Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.
Donnie is a serial entrepreneur starting his first company in 1977 at the young age of 17 building equipment for gas and oil industry.
In 1989 another one of Donnie's companies was hired to clean up oil spilled in a swampy area near Carmi, Illinois. He had bought a European oil skimmer for the job and was frustrated because it recovered more water than oil. The annoying experience inspired Donnie to invent a better type of oil skimmer. The invention captured the attention of oil spill responders at industry trade shows, and orders for the drum skimmers began to flow at a rapid pace. In 1990 Donnie founded Elastec Inc. to manufacturer and market oil skimmer products.
As global awareness of environmental protection increased, especially involving the cleanup of oil spills, Elastec recognized the need to distribute oil spill equipment internationally and opened an office in Russia in 1993.
In 1997 Elastec acquired American Marine to become the largest manufacturer of oil pollution control equipment in the United States distributing products to over 140 countries around the world.
With the explosion of Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April of 2010, Elastec/American Marine’s Hydro-Fire® Boom and American Fireboom systems were summoned to corral the oil for controlled burning. Not only did their fire boom systems outperform the competitions’ in the Gulf spill, but Donnie was also contracted to manage a major part of the controlled burn operation for BP America. The controlled burn operations destroyed over 300,000 barrels of spilled oil, more than all the skimmer vessels combined in the Gulf spill.
During the Gulf spill, there was an obvious void in larger more efficient mechanical equipment, to recover high volumes of spilled oil. As a result, the X PRIZE Foundation, known for launching the private spaceflight industry through the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, announced an incentive competition, the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. (Schmidt is the wife of the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.) The goal of the competition was to inspire entrepreneurs, engineers, and scientists worldwide to develop innovative, rapidly deployable, and highly efficient methods of capturing crude oil from the ocean surface. Elastec/American Marine blew the competition out of the water with their patented grooved disc skimmer, winning the $1 million dollar first place prize out of 350 global entries. The company’s giant skimmer (featuring 64 grooved discs) had an oil recovery rate (ORR) of 4,670 gallons of oil per minute with 89.5% oil recovery efficiency (ORE) 4 times the industry standard.
In addition to manufacturing oil spill recovery equipment, Elastec/American Marine has developed many other pollution control systems such as portable incinerators for the disposal of medical waste and confiscated drugs, turbidity curtains for the control of silt and sediment in water, containment booms to control aquatic weeds, debris and invasive marine life, rapid response workboats, industrial vacuum equipment and a variety of other innovative environmental protection products.
The world headquarters of Elastec/American Marine is located in Carmi IL. The company’s facilities encompass over 200,000 square feet in four manufacturing and warehousing facilities in southern Illinois and Cocoa, Florida. Satellite sales offices are located in in the states of Virginia and Washington along with the countries of Estonia, India, Turkey, and China. With over 140 employees, the company’s products are distributed through a global network of dealers and a direct sales force. Elastec Inc is also consistently listed among Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000’s fastest-growing private companies in America.
In 2015 Donnie retired as CEO of Elastec Inc. Donnie continues to be active as a major stockholder and board member for Elastec.
From October 2016 to July 2020 Donnie took a full time position as President of Midland Institute for Entrepreneurship. A Non-profit with a mission to teach high school seniors Entrepreneurship. During Donnie’s time in leadership the Institute nearly doubled in size.
Currently Donnie serves on the board of directors of Midland Institute as well as an advisor to various companies and mentor to other talented entrepreneurs.