People
Natural Systems Utilities brings together a talented team of experienced planners, engineers, and managers, all committed to the highest standards of environmental sustainability and quality. In addition to a core team of executives and project managers, NSU has strategic partnerships with the leading practitioners in the field nationally and internationally, who together offer an unsurpassed range of experience and skills.
Dominic Kulik, Founder and CEO
Dominic Kulik has been an entrepreneur and investor for nearly 25 years. Since 2000, Mr. Kulik has been the founding Principal of Dakai Enterprises, an investment and management firm focused on early-stage sustainability markets, including clean-tech and water, media and education, and consumer products segments. From 1986 through 1997, Mr. Kulik was the founding CEO of LEAD, USA, a national educational service firm focused upon fostering alternative energy and sustainable development programs, and Better World, an organic cotton clothing company launched with seed funders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders of Ben & Jerry’s, and Tomio Taki, founder of Anne Klein and Donna Karan fashion houses. He then spent five years managing venture portfolios with the Blue Dot Venture Fund, and privately for LBO financiers Michael Dubilier and Raymond Chambers. Mr. Kulik served from 1992 to 1997 as a founding director of Business for Social Responsibility, and is presently the Chairman of Investors’ Circle, which he has helped direct since 2000. He holds BA and MBA degrees, with Honors, from Williams College and Columbia University Business School, respectively. Email: dominic@natsyssolutions.com.
Ed Clerico, Managing Director
Ed Clerico is widely recognized as an innovator and entrepreneur in the field of sustainable infrastructure. He is also noted for having brought decentralized water reuse systems to reality throughout the northeast US with over 30 projects, some of which are part of America’s leading green buildings and neighborhoods. Mr. Clerico has authored numerous journal articles on the subject of water reuse and was recognized in the Museum of Natural History’s exhibition, "H2 =Life" for his role in establishing water conservation and waste discharge practices that provide new alternatives for the future. Mr. Clerico has also been Cor–Principal Investigator on research sponsored by the Water Environment Research Federation that focused on successful methods for implementing decentralized wastewater infrastructure and included development of a decision support tool for municipalities and developers. He is a licensed professional engineer, licensed wastewater operator and a LEED Accredited Professional. Mr. Clerico was the founder and president of Applied Water Management, Inc. before holding executive roles with American Water as Technical Development Director and VP Strategy. Presently he operates his own consulting business known as Alliance Environmental that focuses on advancing water/energy improvements and adapting ecology as infrastructure. Contact ed.clerico@natsyssolutions.com. Email: Ed.Clerico@natsyssolutions.com.
Scott Wallace, Chief Technology Officer
Scott Wallace specializes in the design of ecological systems including constructed wetlands, decentralized wastewater systems, stream bank stabilization, and control of nonpoint source pollution. He has extensive experience in both municipal and industrial wastewater treatment. Mr. Wallace currently leads a private consultancy offering design and advisory services to clients with unique and complex wastewater challenges, with an emphasis on utilizing treatment wetlands. He has additional experience in wastewater treatment plant operation, laboratory analysis, groundwater monitoring, and wetland delineation. The author of papers in numerous technical publications, Mr. Wallace currently holds one Canadian and four U.S. patents for wastewater treatment processes, including Forced Bed Aeration™. He is the co-author of Treatment Wetlands, 2nd Edition, the definitive textbook on wetland treatment systems. He was also Principal Investigator for Small-Scale Constructed Wetland Treatment Systems; Feasibility, Design Criteria, and O&M Requirements on behalf of the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF). He has designed more than 200 wastewater treatment systems for residential, commercial, and industrial clients and is a registered professional engineer in 23 states. Email: scott@natsyssolutions.com
Patricia Dandonoli, Chief Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Officer
Patricia Dandonoli has worked on behalf of mission-focused organizations and philanthropies for more than 25 years, with particular expertise in organizational assessment and design, strategic planning, marketing and communications, fundraising, program design and implementation, and governance and leadership development. Prior to joining NSU, Ms. Dandonoli was founding President and CEO of WaterAid America, an international nongovernmental organization whose mission is to overcome poverty by enabling the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe drinking water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education. Ms. Dandonoli previously served as Head of Resource Development in the office of Her Majesty Queen Rania al Abdullah of Jordan, as Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Sundance Institute, and Executive Director of Strategic Planning at the American Museum of Natural History, among other posts. Email: pat@natsyssolutions.com
Linda Hann, Chief Financial Officer
