WAIS JALALI

Co-President and Chief Operating Officer

WAIS JALALI is a proven entrepreneur committed to reinventing the climate solutions industry to create a better world. He is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of XNRGY Climate Systems ULC (www.xnrgy.com), a company that designs and produces climate solutions technology that dramatically reduces building energy and water consumption.

Born in Afghanistan, Wais came to the US as a child in 1988. He was educated at the University in Maryland, where he earned a double major in Engineering and Philosophy, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Wais’ career has been primarily focused on design, production, manufacturing and distribution of commercial and industrial HVAC systems. He has also been actively involved as an entrepreneur in energy trading and logistics opportunities.

At XNRGY, Wais and his stellar management team are working tirelessly to reinvent and develop new technologies aimed at improving energy and resource efficiencies in HVAC. He firmly believes that, through innovative energy solutions, we can create a better, more sustainable future.

Philanthropy is important to Wais and his family. He devotes his spare time to supporting the development of underprivileged children and providing them opportunities for their future success. Wais is also an active wine collector and sportsman, playing competitive volleyball and soccer/football in his youth.

SHAM S. AHMED

Co-Founder, President and General Manager

Sham S. Ahmed has almost 40 years of executive leadership experience in the North American HVAC industry. From 1981 to 2020, Sham held various positions as Applied Product Sales Manager, Vice President, General Manager and Chief Operating Officer. He is the founder or co-founder of several highly successful greenfield projects companies in which he has generated more than a half billion dollars in sales around the world as well as consulted for multinational HVAC companies, before joining XNRGY as President and General Manager.

He has recruited top HVAC manufacturing and marketing executives from the U.S. and Canada to lead the rapid deployment of innovative manufacturing technologies designed to reduce costs and maximize quality. Sham works with investors, and the executive team, in crafting and implementing a 10-year, multiphase business plan focused on research, development, data center efficiency, power usage effectiveness and the manufacturing of custom air handling systems, supporting LEED certification, in a wide range of applications.

Sham especially enjoys motivating teams to deliver creative, dynamic solutions in engineering, manufacturing, and project management. He capitalizes on new materials, automated manufacturing, and increasingly sophisticated electronic controls in meeting complex and critical needs in terms of structure, acoustics, footprint, redundancy, and modular design. Creative thinking, strategic planning, relationship building, mentoring, and an unwavering commitment to excellence are the forces that have shaped his career and brought success to the organizations he has led with passion, expertise, and vision.

VINCENT MORIN

Executive Vice President of Product Engineering and Manufacturing Operations

With over 30 years of experience in Research & Development, Manufacturing operations, and global enterprise transformation, Vincent Morin has worked in competitive and complex industries that require constant innovation, and product development, where prices competitiveness, and time to market are key to success.

In his expanded role as Executive Vice President of Product Engineering and Manufacturing Operations at XNRGY, Vincent will lead all product development activities. He will be responsible for crafting and implementing a manufacturing strategy that aligns with our market growth initiatives. This includes managing day-to-day operations to ensure efficient production. Notably, Vincent will oversee the construction and launch of our new Arizona plant. Additionally, he will collaborate on strategic projects within XNRGY, fostering innovation and growth for our rapidly expanding company.

He has held various roles, including Vice President of Product Development and Vice President of Operations, and has successfully overseen the market launch and implementation of new products and business strategies, notably for BRP's Marine Group. As Vice President of Product Development at BRP, Vincent was involved in all aspects of product management and development for off-road and on-road product lines.

From 2018 to 2021, Vincent led Product development, Manufacturing, and Operations for the Marine group of BRP. His role was to turn around the product development and operations of the engine division and bring a new product strategy for the engines and boats that would transform the industry while integrating newly acquired boat companies. Evolving the culture and integrating companies were key tasks he had to oversee. During that time, he oversaw the development of 3 new LU products and revamped 3 manufacturing sites to support the production of these new products while managing 5 locations on 2 continents.

In addition to his R&D experience, he was Vice President Operations of a plant in a foreign country where he was responsible for manufacturing operations, which included fabrication and assembly of engines and vehicles. More recently he held the role of Vice President of Product and Manufacturing where he led the LVHA group (E-mobility) of BRP which included product planning, development, and manufacturing functions. Part of his role was to oversee the product definition and define and implement new supply chain which included managing the implementation of a new facility overseas, which involved the fabrication and assembly of vehicles.

His various experiences at BRP have given him a global vision and understanding of how to align business functions for success, from product development thought the complete operation value chain in growth context.

