About Us

Meet the team behindsuperoxalloy abrasives

A message from the 10X team

10X Engineered Materials Billboard
10X Engineered Materials Products

Can a new company with an all-new class of abrasives help boost the surface preparation industry to all-new levels of productivity and skill?

That’s our mission.
Three principles underpinned the effort, and still do. Commitments to…

  • Innovation —based in sound science and engineering
  • Performance improvement — centered on productivity, efficiency and output quality for our customers
  • People — upholding the health, safety and environment of those who use, distribute and make our products

There’s plenty of work left to do.

To customers, colleagues and partners who’ve joined in, helped and inspired us on this mission, we say thank you. And here’s to the next breakthrough….

– The 10X Team

About our team

The founders of 10X Engineered Materials are mostly engineers and scientists that have spent their careers conceiving new ideas and commercializing new technologies to improve things, even old and stale technologies like cooling cycles or water filtration. In that world, 10X is a sort of the holy grail for quantum-leap improvement that innovators aspire to. When we uncovered superoxalloy abrasive technology and set out to commercialize it, we named the company in that spirit of always thinking big and striving for truly disruptive positive impact. From the start, our goal has been to develop an abrasive and a company 10 times (10X) better than anything else, and while this may be a stretch, we’ll do our best to try!

Meet the 10X leadership team

Dr. Stephen Ricci // Partner, Technical Support

Dr. Stephen Ricci // CEO, Partner

Former director at Battelle. Inventor of the 10X process. 25 years of experience in clean-tech commercialization. Expertise in fluid, energy and materials sciences technologies.

David Fischer

David Fischer // Partner

Former director and CEO at Greif Inc. Board member of Ingredion Inc, (INGR: NYSE), Balchem Int. ( BCPC: NASDAQ), DOmedia LLC, Habitat for Humanity International, and, formerly, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Jake Vaillancourt // Partner, Sales Support

Jake Vaillancourt // Partner, Sales Support

Co-founder of Waste Hub, responsible for operations, account management, sales growth and customer success. Active fixed-wing pilot.

Calvin Wohlert // Partner

Calvin Wohlert // Partner

Founder of Waste Hub with 16+ years executive ownership experience and 20+ years of industrial energy services and engineering experience with EMC Engineers and Solution Dynamics LLC. Holder of three patents in industrial energy and water treatment.

Ed Schmitt III // Partner, Sales Engineer

Ed Schmitt III // Partner, Sales Engineer

President and Owner of Glass Recycling and Grinding LLC, producing recycled glass abrasives for the industrial blasting market. Operations Manager for One Source Recycling, responsible for designing, installing and commissioning recycling plants throughout the Midwest and East Coast.