CCS Business Leaders

Over a century-and-a-half of cooling tower industry experience is represented by CCS's business leaders.

Mike Bickerstaff

President

David M. (Mike) Bickerstaff has three decades of cooling tower industry experience, including erection of cooling towers and air cooled condensers for hvac and process and power applications. He held senior construction management roles with Marley Cooling Technologies and Ceramic Cooling Tower Company. Bickerstaff is an accomplished construction management strategist, emphasizing professional and safe working environments. Bickerstaff supervised the construction of numerous wood, FRP, concrete and metal towers with projects valued to $40 million. His innovative construction planning system reduces both construction time and costs, while improving safety and health programs.

James Bland

Senior Vice President & Vice President of Engineering

James (Jamie) Bland has two decades of cooling tower industry experience with design and project engineering, assuming the role of Engineering Manager for Ceramic Cooling Tower Company where he oversaw structural analysis for all cooling tower projects. His special knowledge of structural design of composite structural cooling towers led him to acquire two patents on FRP structure design. Mr. Bland is an innovator and leader in the industry for automated computer design of cooling structures.

Toby Daley, P.E.

Vice President Technical Services

Toby Daley began his engineering career with Ceramic Cooling Tower Company in 1974. He was instrumental in the engineering development and execution of safety related ultimate heat sink cooling towers for nuclear power plants, both domestically and globally. He oversaw development of large cast-in-place and precast concrete cooling towers for power plants. He was integral to the structural development, analysis methodology, and automation of the Unilite and PCS pultruded fiberglass cooling towers. Daley held several titles, including Vice president of Engineering, Vice President of Research and Development, and subsequently Chief Operating Officer of CCT. Additional specialties include FRP structural design and finite element analysis, tornado missile protected design, cooling tower thermal modeling, thermal rating systems and software, computational fluid dynamics modeling, forensic investigations, sound and plume abatement modeling. Daley served on the University of Texas at Arlington Civil Engineering Department Advisory Committee from 1992 to 2004.

James Baker

Vice President, Marketing: Power, Process & Parts

James (Jim) Baker has 29 years of experience throughout the cooling tower industry. Mr. Baker worked from 1980 through 1992 for Phillips 66 as their Cooling Tower Specialist. This role enabled him to gain insightful experience on the owner and operations side of the business. From 1992 through 2006, Mr. Baker worked for Marley Cooling Tower Company and later SPX Cooling Technologies. Baker marketed everything from HVAC cooling tower products to the large power industry projects. Since 2007, Baker has served Composite Cooling Solutions, L.P. and is currently Vice President of Sales and Marketing. His CTI tenure dates back to his days with Phillips 66.

John W. Stacks

Vice President, Marketing: Building Trades & Light Industrial

John Stacks has sales and marketing experience from both the cooling tower and building automation industries. For many years, Mr. Stacks served Ceramic Cooling Tower Company in the sales and marketing arena. He subsequently changed industries, and was the Regional Sales Manager for Honeywell, where he managed the central region of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Mr. Stacks earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University.

Derrel C. Taylor

Chief Financial Officer

Derrel Taylor served as Ceramic Cooling Tower Company's CFO/Controller for over eight years. Taylor has in-depth knowledge of accounting practices specific to the cooling tower, construction, and manufacturing industries. Taylor received a Bachelor of Science degree in business with a major in accounting from Mississippi State University.

Jesse Q. Seawell, P.E.

Founding Partner and Past President

Jess Seawell’s career spans over a 28 year period in the cooling tower industry. He has held positions at the executive level in engineering, operations, and marketing while at the former Ceramic Cooling Tower Company. Seawell holds multiple patents in the structural and mechanical design of cooling towers including the Composite Cooling Solutions’ Phoenix® FRP structural design and is a technical expert on composite materials and their application to cooling towers as well as the leading industry consultant for FM Approval as applied to cooling tower design. Seawell has presented numerous articles and related technical publications to the cooling tower and power industries.

Charles J. Bardo

Chairman

Charles Bardo has been involved in the cooling tower industry since 1971. He spent the first six years of his career with Zurn Industries and was responsible for the Zurn Cooling Tower Division. He left Zurn in 1977 to join Justin Industries and became president of Justin's subsidiary, Ceramic Cooling Tower Company, in 1978, a position he held until he retired in 1999. Bardo has extensive working knowledge and experience in all phases of cooling tower design, tower application, construction and product development. Under his leadership, the industry was changed from one that built its field erected towers with wood, steel, and concrete to composite fiberglass. The first of his seven patents filed in 1983 revolutionized the design and construction of cooling towers.