LARRY HOPKINS

Chief Technology Officer

Larry has more than 30 years of experience in the HVAC industry. He has held the positions of VP of Engineering at PACE Co., President of Cleanpak International, Vice President of Engineering at Huntair and co-founder and VP of Research and Development at Basx Solutions.

In each business Larry led product development efforts in several key areas including fan design, development of Fan Array, low-loss fan backdraft damper, fan-balancing and isolation systems and active control of fan noise. Larry has created over 20 patents for products used in the HVAC industry.

Larry‘s industry involvement has also extended to several ASHRAE and AMCA subcommittee appointments. Through the latter organization, he contributed significantly to the development of fan array testing and certification standards in the early 2010s. Larry is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Fan 2021 International Conference on Fan Noise, Aerodynamics, Applications and Systems.

In 2020, he joined XNRGY as Chief Technology Officer. The team looks forward to tapping into Larry’s vast expertise in fan and damper development and to drawing inspiration from his vision for the company’s success. His ingenuity, creativity, and resourcefulness will be an undeniable asset as XNRGY continues to grow and strengthen its position in the North American market.

JUDITH GOROG

MBA CFO

CFO with over 25 years of experience in metals and mining, recently joined the HVAC industry. Her goal is to build strong teams and bring people together while supporting the growth of XNRGY in a sustainable way. She is skilled in negotiation, budgeting, internal audit, ERP implementation, and business process reengineering, with strong knowledge of both US GAAP and IFRS. Judith has successfully managed multiple projects and transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, and debt restructuring.

For the last 20 years, Judith has moved back and forth between North America and Europe, progressing through the typically male-dominated steel industry to become the only female member of her past management teams. However, it is not simply her gender that sets her apart as chief financial officer. She is also an endurance athlete competing in Ironman events, all while maintaining her professional career and the personal responsibilities of raising two kids.

Born in Romania, Gorog earned a scholarship to study finance at the University of Liege in Belgium. Upon graduation, she began her career in public accounting as a senior auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers. After working in the US and Europe for subsidiaries of ArcelorMittal, Judith returned to the U.S. in 2008 to work for Skyline Steel, a distributor and manufacturer of steel foundation solutions. Skyline was a wholly-owned subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, subsequently sold to Nucor. Judith was instrumental in completing that transaction.

Judith joined ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada in 2018 as CFO and accomplished many process improvements. She joined Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium in 2022 in a CFO role as well. Her expertise in managing large-scale projects within manufacturing companies, in environments similar to those of XNRGY, is a valuable asset. Recognized for her strategic thinking, innovation capabilities, and commitment to excellence, Judith aligns perfectly with our ambitious vision and will undoubtedly contribute significantly to the achievement of our business objectives.

MELANIE DAUNAIS

Chief Human Officer

Melanie Daunais, XNRGY's Chief Human Resources Officer, brings a seasoned blend of HR expertise and sales acumen to her role. With over 25 years of experience navigating both worlds in different industries, she thrives in fast-paced environments, where collaboration and communication are paramount. Her journey began in sales, conquering regional and national landscapes before diving into the world of HR to witness its transformative power firsthand.

She had the opportunity to live and work abroad in Europe as well as support several countries around the world such as Asia, the United States, and Latin America. Melanie's diverse career spans renowned companies like Protectron/Telus, Nestlé Nespresso, and Moose Knuckles, where she honed her skills in:

Crafting and executing strategic HR plans aligned with business objectives.

Building top-performing, diverse, and engaged teams through talent acquisition and development.

Fostering open communication and participation, creating a culture of trust and collaboration.

Implementing impactful talent management initiatives that empower employees to excel.

Fluent in French and English, with a touch of Spanish, Melanie believes communication is the bedrock of success. At XNRGY, she's excited to partner with the team to elevate HR to new heights, shaping a future where talent is valued, empowered, and instrumental in the company's growth.

Mélanie is always available for a coffee chat to discuss HR, leadership, or building world-class organizations!

BABAK SOLATI

Vice President of Sales

Babak Solati has more than 26 years of experience in HVAC system design and applications. For the first seven years of his career, he held different roles in consulting engineering firms, designing HVAC systems for residential, commercial and industrial buildings.

His extensive knowledge in engineering, manufacturing, sales, and management will undoubtedly be a key asset to the newly created company’s growth and development, as will his involvement in various academic research projects on mechanical systems in buildings, including chillers, air handling units, and other equipment. After more than 16 years holding various roles in sales and marketing applications in custom AHU manufacturing in both Canada and the USA, Babak decided to join XNRGY Climate Systems as the Vice President of Sales. He regularly participates in corporate executive planning sessions to meet and exceed customers’ and manufacturers representatives’ expectations. He is also focused on developing and justifying human resources strategies as they relate to sales, as well as developing, documenting, directing, and executing sales strategies. It is his responsibility to ensure all sales efforts align with the company’s overall corporate strategy, marketing plans, financial metrics, and budgets.

