I was born and raised in the outskirts of a northern town – Thunder Bay. My playground was the Kaministiquia River (Kakabeka Falls). As a teenager, I spent many summer days fishing and swimming in this river which was a pristine river unmarked by industry or agriculture. I thought every kid in the world had access to the life I had, growing up without TV or the Internet. I knew I wanted to be an engineer as I worked in my Dad’s greenhouse and landscape construction business. I observed those with white hats and rolls of drawings under their arm as I labored to bring their dreams to reality moving dirt and laying sod.I enrolled in the local university – Lakehead University – in first-year engineering and was determined that my first summer job would be in the field of engineering. My first job in my chosen vocation was working for Public Works Canada taking soundings in the harbor and in the Kaministiquia River in preparation for the government dredging at the tax payers expense. The waste dumped into the river came from the 10 industrial facilities located in and around Thunder Bay at the time.Each day my hands would be covered in a rash from the polluted river water and I would see many floating dead fish. This was the same river where two miles upstream I was catching pristine pike, pickerel perch and bass.I looked up at the mill one day and an inner voice spoke these words “I want to be part of the solution and not the problem” – words that are still clear as day 45 years later.I transferred to the University of Waterloo and majored in sanitary engineering and started work as an environmental engineer in 1973. I took my masters at Western and was part of the first graduating class in the Masters of Environmental Engineering program.As part of my work addressing and solving environmental issues, I ended up going into the pulp and paper industry. I was involved in implementing new technology to address the industry’s wastewater pollution issues and was active in a number of significant large scale projects.My work in the environmental sector has moved from a vocation to a calling and has become my passion. As part of my journey I worked for large environmental engineering and technology companies in both the US and Canada and on projects around the world.In 1995 I started my own environmental engineering firm Maat Environmental Engineering Corp. In 2009, I along with my family, acquired controlling ownership of SciCorp International Corp, where both of our sons have partnered with me to expand and grow the company.