Tom McGovern, CEO

Tom has unsurpassed experience in commercial building energy savings. Tom served on the task force for the largest industrial trade association east of the Mississippi River which was charged to lower electrical consumption in an industrial park by 15%. Tom was trusted by the New York City Mayor’s Office to present their Local Law 87 presentation to New York City building owners and managers. He has regularly presented key changes to the New York State Energy Code and New York City Energy Code to leading design professionals. 

 

He has over ten year’s experience in teaching a variety of subjects, including auditing, commissioning, green buildings and engineering. Tom has used these skills to develop a truly unique niche in the commercial building energy savings field which includes unsurpassed client satisfaction, trusted relationships with market leaders, advising legislative and policy leaders, adjusting corporate operations to ever changing market conditions, speaking on conference panels, writing newspaper articles, innovating patent-pending technologies, mentoring young professionals, organizing energy conservation panels, developing pilot television shows, blogging through several channels, teaching a variety of seasoned design professionals and college students and speaking on the national “Green Leader” radio show.
 

Tom has developed a unique, whole building approach to commercial building energy conservation, which covers every square foot of building space. Tom pays close attention to the unique attributes of every building, understanding how and why each piece of equipment operates as it does. He has developed a unique system to align building use to specific energy saving measures and developed several proprietary ventilation practices. Geatain is working on a project to convert a warehouse to a net-zero building, which will create more energy than it uses. Tom identified an incentive to save a New York City landmark over $1.3 million in construction costs. Tom has discovered several proprietary measures to lower energy costs with a return on investment less than one year. Tom is evaluating heat reclamation from ovens and dish drying equipment for a Bronx wholesale bakery. He evaluated a previous warehouse lighting design and not only doubled the project incentive value, but also increased energy savings by more than 50%. Tom consulted with a large NYC hospital focusing on computer loads to reduce costs over $125,000/year. He consulted with a national bakery who were moving into a new space and identified over $75,000/year savings in voltage, thermal storage and heat reclamation savings. Through his second look program, Tom found an additional $250,000/year savings after an initial audit revealed just $200,000/year in department store savings (total of $450,000/year savings). For another second look program, Tom saved a local school district $50,000/year after they signed a 20 year ESCO contract. Tom is working with a few real estate managers to track energy savings across portfolios of dozens of properties.
 

Prior to founding Geatain, Tom developed several first-ever technological advances in a water quality career which spanned over a decade and a half. Tom developed a revolutionary, patent-pending nocardia collection and pumping system at the fifth largest treatment plant in the country. Tom saved an industrial client over $20 million (over $1 million per year and still accruing) by convincing health officials to decrease air sampling from a weekly to quarterly frequency. He managed the peer review of a $200 million Queens stormwater conveyance system. He devised a hybrid force main approach of horizontal directional drilling through rock and following an abandoned aqueduct, saving a local county $4 million. Tom completed the first-ever contract documents to fiberglass wrap and concrete encase an extremely deteriorated and leaking 66-inch sludge pipe at the fifth largest treatment plant in the country. He managed the startup of four new belt filter presses, resulting in a $5 million Contractor fine due to specification noncompliance. Tom established the testing protocol, managed pilot testing and compared belt filter presses to centrifuges for the largest treatment plant in a local County. He helped persuade health officials to introduce effluent reuse to a local County. Tom peer reviewed a $75 million dual force main project in Brooklyn. After process upsets, he prioritized key process parameters, overhauled a sludge management plan and avoided toxic upsets to return a semi-conductor treatment plant to normal operations. Tom convinced state officials to divert iron sludge, saving a client $50,000 per year.
 

Tom enjoys spending time with family and friends. He loves to spend time on the beach, barbecuing on the grill, listening to smooth jazz or being tossed around on a favorite roller coaster. He has spent almost his entire life in New York, though he has lived for several months in Carlsbad, California and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tom has many fond memories of jogging along the California beach watching the sunset or completing marathons during high school and college. Tom has been a professional engineer for almost twenty years, is a member of the professional Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, has a Doctorate in Laws from St. John’s University and is fully LEED AP certified.