Our Team

Richard Cooper,
President

Mr. Cooper has over 25 years of business experience in the financial, venture capital and energy sectors. He has held positions with privately and publicly held companies, ranging in size from start-up to multi-billion dollar international businesses, and operating in various industries such as, financial services, wealth management, high-technology and energy services. In addition, he has worked in rapid and emerging-growth environments, as well as cash constrained and turnaround situations. At Pro-Tech, Mr. Cooper has overall responsibility for the Company’s strategic direction and financial performance.

At Honeywell, Siemens and, most recently at Tozour Energy Services, Mr. Cooper developed and constructed large energy savings improvement projects for industrial, commercial, healthcare and government clients. Mr. Cooper is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) a designation that recognizes individuals who have demonstrated high levels of experience, competence, proficiency, and ethical fitness in the energy management profession. This certification puts Mr. Cooper in an elite group of 10,000 professionals serving industry, business and government throughout the U.S. and in 25 countries abroad.

Guy Winters,
Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Winters is an experienced entrepreneur, investor and attorney. Mr. Winters received his undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. He began his legal practice at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy in New York and Morgan Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia. He then served as a Partner and the General Counsel of Novitas Capital, an early stage venture capital fund located in Wayne, Pennsylvania. At Novitas Capital, Mr. Winters helped grow the fund from $50 million in committed capital to over $385 million in committed capital and managed over a dozen multimillion investments. After Novitas Capital, Mr. Winters joined Drinker, Biddle & Reath in Philadephia as a Partner and managed the firm’s Emerging Growth Practice Group. He is a licensed attorney in Pennsylvania and New York. At Pro-Tech, Mr. Winters has direct responsibility for all company operations, PV project development, financing and implementation.

Paul Shust,
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Shust is a Certified Public Accounted and a CFA Charterholder. He has extensive expertise in all aspects of state and federal tax accounting. He is a founder of Pro-Tech. Paul spent approximately 10 years at KPMG as a Senior Tax Manager. The majority of his career focused on state and local tax consulting for large multistate and international corporations. Paul’s focus was on large tax minimization studies (i.e., corporate reorganizations focused on minimizing the overall tax liability), mergers and acquisitions, FAS 109 analysis for large corporations, bank holding company conversions and corporate tax return compliance. Paul’s clients included PepsiCo, Goldman Sachs, Hertz and Medco Health Solutions. Paul passed the Certified Public Accountancy exam in 1991 and obtained his CPA license from the Maryland State Board of Accountancy.

During his career at Bear Wagner and Kellogg Specialist Group, Paul traded a wide variety of financial instruments including equities, options, exchange traded funds and equity and commodity futures. His experience in the financial community included acting as an agent for institutional orders as well as trading/managing the firm’s overall portfolio of equities and exchange traded funds for proprietary purposes. In 2005, Mr. Shust earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. The CFA Charter is a globally recognized, graduate-level investment credential covering topics such as quantitative analysis, portfolio management, and financial reporting. The designation is recognized in over 135 countries around the world.

Ian Stewart,
Director of Finance

Mr. Stewart has over 13 years of business experience in the financial, logistics and energy sectors. Mr. Stewart’s primary responsibility is to promote better business practices and profitability from within the organization. He oversees company operations to insure quality, service, and cost-effective management of resources.

John Drexinger,
Director Commercial Solar

Mr. Drexinger is considered a pioneer in the solar business having developed, designed and constructed over 30 MW of solar systems since 2003. Prior to joining Pro-Tech John was the original founder of NJ Solar Solutions, Inc. a solar energy integrator that specialized in residential and commercial solar installations in New Jersey. NJSS completed over 4 Megawatts of solar installations from 2003 thru 2007 in various project sizes ranging from 2 Kilowatts to 700 Kilowatts. In 2008, Mr. Drexinger assisted in the formation of Vanguard Energy Partners, a commercial Solar Energy Company. During his tenure from 2008 thru April 2009, Vanguard completed installations totaling 4 Megawatts for commercial clients.

Michael Palladino, Director of Construction

Mr. Palladino has over 30 years of hands-on experience in project management, product development, manufacturing, value engineering, and product and process improvement, including eight years in the solar energy industry. Mike Palladino has the knowledge to ensure projects are completed on time and on budget.

At Pro-Tech his primary responsibility is executing the delivery of all solar projects, including procurement, subcontractor management and scheduling. He acts as the main point of contact with the client on all projects, constantly seeking feedback and keeping lines of communication open in order to maximize customer satisfaction.

Mike has been responsible for the delivery of tracking, ground-mounted and roof-mounted systems ranging in size from 10 KW to 25 MW for clients as diverse as Hall’s Warehouse, Ortho-McNeil, DuPont, Cox-Manheim, Southern California Edison, Pennsylvania Power and Light, and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Prior to joining Pro-Tech, Mike worked for First Solar, WorldWater and Solar Corporation, where he was responsible for the design, engineering, and construction of large-scale photovoltaic electric generation and off-grid-capable systems ranging in size from 24 KW to 1.2 MW, including revolutionary first-of-their-kind PV systems capable of providing full off-grid operational capability to a water treatment plant and irrigation pumps up to 200 HP:

In addition to having a strong hands-on background in electrical and solar PV systems, Mike also has extensive experience in 3D CAD/Solid-Modeling, mechanical design, refrigeration, HVAC, testing, controls, and agency certification.

   Bruce Stultz,

Senior Vice President

Energy Consulting Services

Lou Nazirides,
Director of Energy Services

For more than 20 years, Mr. Nazirides has focused on working with clients in managing their energy spend through various methods of delivery. Striving for delivering maximum customer and shareholder value, his philosophy, rooted in the concepts of customer satisfaction and team building, has proven to be an effective by fostering a winning attitude among diverse groups in a dynamic, rapidly growing market place. As a hands-on leader, he brings the same professionalism and enthusiasm to every project. Mr. Nazirides is a Certified Business Energy Professional.

While working for companies like Johnson Controls, Siemens and Custom Energy, Mr. Nazirides was responsible for overall project development including scope, savings, financing, contract management, savings measurement and verification. In addition he was the main contact for all Government Relations for State and Local Government markets. At Pro-Tech his primary responsibility is providing the strategic direction to advance the company's mission and objectives for the Energy Services Division and to promote revenue, profitability, and growth as an organization.

For the past 12 years he has served on the Board for the Association of Energy Engineers and as one of the founding Board Members of the Pennsylvania Energy Services Coalition.

Matt Wells, PE,CBCP,CEP,LEED,AP
Director of Engineering

Mr. Wells’ experience include the management and design of various mechanical systems as well as performing building evaluations for new and renovated commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings. Mr. Wells served as a Project Engineer / Project Manager for a range of clients including several NJ Counties, Colleges and Municipalities, the Port Authority of NY&NJ, NYC School Construction Authority, Delaware River Port Authority, Dormitory Authority of the State of NY, New York Office of General Services, and the NYC Transit Authority. Mr. Wells also has experience as a mechanical contractor and construction manager with technical responsibility for several large multi-million dollar construction contracts.

At Pro-Tech his primary responsibility is for the technical accuracy of construction documents, engineering reports, and energy savings calculations. Mr. Wells also oversees construction projects (energy retrofits, capital improvements, etc.) and energy auditing services which cover a multi-state geographical territory, including more than 200 state entities and local municipalities in the previous fiscal year alone.