Mr. Gasca joined Fractal Systems in September 2008. He has nearly 30 years of experience in all phases of the oil and gas industry. With Texaco his distinguished career had major leadership responsibilities both in the U.S. and internationally, including running the Upstream Technology unit that oversaw the company’s development of heavy oil technologies. Most recently Mr. Gasca was the President and CEO of Ivanhoe Energy, a Canadian company commercializing a new heavy oil upgrading technology.

Michel Chornet, co-founder of the company, leads Fractal’s engineering efforts and has 12 years of engineering experience including oil and technology roles. His Chemical Engineering background with Shell Canada’s E&P operations in Calgary and his process engineering efforts with H Power Canada have given Mr. Chornet a knowledge of processes applicable to Fractal’s efforts. Mr. Chornet has both a Chemical Engineering degree and MBA from McGill University, Montreal.

Dr. Chornet is the inventor of JetShear™ and a co-Founder of Fractal. From 1970 to 2007, he was Professor of Chemical Engineering at Université de Sherbrooke, (Québec, Canada). During his academic years, he developed advanced concepts in energy and chemical process industries. Successfully commercialization of his innovations began in 2003 with the launch of Enerkem. The latter is centered in gasification and catalysis technology that converts municipal solid waste and biomass residues into alcohols and other second-generation fuels.