Mike Patey, Founder & CEO
Mike Patey founded EcoVAP to solve one of the industry’s oldest problems: eliminating wastewater efficiently and sustainably. His career spans aviation, energy, healthcare and engineering, but his mission has never wavered. He builds systems that solve real-world problems with practical, proven designs.
The builder behind EcoVAP
Mike Patey has been a doer. He launched his first company in high school, locked down a patent before graduating and never let off the throttle. Over the years, he’s built and succeeded across multiple ventures. This includes Prodigy Engineering, Best Tugs and Bluestep Technologies. In 2005, he co-founded 4Care Pharmacies, which sold for $48 million just two years later. And through it all, his purpose has always been to solve what others simply tolerate.
Mike didn’t exactly plan on getting into water management. But like so many of his projects, EcoVAP started with a question no one seemed to be answering: “Why hasn’t someone built a better way to eliminate water?”
So he got to work. The result is a system that uses biomimicry and airfoils — not chemical inputs or risky fans — to solve one of industry’s most stubborn problems.
“Some methods are filtration, chemical processes, big open pit evaporation ponds. But there are problems with each and every one of them. The very best way to handle water is to copy Mother Nature… but it’s just too slow. So what did we do? We found a way to do what Mother Nature does 59 times faster. We perfected a simple solution. We built a structure that encapsulates water within billions upon billions of small, 2-inch discs. Mother Nature can get around all sides of that water, evaporate it without throwing the rest in the air, and then rinse the rest to the bottom for collection — forever pulled away from our freshwater system.”
From world records to water resilience
Mike is best known for designing and flying experimental aircraft, including some of the fastest ever built in civilian aviation. He currently holds five speed records and was inducted into the Sport Air Racing League Hall of Fame in 2016. He’s also a Garmin Aerospace ambassador and an advisor to Pratt & Whitney. And his aviation success fueled the thinking behind EcoVAP’s evaporative technology.