to mention social networking, Norbert is your best bet for a project well done and completed on time with high quality customer service all along. 

Norbert Barszczewski is also active in the local community. He tries to give back at least as much as the community helps him. He has served as the director of a business networking group and remains active in a number of other organizations of non-profit character. His life motto: You can never go wrong with helping others. 

Specialties: Norbert speaks the following foreign languages: Polish, Spanish, Russian (basic) & German 

(basic).