About Us

Abdullah Ali founded ARC Southern with a vision to convert waste into energy and combine his wealth of technical knowledge, field experience, and technological application to help ease any detrimental environmental impact.

After graduating from college, Ali worked as a chemical engineer with the Al-Kawther Industries/DuPont Permasep Group, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In his first job assignment, he worked as process/commissioning engineer for the first and largest seawater desalination RO plant with a capacity of 4.2 million gallon per day at Ras Tanajib, Safania Oil Field for Saudi Aramco. Quickly after, he advanced to project manager for a 12.5 million gallon per day RO plant for the city of Unaizah, Qassim, Saudi government.

During Mr. Ali’s tenure at Alkawther, he oversaw more than 35 reverse osmosis plants with responsibilities including supervision in process design and leading team of 600 staff members to undertake field installation, start-up, commissioning and reliability tests of two large Seawater Reverse Osmosis at Duba and Haql cities for the government of Saudi Arabia (SWCC).

Mr. Ali has 25 years experience in entrepreneurial project financing and management, founding and operating several companies with a total $80 million dollars in sales. For the past 14 years, he managed a family automotive niche parts distribution company and replicated the business model beyond Houston.

Ali has an M.B.A from Jones School of Business, Rice University. In addition, Mr. Ali has his M. Sc. in Chemical Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison and B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Riyadh University (King Saud University). Ali has a patent pending for energy efficient gasification of high moisture biomass with Dr. Bary Wilson.

Dr. Bary Wilson is Chief Scientist at Arc Southern Energy. Dr. Wilson holds a B.Sc. in physics from the University of Washington, a Ph.D. from St. Bartholomew's Medical School of the University of London, and served as a post doc in chemistry at MIT. He brings to Arc Southern his extensive experience as a researcher, inventor and manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and in several domestic and foreign technology companies.

As an inventor, Dr. Wilson holds more than a dozen patents including technology for automated determination of wear rates in rotating machinery components, several sensors and sensor systems for nondestructive testing, automated analytical instrumentation, bioprocesses for liquid fuel from coal, pulsed power devices and plasma arc conversion of coal fly ash to cement additives.

Dr. Wilson is an author on more than 100 scientific publications and is a coauthor and editor of several technical books. He has extensive experience in international technology transfer having managed research projects in more than a dozen countries, including the design and/or start-up of major laboratory or hospital facilities in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.

He has served on the Board of Directors of Ener1 Corporation and the Bioelectromagnetics Society, as well as on the editorial boards of several scientific journals. He is the founder or cofounder of three technology companies, and has served as a senior executive (CEO, COO or General Manager) for companies both in US and overseas. Dr. Wilson served as tank crew chief and commander in the US Marine Corps., holds a commercial pilot's license with multi-engine and instrument ratings and is an avid ocean sailor.

Michael (Mike) has spent the last 27 years in the Wholesale Distribution Industry. As President of the company, Mike oversaw the company's growth from one location to five branches with sales growing from $6m to $25m within 5 years. Mike's outstanding business and leadership skills will be used constructing Arc Southern's presence in the pursuit of customers in the US and global marketplace.

Mike brings a cultivated understanding and appreciation of teamwork to Arc Southern Energy. After graduating from Rice University with a Bachelor's Degree in Business and Economics. Mike went on to play Professional Baseball for six years with the Atlanta Braves, Toronto Blue Jays and the Detroit Tigers.

Mike has served on numerous community service boards and has served at the state level on Industry Boards.

Shamsa has worked with Gulfcorp Technologies for the past 18 years as the company's business manager. She earned a degree in Mathematics from Prairie View A&M University in 1992. Shamsa since taken many continuing education courses at the University of Houston, including those in business organization, financial literacy and management leadership. Shamsa's exceptional track record in business organization and financial acumen will be of strategic importance as Arc Southern expands in the future. When not working in the office, Shamsa can be found tutoring at the Houston Multi-Ethnic Community Center and as an adjunct professor at Devry Universities.

Mr. Baker provides over 37 years experience in studying environmental impacts of landfills and remedial sites. He has expertise in innovative landfill technologies including bioreactors, renewable energy, leachate treatment, alternate landfill caps, groundwater assessment and corrective action, and site closure. He previously worked 23 years for Waste Management, Inc. most recently as the Director of New Technology. In this role, Mr. Baker was responsible for developing innovative methods for waste renewable energy, environmental assessment, remediation, and proactive management of active and closed landfills.

He assisted in development and management over 20 bioreactor landfill demonstrations and full scale operations. He also assisted in the initial phases of of the Outer Loop Landfill bioreactor in Louisville working with the State of Kentucky and USEPA on a cooperative research basis (CRADA). At this facility, alternate covers of clay and compost (biocover) was demonstrated to attenuate methane, VOCs, and odors. Mr. Baker implemented innovative remedial technologies for Superfund sites, nuclear and hazardous waste landfills, and solid waste sites. He also developed innovative monitoring and assessment techniques for fingerprinting sources of contamination and is an expert in demonstration landfill gas to groundwater contamination for solid waste sites. He sponsored research and grants for joint industrial and academic research in waste technologies. He also participated in petitioning for the regulatory rule change for the RCRA groundwater, landfill design and operations of waste sites. He has demonstrated alternate technologies, such as vertical wetlands, to manage leachate and contaminated groundwater. He previously worked as an environmental consultant to USEPA Region V and served with the Lahontan Water Quality Control Board in Lake Tahoe, California. Mr. Baker is a recognized expert in bioreactor landfills, renewable energy technologies, alternate caps, groundwater quality, hydrogeology, and landfill operational efficiencies. He has lead numerous State and Federal workshops for groundwater monitoring and assessment techniques, bioreactors, and innovative technologies for groundwater remediation. Mr. Baker is involved in ITRC and EREF in co- authoring guidance documents for determining the termination of Post-Closure Care for landfills. The goal is to evaluate appropriate termination of PCC and beneficial re-use of closed sites. Mr. Baker also co-authored ITRC guidance documents for bioreactor landfill design and operation and alternative landfill caps systems design and construction. ITRC provides free web-training on this guidance to regulators, consultants, and industry. He belongs to NGWA, SWANA Bioreactor Committee, ITRC, and serves on the Steering Committee of Waste Tech. He has a BS in Biology/Chemistry and MS in Enviornmental Engineering from Univeristy of Illinois, Urbana, IL 1971 & 1973.

Dr. Ali is an Assistant Professor at Prairie View A&M University. Upon completion of a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from Prairie View A &M University, Dr.Ali joined the faculty at Prairie View A&M where has taught for more than 20 years in the Electrical Engineering Department. He obtained his doctorate degree from the University of Houston in 2004 and has been recognized for his teaching with a Dean's Award and Outstanding Research Instructor.

Dr. Ali has extensive experience in testing and evaluation of various sensors for detection of ice on aircraft wings (1997), the use of the computer with DSP interface circuitry to recognize voice commands and issue appropriate control signals, a study funded by NASA in 1997. Furthermore in 2000, he was involved in the development and demonstration of a highly efficient hybrid vehicle with better than zero emission.