Linda Hann is a senior financial professional with more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of business planning, private, and public fund raising, financial modeling, establishment of financial systems and controls, and ongoing financial maintenance. Most recently, as a consultant to both early-stage and established companies, Ms. Hann has worked with several media sector clients to meet the needs of significant market changes including maximizing the value of intellectual property rights in new media markets. Her corporate experience includes serving as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of EMI Records, responsible for all operational divisions including production, new markets, finance, and business development. Following EMI, Ms. Hann served as Chief Financial Officer of Volcano Entertainment in New York, a music media company backed by Allen & Company and private investors. She worked with investors and management to structure the sale of Volcano to Zomba Entertainment in 1998. Ms. Hann has also served as Vice President of Finance for a NYSE computer company and was an audit manager at Coopers & Lybrand. Email: linda@natsyssolutions.com
Donald Rodgers, Chief Operating Officer
As a microbiologist and Class IV WWT Operator (highest level), Donald Rodgers is a technology and operations expert; and as an MBA-trained senior executive of over $500 million of national divisional projects, he is one of the most seasoned leaders in the municipal wastewater and water filtration markets. After being the General Manager of Wheelabrator EOS for over five years, Mr. Rodgers became the VP of Sales and then COO of US Filter’s Operating Services Division while it was under Vivendi/Veolia’s ownership. He has run the operations of both small and large municipal facilities, and the business development of the country’s largest private water utility operations (directly managing teams with over 400 employees). As NSU’s COO, Mr. Rodgers applies his technological/operational virtuosity and business acumen to develop full life-cycle client project business plans. He helps innovate the product/service offerings, project manage, and then build and lead operations teams. Email: Don.Rodgers@natsyssolutions.com
Jim Keene, Project Development
A 30-year executive of the global environmental and water industry, Jim Keene has held leadership positions in legislative advocacy, finance, and, most significantly, utility management in our field. After nine years as Legislative Advisor and Policy Analyst in the US Senate, and six years as Public Finance Investment Banker for Dean Witter, Mr. Keene helped lead the largest DBOO service company in the country, Veolia Environment/ Veolia Water North America (VWNA). VWNA’s first hire for private municipal operations, Mr. Keene alternated between being President of Indianapolis Water, the nation’s first and largest urban water utility run under publicr–private partnership, and being the Head of North American business development for environmental services and private municipal utility operations. During his tenure at VWNA, he helped develop and lead the formation of over 20 such ground-breaking private-public partnerships, amounting to over $670 million in annual revenues, much of which stemmed from awardr–winning, multir–decade long contracts. Mr. Keene leads NSU’s market analysis, project evaluation and finance, and internal/external team formation from project inception to full municipal scale implementation. He is now applying his deep experience helping run the US market for the world’s leading global environmental service company, to adapting and scaling the most innovative and sustainable model of water–centric distributed infrastructure in this country. Email: Jim.Keene@natsyssolutions.com
Tony Sease, Director of Business Development – Mixed Use
Tony Sease has consulted on mixed use, sustainable urbanism projects on scores of projects around the country and internationally, working at the nexus between civil engineering, architecture and planning. As both a civil engineer and architect, he brings a unique fluency across disciplines and a focus on collaborative and innovative planning and infrastructure design. He has extensive experience working with thought leaders in the green building, smart growth and new urbanism arenas, and has led planning and design efforts for municipalities, institutions, non-profits and foundations, and private sector developers. Mr. Sease brings these diverse professional experiences to a holistic consideration of sustainable community design and sustainable infrastructure practices. With twenty years experience, including ten years of practice after founding Civitech, Inc., Mr. Sease joins Natural Systems Utilities as Director of Business Development, with a focus on strengthening alliances with the development, planning, and design communities working across all scales from the most rural to the most urban environments, bringing NSU’s innovative, water-centric infrastructure solutions to market. Tony remains at the forefront of evolving best practices through a number of activities. He was a 2005 Knight Fellow in Community Building at the University of Miami, and is a certified charrette planner by the National Charrette Institute. Mr. Sease teaches graduate courses in sustainable urbanism at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University, in the City and Regional Planning Department and the Nicholas School of the Environment, respectively. He also serves as an appointed member of the USGBC Location and Planning Technical Advisory Group, and has done so since that group’s inception. Email: Tony.Sease@natsyssolutions.com.