TIM EMERSON

Vice President of Mission Critical Saless

TIM EMERSON started his career as a noncommissioned officer in the United States Army. Tim led missions in Operation Iraqi Freedom conducting security, explosive ordinance disposal and building bridges in 2003-2004. His time in the Army taught him a great deal about leading in stressful situations and is a firm believer in leading by example. After finishing his time in the Army, he completed his BS in Mechanical Engineering and MBA (Finance) at the University of Minnesota.

Tim moved on to working as a project manager for a construction company. Coordinating trades, planning logistics and was responsible for keeping projects on time and under budget. He excelled in this role and spent a lot of time learning and surpassing expectations in business operations.

Tim then began working for Mammoth, Inc. as a Mechanical Engineer designing custom refrigeration and air handling systems. This required detailed knowledge in vapor compression cycles, HVACR system design, control systems and fluid flow.

Tim utilized his intellectual leadership skills to create and establish a new division of Mammoth focused on building modular mechanical rooms. He created construction standards, processes, procedures, and trained designers and engineers on mechanical room design during this tenure.

Tim’s technical knowledge and ability to create relationships led to a promotion to DX Sales Manager for Nortek Air Solutions (Mammoth’s parent company). While in this role he cultivated relationships and developed projects with Enterprise, Hyerscale, and Co-location Data Center Clients.

In 2015 TMI Climate Solutions was a niche manufacturer of automotive and paint processing air handlers. Over 95% of their work was in this vertical market. Tim was hired as Sales Director and later promoted to VP of Sales and Marketing to create new sales channels in commercial air handlers and establish a new modular mechanical room division. In five years, Tim and his team grew the commercial air-handler sales from less than $500k to saturate the TMI Montreal plant capacity at $30M. Under Tim’s leadership, the modular mechanical division grew from under $1M to $100M annual revenue. A critical portion of the mechanical division sales included modular data centers for a large financial institution that consisted of 40% of the backlog.

Tim enjoys leading and motivating teams, believing in adding value to the customer experience through technical expertise and knowledge. This philosophy is executed through recruiting and mentoring highly technical staff focused on expertise in their respective field. He believes the customers should want to work with his team based on the expertise they apply to create innovative, lasting solutions.

In 2022 Tim took on the role of Vice President of Mission Critical Sales for XNRGY. Focused on building out the infrastructure in engineering, operations, product development and business development.

ALAIN TANGUAY

Vice President of Operations and Engineering

Alain Tanguay, has an exemplary record of accomplishment in the HVAC sector. He is known as a dynamic team leader who prioritizes consistent quality, as well as an expert in state-of-the-industry programs and technologies aimed at heightening productivity while controlling costs.

Alain began his career as a mechanical engineer with a division of Carrier Corporation where he managed a team of engineers dedicated to the design of refrigeration systems, electrical circuits and their components. When he moved on to Stone Air/Vapor Rail Inc., a division of Westinghouse Air Brake Company, he took charge of the team responsible for the design, costing, manufacturing and testing of HVAC units for rail cars in mass transit systems.

Consulting called Alain in 2018 where he used his extensive experience to help the commercial and rail industries with operations, LEAN manufacturing, engineering design and HVAC.

In 2020, Alain took on the role of Vice President of Operations and Engineering for XNRGY, helping aim the start-up company on a successful trajectory.

MAURO CATAVOLO

Director Of Engineering

Mauro has 17 years of experience in HVAC system design, applications and manufacturing. He spent the first nine years of his career as a senior application engineer, helping sales representatives, contractors and consulting engineers design custom air handling units based on customer requirements and industry standards. A few years later, as Business Analyst for the implementation of new ERP system, he helped out the other facilities across the CES group.

In 2013, as an Engineering and R&D Manager, he broadened his knowledge on the manufacturing of dehumidification and DX equipment. He managed an engineering team and the R&D program. Mauro helped create a new Greenfield company: TMI Climate Solutions Canada Inc. — a Berkshire Hathaway owned company in 2015. The company grew from 5 to over 200 staff within the first four years.

With his experience with the creation of the previously mentioned Greenfield company, he joined XNRGY Climate Systems, in 2019, as Director of Engineering for their Mechanical Group. His experience served him well in developing various products for the company. Mauro directs the development of XNRGY’s products, oversees the engineering team and co-manages the R&D team. He also recruits employees, assigns, directs and evaluates their work, as well as overseeing their development.

