Mission Statement
" To transform lives through engineering solutions created from natural resources. "
Elisa Guzman Teipel, M.E. (Baylor University, 2008), B.S.M.E. (Colorado State University, 2007), founder and Research Engineer for Whole Tree Inc.
Elisa has over 6 years of extensive experience around the world consulting and deploying appropriate technology and is fluent in Spanish.
Prior to Whole Tree Elisa has been a Research Assistant for The Earth Institute and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University and at the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State University.
Stanton Greer, M.S.M.E. (Baylor University), B.S.M.S. (Summa Cum Laude, U. of Arkansas), E.I.
Stanton helped found Whole Tree in 2009 and functions as a research engineer and account manager. He owns and has run two small businesses, one focused on environmental safety and maintenance improvement.
History with Aknowledgements
Perla Manapol (Philippines-2007) and Dr. John Pumwa (Papua New Guinea-2004) provided early inspiration to focus on coconuts to help the 10 million poor coconut farmers who subsist on $500/year. Early research (2006-2008) that resulted in the patent for non-woven fabric composites of coir fiber and polypropylene was performed at Baylor University with generous financial support provided by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance’s (NCIIA) E-Team program, which is directed by Phil Weilerstein and Jennifer Keller Jackson. NCIIA also provided valuable training on technology entrepreneurship, including seminars taught by Sharon Ballard and coaching by Humera Fasihuddin. Dr. Steve Bradley and Dr. Greg Leman have helped by having students development business plans in their entrepreneurship classes for commercialization coconut-based supply companies in various countries around the world. Whole Tree Inc. was incorporated in November 2008 by Dr. Walter Bradley, with Stanton Greer and Elisa Teipel, two of his former M.S. students, joining him as the first two R&D engineers. David Perry and Blake Mosher joined with Dr. Bradley to form the Board of Directors for WTI and have provided extremely valuable business guidance. The National Science Foundation has provided support for further research on the non-woven fabric composites with an SBIR in July 2009. The Baylor Advanced Research Institute has provided incubator space and the Director of BARI, Jim Kephart introduced WTI to Cary Hobbs and Hobbs Bonded Fiber in Waco, Texas, an early partnership that has greatly accelerated the development of WTI’s work in non-woven fabric composites that utilize natural fibers. Danny Natividad at Hobbs has worked tirelessly to provide non-woven fabric composite material produced on production scale equipment. Baylor University has allowed WTI to secure an exclusive license to commercialize the first patent on non-woven fabric composite materials, working closely with Jan Nimmo and Kit Riehl . Valuable technical consultation has been provided by Dr. Gerry Wissler and Dr. John DeMassa in our on-going R&D efforts. Jeff Barber and Tony Dasari have provided insights into the world of automotive materials, valuable contacts, and are assisting WTI as sales representatives. Lee Rose has become a valuable partner in exploring the use of natural composites in the building materials industry. Joseph Steig of Venture Well, which is affiliated with NCIIA, has provided remarkable guidance as WTI is preparing for its first round of venture capital investment (2010). Ann Bradley has been extremely supportive of Dr. Bradley’s efforts when they could have been spending this stage of life going on more cruises.