Jeff Speck, Partner & Chief Planning Advisor
Jeff Speck is a city planner who has centered his practice on smart-growth and sustainable design. He has more than 15 years of experience in urban planning, design, and public service, including positions with National Endowment for the Arts and Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ). Mr. Speck currently leads a private consultancy offering design and advisory services to public officials and the real estate industry. During his tenure as director of town planning, DPZ completed designs for over 150 new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization projects. More than 40 of these were either led or managed by Mr. Speck. While design director at the NEA, Mr. Speck directed three leadership initiatives: the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, Your Town, and the Governors’ Institute on Community Design, which he created to bring smart-growth principles and techniques to state leadership. Mr. Speck conceived and co-authored the book Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, which has sold more than 90,000 copies and is taught in universities across the United States and overseas. He has also recently completed, with Andres Duany, The Smart Growth Manual, published in 2009 by McGraw Hill. Email: jeff@natsyssolutions.com
Ryan C. Brandt, Executive Vice President, Operations, NSU & President, EcoCheck
Ryan C. Brandt has over 12 years of water and wastewater management experience and is one of the nation’s leading experts at operating treatment wetlands. Mr. Brandt was a founding partner of Minnesota-based EcoCheck, Inc, the leading decentralized wastewater and water management firm in the Midwest. He led the growth of EcoCheck from a start-up to a firm that today manages residential, commercial, and municipal systems with capacity for nearly 5,000 EDUs. Mr. Brandt is a biologist and water/wastewater operator who pioneered the operation, maintenance, and management approaches for operating cold-climate natural systems. He and his team have received more than 40 wastewater operation awards from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and also received, along with North American Wetland Engineering, the prestigious Minnesota Environmental Initiative Award for Environmental Management for work in Decentralized Wastewater Management. Mr. Brandt is now developing a regional service platform model for replicating EcoCheck’s integrated water management approach across NSU’s diverse markets and locations. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, River Falls, with studies in biology and chemistry. He also attended the Executive Development Program offered by the Queen’s School of Business in Kingston, Ontario from 2008 to 2009. Email: ryan@natsyssolutions.com
Judy Lissick, Executive Vice President, Client Development & Management
Judy Lissick is a seasoned operations executive with broad experience in all aspects of business management. Ms. Lissick spent more than 20 years in various capacities in the financial services industry with the firms of Securian, ReliaStar, and ING. Her experience included Division P&L responsibilities, Enterprise Information Technology, Customer Service Organization and Strategic Planning. Ms. Lissick's most recent 10 years have been in environmental consulting. Ms. Lissick was a partner and Chief Operations Officer of two privately held firms, North American Wetland Engineering and EcoCheck, that had a focus on design and operations of natural systems for wastewater treatment. Ms. Lissick led the growth of both firms to the point of acquisitions. Ms. Lissick remained with the acquiring company in a position of operational leadership through integration. Email: judy@natsyssolutions.com