WILL SCHWALBACH

Director of Engineering, Mission Critical

WILL SCHWALBACH studied at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul Minnesota earning a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering as well as a Bachelor’s of Arts in Business Administration. Will continued his educational efforts with graduate studies at St. Thomas as well as the University of Minnesota focusing on heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), operations and supply chain management, and mechanism design.

Will has more than 16 years’ experience in the custom HVACR manufacturing industry. He began his career in 2008 at Mammoth Inc. (a division of CES group, Nortek Air Solutions) as a Development Engineer. He quickly excelled in refrigeration component and system performance calculations and design algorithms. Specifically improving accuracy of calculating thermal performance of tube-fin heat exchangers with new refrigerants. This included hands-on experience performance testing within a thermal laboratory, as well as operations optimization for heat exchanger manufacturing across all division locations. Will also participated in the AHRI 410 (Coil performance rating standards) group serving as the chair for Nortek Air Solutions.

Will gained valuable technical experience and intellectual leadership at Mammoth which earned him the role of Research and Development Manager of the Rooftop products division. Here he led product designs, design automation, thermal/electrical/efficiency performance calculations, testing, and implementation for custom DX systems (including air-cooled condensers and evaporative-cooled condensers). These products were applied to the most delicate and mission-critical data center applications.

Will’s leadership expanded further at Nortek Air Solutions, becoming the Thermal Engineering Manager for the Huntair division as the Mammoth product offerings were expanded and manufacturing locations were added. This included hiring a team of more than 15 engineers and technicians to implement the custom DX product at the Huntair location.

In 2016, Will accepted a new challenge with TMI Climate Solutions where he started the Minnesota Development Engineering division for the company. He hired a team of highly skilled engineers in Minnesota to create an HVACR controls system platform, product development, process automation, and other technical training initiatives (internal and external). These products were utilized on mission-critical healthcare, pharmaceutical, and data center systems. These efforts included custom DX systems designed for an integrated indirect-air cooling system for and important financial institution's largest and most critical data halls. This application had the first of its kind analytical compressor staging and variable speed modulation by dynamically measuring required cooling capacity of the space and predicting the required output. This method provides the quickest, most accurate, energy-efficient cooling response for mission-critical applications that require tight temperature control.

Under his leadership, the Minnesota Development Team also create custom control solutions for a major cloud computing provider. Developing an exhaust fan array controller for their data centers that met their unique operating requirements and exceeded all customer expectations.

Will is excited to join the XNRGY team and continue developing innovative and sustainable solutions for the industry.

ALEKSEY N. SYNKOV

Director of Engineering for Cleanrooms and Data Centers

ALEKSEY N. SYNKOV brought his specialized background and skills to XNRGY as a cleanroom specialist to expand and innovate design and manufacturing processes for cleanroom and data center applications. With over 25 years of experience encompassing HVAC, air handling and cleanroom equipment development throughout North America, in his current role Aleksey drives cutting-edge and innovative solutions.

Aleksey’s affinity for mechanical complexity and overcoming challenges is highlighted by his educational background. Holding a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Portland State University, and an Engineer-in-Training Certificate for the State of California, Aleksey also has education in Civil Engineering, AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop software, as well as cleanroom design from Arizona State University. Beginning his career on the shop floor of Huntair, Inc in 1994, Aleksey developed an appreciation for the challenges involved in the design and manufacture of quality HVAC and air handling equipment. Through the pursuit of education, training, and experience, Aleksey progressively assumed greater responsibilities, from Mechanical Designer with Huntair, Inc, to Senior Application Engineer and later Head of Design at M&I Air Engineered Systems, then Custom Cleanroom Equipment Application Engineer at BASX Solutions.

Aleksey has collaborated on large scale projects including cleanroom and fabrication plant design for Large-scale industrial manufacturing, nanofabrication projects at prestigious Universities, and was part of the 3D CAD team that coordinated an air-handling project for a well known Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. Finding enjoyment in innovative custom designed solutions for complex problems, Aleksey has led and managed the design, construction and commissioning of air-handling equipment, integrated sprinkler and lighting systems, automated material handling systems, and structural support systems including suspended cleanroom ceilings.

Aleksey enjoys a collaborative team outlook, an organized approach to project management and an aptitude for leading implementation and product optimization in demanding applications. With appreciation for XNRGY’s passion for leading-edge technologies, sustainability, carbon footprint reduction and custom system efficiency, Aleksey keenly embraces his position as Director of Engineering for Cleanrooms and Data Centers at XNRGY.