With an impressive career that spans more than 50 years, Dr. Louis Centofanti, said he plans to continue to focus on developing environmental technology that has value. As the Founder and Executive VP of Strategic Initiatives at Perma-Fix Environmental Services, he said the best way to lead is to encourage, praise and listen more than you talk.
Perma-Fix Environmental Services is a leading provider of nuclear waste treatment and management services as well as technical, professional and radiological instrumentation services. The firm’s mission is to provide superior service to clients through innovation and ingenuity that represents value and environmental responsibility while building a culture which employees can be proud of and investors realize as sustainable future growth.
“We have a vision to provide value to our clients through innovation in waste management and treatment technologies coupled with our remediation and radiation protection services to enable our clients to clean up their contaminated properties; assist them in maintaining compliance with regulatory and safety requirements; and provide a mechanism for them to fulfill their environmental and safety stewardship obligations to their employees, investors and the general public,” Centofanti said.
Centofanti founded the company in 1991 after serving as the Senior Vice President of a large hazardous waste management company and leading a hazardous waste management company specializing in treating PCB contaminated oil. His professional career also includes serving as the regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Energy and a professor and research at Emory University and the University of Utah.
“Dr. Centofanti has nearly 50 years of experience in chemistry and environmental remediation and has led efforts to launch and pioneer innovative new treatment technologies to manage and safely dispose of some of the world’s most complex waste streams,” said his colleagues. “He has also directed projects in unconventional gas, coal conversion to liquids and gases, eastern oil shale, lubricating oil utilization and PCB chemical destruction.”
His efforts have earned him awards from the U.S. Department of Energy and he has published more than 25 papers and patents while presenting at numerous scientific meetings on chemical and energy matters.
Over the span of his career, Centofanti said that his focus is not on success. “I live by the motto that you should try not to be a man of success,” he said. “Rather, become a man of value.”
