PULASKI CLIMATE-TECH COMPANY WINS COMPETITIVE GRANT, NAMES NEW CEO

$174,000 USDA Grant and New CEO John Schott Position MOVA for Sustained Growth

September 7th, 2022 – Pulaski, VA – MOVA, a ClimateTech company specializing in air filtration and emissions control technologies, has named John Schott as Chief Executive Officer. Schott, who previously served as MOVA’s Chief Operating Officer, succeeds the company’s founder Steve Critchfield, who will continue to serve as MOVA’s President and Chairman of the Board.

Schott, who has 20 years of experience leading business growth and development, and Critchfield have a history of success. Schott previously served as CEO for Blacksburg-based Tele-Works, an electronic invoicing and payments company founded by Critchfield. Together, the duo achieved rapid 90% year-over-year growth and expanded Tele-Works internationally, ultimately leading to a successful private equity-backed merger in 2014.

“John is an exceptional leader who will take MOVA to new heights,” says Critchfield. “His proven experience bringing products to market and achieving rapid growth, combined with his background in engineering and agriculture, make him an ideal fit. MOVA has taken large strides under his guidance over the past 18 months, and his role as CEO will help the company continue on a positive trajectory.”

“I’m grateful for the trust and confidence of Steve and the entire MOVA board,” says Schott. “It is very evident to me that MOVA is positioned to be a leader in ClimateTech. The end markets across manufacturing, agriculture, energy, and carbon capture for MOVA’s selective air capture technology is promising, and I’m proud that Southwest Virginia is pioneering these efforts.”

The company’s leadership transition coincides with MOVA receiving a $174,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant through the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture. These funds are supporting the company’s testing of its patented air filtration system to improve indoor air quality and reduce emissions from agricultural operations. The company is performing the study in partnership with Virginia Tech’s Biological Systems Engineering Department within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“Not only does this grant support a significant step forward for the company, it also validates the need for MOVA’s novel technology and the importance of using precision agriculture to improve agriculture productivity and reduce emissions”, explains Schott.

This is MOVA’s fourth project with Virginia Tech, as the university shares in MOVA’s excitement about the potential of the emissions control technology.

“Meeting the productivity, economical, and environmental demands of global food production today requires innovative and sustainable solutions that reduce emissions and mitigate climate change without adding cost,” says Alan Grant, Dean of Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “MOVA’s air capture technology has demonstrated successful results through each stage of development and is positioned to meet these growing challenges. I couldn’t be more pleased with our strong, cohesive partnership, and it makes me even more excited to be working with a local, Pulaski-based company.”

Joe Guthrie, the commissioner for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), sees this as an example of rural Virginia’s strength.

“We at VDACS join in with MOVA, Virginia Tech and the agriculture industry in looking forward and appreciating the work MOVA has been doing,” said Guthrie. “It’s great that a company doing so much in agriculture is based in rural southwest Virginia, which has deep roots in agriculture.”

Guthrie remarked how this shows rural innovation. “A lot of time the investment comes from outside the rural community,” said the commissioner. “In this case, it’s the rural community building itself.

MOVA expects to complete this development phase in 2023, at which point the company anticipates being 6 to 12 months from commercialization. The company is also hiring, having added two full-time engineers in the past month.

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MOVA Technologies Inc. is a ClimateTech company specializing in air capture technology applying sustainable, circular principles to selectively capture and harvest contaminants as valuable byproducts that can be sold and reused. Selective air capture technology has distinct cost advantages over legacy capture technologies, giving them broad market applicability with air purification applications across manufacturing, agriculture, and energy as well as carbon capture. MOVA is a private company that has raised nearly $1.3m in private investment and received more than $400,000 in grant funding, including  grants from the Federal government and the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation.