Automotive News Canada - January 2021 - 17

16

* J A N U A R Y 2 0 21

Chemical engineer finds a dream career by accident
By JIL McINTOSH

OSHAWA CORRESPONDENT

JOCELYN DOUCET
TREASURE FROM TRASH
WILL BECOME TREAD

IT'S ONE THING TO COME
up with a new way to recycle
materials, and quite another to
market them. Jocelyn Doucet,
CEO of Pyrowave in Montreal,
has done both, partnering with
Michelin to use recycled plastic as an ingredient in synthetic rubber for tires.
Over the next three years
in Europe, Michelin will scale
up Pyrowave's proprietary
process, which Doucet plans
to commercialize and license
to other companies. He also
plans to sell equipment for
production.
" I found only seven per
cent of plastic waste generated
is being
recycled, " the
39-yearold said.
" There
were companies
turning
plastic to
fuel, but
we wanted something more
sophisticated. "
Like his father, Doucet is
a chemical engineer, and the
two opened a food-processing
company, which he took over
in 2008. He wanted to devel-

Pyrowave of Montreal has
created a proprietary process
for recycling plastic waste
for use in Michelin tires.
CEO Jocelyn Doucet is a
chemical engineer who
began the company in 2014.
P H O T O : P Y R O W AV E

op recycling processes and by
accident discovered a method
for breaking plastics down and
recovering their basic monomer molecules. This makes it
easier to remove contaminants
and create clean new styrene.
" In 2014 I created Pyrowave
with my partner Jean-Philippe
Laviolette. We studied together when doing our Ph.D.s. We
created the patents and knowhow and got investors on
board who were in a European
venture capitalist firm. "
One of the partners in that
firm was Michelin.

" They were aware we had a
solution for producing renewable styrene, so when [the
fund] invested in Pyrowave,
we started talking about collaboration. "
Doucet's company employs
16 people and he's looking for
more scientists and engineers
to come on board.
" We have a lot of government support, especially through Sustainable
Development Canada, and
without it the project wouldn't
see the light of day, " he said.
" We know the process will
work because we've been running it at scale in Montreal,
but for any startup like us,
having Michelin is a dream
scenario. We've achieved the
impossible. "

MICHAEL ZEISMAN

SERVICE IS SERVICE WHETHER
IT'S MEALS OR MAINTENANCE

MOST PEOPLE WOULDN'T
equate a dealership with dining, but Michael Zeisman uses
what he learned in the hospitality sector as a service
adviser at Kelowna Nissan in
British Columbia.
" I'm always empathetic.
You have to understand where

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Michael Zeisman has a
background in hospitality
management and that
knowledge translated well
to customer service in
automotive retail.
P H O T O : C O R I N N E D AV I S

[customers are] coming from
and be in their shoes, but also
tell them this is what you
need and why you need it, and
believe in the product you're
selling. "
Zeisman, 43, took hospitality management courses in
school.
" I started with Boston Pizza
in Surrey [B.C.] as a dishwasher and delivery driver and
worked my way up to general manager for about eight
years. "
A friend presented him
with an opportunity to work
in Alberta's oil fields but
Zeisman didn't like the isolation, " and the money isn't
everything. I then worked in
a restaurant there, but the
economy crashed in 2009 and
nobody had any money for
restaurants, so I looked for
another job. "
With his hospitality background and love of cars, he
became a service adviser at
a GM dealership in Grand
Prairie, Alta. Zeisman moved
to a GMC competitor for six
years but decided to return to
British Columbia. After working with a Mazda dealer in
Kamloops, he relocated 160
kilometres south to Kelowna
and started his current job
eight months ago.
" I've had 28 different vehicles, everything from show
cars to beaters. I understand
the mechanicals when I'm
talking to customers. I use
red-yellow-green, with green
we don't have to touch it, yellow is address it sooner rather
than later and red is do it now.
" I have other advisers that
may make more money than
me, but my manager says if I
did too much upsell, I'd lose
a piece of me that brings the
customers back. "

able materials by 2030 globally, " said El Ganzouri.
" We have to work with our
engineers, designers, our electrification group and with
marketing to see what [sustainable] materials [for parts
and packaging] consumers
want and make sure we have
the best in terms of reliability. "
El Ganzouri, 31, completed a degree in environmental engineering at McMaster
University in Hamilton, Ont.,
and did an internship working on waste streams in GM's
CAMI plant in Ingersoll, 150
kilometres west of Toronto.
He earned a spot at the United
Nations University, a global
think tank headquartered in
Japan, and completed a degree
in international development while working on drinking-water projects in Uganda
and Kenya.
In 2014 he returned to
GM as a full-time employee,
including a stint with electric
vehicles and autonomous technology before assuming his
current role.
" A typical day is working
with departments, finding out
what support we can give to
our suppliers. We leverage
a lot of our supply base contacts, " he said.
" The fashion industry is
bringing in sustainable leather, so we work with them.
There's a coalition of companies collecting plastic from the
ocean, so we're testing to see
how it lives up to the vehicle's
life span. "
Packaging is another priority.
" We build auto parts for
dealerships and it's in 100 per
cent sustainable packaging.
That's 6,000 parts and there's
so much impact. "
El Ganzouri leads GM's
energy group, which helps
suppliers reduce their energy
use, he said.
" We'll go to 100 per cent
renewable energy by 2040. I
love big ideas and how I can
drill them down to the actual
implementation. " - ANC

AHMED EL GANZOURI
FOCUSING HIS ENERGY
ON SAVING ENERGY

AS SUSTAINABILITY
strategy manager at General
Motors Canada, Ahmed El
Ganzouri is laser-focused on
helping the automaker with its
environmental efforts.
" The goals are smart and
achievable but also ambitious,
with 50 per cent of our vehicle
components made of sustain-

GM Canada has many
goals when it comes to
sustainability, from parts
packaging to energy
reduction, and Sustainability
Strategy Manager Ahmed El
Ganzouri is on the front line.
PHOTO: GM CANADA
http://dealerminecrm.com/
Automotive News Canada - January 2021

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