wjstewart@we-empower.co

William Stewart serves as a COO and Senior Engineering Advisor for We-Empower. In that capacity, Mr. Stewart is responsible for We-Empower Project Design Development & Implementation for Grain Handling & Storage and Cold Chain Applications including Atmospheric Control.

Mr. Stewart has over 30 years of experience in Mechanical Engineering and Project Management. Mr. Stewart is specialized in Refrigeration System Design and Application for large Chillers/Hating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning, Food Storage & Retail Refrigeration, Food Processing, Industrial Refrigeration and Energy Evaluation.

Prior to joining We-Empower, Mr. Stewart worked at Blumberg Grain as Senior Engineering / Manager for both Grain Storage and Cold Chain Design Development in Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria and the United States & as Project Manager for Egypt Shouna Development Project (Grain Storage).

The Egypt Shouna Development Project is a landmark project to provide indoor storage, security and inventory management for 100 % of Egypt’s locally grown wheat. When completed and fully implemented, this project will reduce post-harvest loses to 5 % or less.

As Project Manager for Phase 1, Mr. Stewart provided project management and technical support or the installation of 89 grain handling systems in Shounas (Grain Warehouses) up and down Nile River in Egypt. Completed on time (157 days), along with Command & Control Center located in Cairo, Egypt for security and inventory control, the Shouna Development Project is well on its way to enable Egypt for the first time to be go from being the largest importer of wheat in the world to becoming a net exporter. This amazing transformation has wonderful implications for Egypt and the entire MENA region.

Mr. Stewart began his career at York International Corp. (today Johnson Controls, Inc.) in the Refrigeration Department as part of the International Division. There he performed mechanical engineering design of food refrigeration systems many years on projects all over the world. Those projects include refrigeration systems for block ice plants, food storage (Uruguay), seed storage (Ghana), brewery (Columbia) and petrochemical projects for Formosa Plastics (Taiwan). Mr. Stewart also worked for a short engagement in the Marine, Military & Government division, designing ship stores refrigeration for US Coast Guard Ships, and food process refrigeration for fish processing ships.

From there Mr. Stewart also worked in product design development and implementation for many projects all over the world with York International/Johnson Controls, Inc., designing many large field erected refrigeration systems, both (mechanical and absorption cycle systems) to chill water for large campus air conditioning and industrial refrigeration applications world-wide. A short list of installations include but are not limited to are: USA: NASA, NIH, University of Texas, IBM; Saudi Arabia: DOW Chemical, ARAMCO, Prophets Mosque & Islamic University; Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur City Center (Twin Towers); Hong Kong: Exchange Square. These custom installations also often used alternative energy sources (off season heating steam, heat recovery steam and natural gas) to achieve high over all campus energy efficiency improvements that significantly reduced operating costs, greenhouse gasses and other related emissions.

After decades with York International/Johnson Controls, and a short engagement with Tecogen – maker of Natural Gas Engine Driven Refrigeration packages/generator sets (hospitals, food process refrigeration, secondary & higher education), Mr. Stewart left the equipment manufacturing world for the MEP (Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing) Consulting world. There he worked with several nationally recognized firms: RMF Engineering, Erdman Anthony & EMG.

EMG Corp. is a due diligence company. There Mr. Stewart was Program Manager in the Facility Assessment and Energy Evaluation US Market. His most prestigious account was the Archdiocese of Baltimore – the oldest and largest Archdiocese in the United States.

At Erdman Anthony, Mr. Stewart enjoyed designing food retail refrigeration systems (Price Chopper) and the commissioning the MEP systems for a new Emergency Room Facility (Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hospital).

At RMF Engineering, Inc., Mr. Stewart was Project Manager for several key government central utility/chiller plant projects. Three examples of these projects are: University of Virginia Chiller Plant Addition; the USDA National Animal Disease Center Modernization Project; and finally in addition to design project manager Mr. Stewart was also the Construction Administration project manager for the West Refrigeration Plant Expansion for the Capitol Power Plant, Architect of the Capitol, Washington, DC.

Mr. Stewart is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Certified Energy Manager, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in 7 US States. He also is a lifelong member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers and is also a member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, The Association of Energy Engineers and the National Fire Protection Association.

Mr. Stewart is married with three children and currently resides in Miami, Florida.