Management
K-Tech’s Founders and Officers
Thomas E. Baroody and W. Wes Berry founded the company in 1987 based on their decades of experience in the minerals, chemicals and biofuels industries. Since that time, they have built on the foundational technologies of Continuous Ion Exchange, Continuous Ion Chromatography and Continuous Impregnated Substrate to serve a broad array of industries and specialty applications in the elemental separation field.
With the recent passing of Tom Baroody, the company renews its commitment to using these technologies to their maximum extent to unlock new sources of critical materials that the world needs today. Rare earth element recovery, U3O8 extraction, Minor Element Reduction in phosphate operations, protein separation, Fluoride Chemical recovery, Cadmium and Heavy Metal removal and many other applications are the focus of the management team as we move forward.
Theodore P. (“Tip”) Fowler
is an accomplished executive with global experience in mining, fertilizer, chemicals, and transportation. He has led major organizations through transformation and growth, including restructuring Freeport McMoRan Sulphur Company for a successful sale as the company’s president and driving Fertiberia SL’s turnaround in Spain as the company’s General Director. Tip played a key role in forming the IMC-Agrico joint venture while overseeing operations for Mosaic predecessor companies and later served as President of Florida’s largest intrastate motor carrier. As the first CEO of JDCPhosphate (now NovaPhos), he secured substantial funding to commercialize breakthrough phosphate fertilizer technology, earning international recognition and sharing multiple patents. He was awarded the Pierre Becker Memorial Award from the International Fertilizer Association in London for his contributions to that technology. He has advised on capital formation for sustainable energy and agricultural ventures and currently serves as CEO of K-Technologies, Inc. Tip holds an Electrical Engineering degree from Tulane University, an MBA from Loyola University New Orleans, and completed The Executive Program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
WES BERRY
Mr. Berry serves as Vice President & Chief Technology Officer of the Company. He is a holder of some 25 U.S. and foreign patents and an author of numerous technical papers covering a wide range of chemical processing technologies. He was employed in various management capacities with a number of fertilizer, engineering and technology development companies (Advanced Separations Technologies division of FP&L Corporation, Stearns-Rodgers Corporation, International Minerals & Chemicals Corporation, and Borden Chemical Co.), and has been president of his own consulting company W.W. Berry and Associates LLC since 1989. Mr. Berry has both a BSChE and MSChE degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL, and is a member of AIChE, American Chemical Society, American Oil Chemists Association, Tau Beta Pi and Phi Kappa Phi. Mr. Berry resides in Lakeland, FL.
Jamie Knez
Vice President and Senior Process Engineer for K-Technologies, Inc. specializing in the phosphate and fertilizer industries and registered Professional Engineer.
Jamie’s process engineering experience includes development of process design packages during all project phases for new or revamped phosphoric acid, beneficiation and fertilizer granulation plants. She has also performed feasibility studies to determine the capital and operating costs for multiple types of phosphate and fertilizer facilities in many locations throughout the world. She has frequently served as lead process engineer and project manager with coordination in large multi-office and international projects.
Jamie has deep experience developing, performing, and supervising pilot plant and lab testing for the production of phosphoric acid and granular fertilizer products such as MAP, DAP, NPK, SSP, TSP and new fertilizer products. She has tested many phosphate rock samples from all over the world and brings this context to K-Tech’s work with its clients.
Jamie has deep experience in ion exchange and ion chromatography technologies for recovery of rare earth elements (REE), MER reduction from phosphoric acid, and fluorine and silica recovery from phosphate plants. Jamie excels in process modeling and energy optimization for new processes and technologies.
Specialties: Phosphoric acid production, granulation and production of fertilizer products (DAP, MAP, MCP, DCP, SSP, TSP, AS, etc.), phosphate pilot plant testing and analysis, extraction and purification of valuable rare earth elements (REE’s) from phosphoric acid, continuous ion exchange (CIX) technology, continuous ion chromatography (CIC) technology, process design for new phosphate and fertilizer technologies, energy studies and optimization, and project feasibility studies including cost estimates.