Leadership Team

David Zenthoefer has worked in the Industrial markets since graduating from the University of Tulsa. He spent his first seven years working for Hilti advancing through multiple sales and sales management roles on the west coast. David started in Phoenix as an Account Manager before moving back to Tulsa to be a Corporate Trainer. Next, he moved to Portland, Oregon as a Regional Sales Manager before being promoted to the Southwest USA Division Manager based in Irvine, California. In this capacity David managed the entire Southwest USA sales, services and engineering resources for Hilti, Inc.

In 2006, David moved back to Tulsa to join MIRATECH as the Director of Sales. He was promoted to VP of Sales and Marketing in 2009. In 2014 after integrating the latest acquisitions in Minneapolis and Winnipeg, David assumed the role of EVP for Sales, Marketing, and Service. In 2017, MIRATECH was acquired by Argonaut Private Equity and David was named CEO.

David has his BSBA in Marketing and Economics from the University of Tulsa and his MBA in International Marketing from the University of Tulsa as well.

Mr. Janes has spent his entire accounting and finance career in Tulsa, Oklahoma, totaling more than 20 years of experience. His role as Chief Financial Officer at MIRATECH includes providing strategic direction through management of all financial policies and functions. Prior to joining MIRATECH, Mr. Janes has held several senior level accounting and finance positions. After starting his career in public accounting, Mr. Janes went on to Controller positions with a Tulsa SaaS start-up serving the oil and gas industry and then with a Tulsa based E&P operator. As CFO and co-founder of Best Well Services, LLC, an Oklahoma based oilfield services provider, Mr. Janes helped grow the company from a start-up to nearly $40MM in revenues and 260 employees while leading the company to be named to Inc. Magazine’s annual Inc. 500|5000 list of fastest growing private companies twice. Mr. Janes holds a B.S. in Accounting from Illinois State University along with Certified Public Accountant and Chartered Global Management Accountant certifications.

Mr. Sartain has over 20 years of experience in the emission and exhaust industry during his time with MIRATECH. He is responsible for managing application engineering, design engineering, product development, software engineering and the MIS departments. Additionally, Mr. Sartain is responsible for managing the development and integration of the proprietary software system designed for emission and sound system sizing and proposal generation / maintenance, as well as managing the transition of product improvement and introductions from product development through production and sales. Mr. Sartain holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tulsa.

Nick Detor was promoted to Vice President of Sales in January 2022. He has nearly 20 years of sales experience at MIRATECH and more than 30 years of experience in the emission and exhaust industry. As Vice President of Sales, Detor oversees all aspects of MIRATECH’s North American sales team. Prior to his promotion to Vice President of Sales, Detor led the Power Generation Sales team as the Power Generation Division Manager, driving revenue, reviewing project costs and corresponding with customers.

Before his time at MIRATECH, he worked at Stewart & Stevenson Services as a sales and service representative in the Power Generation Division, and he was responsible for new product and service sales.

Detor holds a bachelors of science degree in diesel power technology from the Oregon Institute of Technology.

Steve DeCicco is MIRATECH’s Chief Operating Officer responsible for engineering, manufacturing, product development, project management and field services of EmeraChem (OEM) Catalyst product line at MIRATECH-Knoxville operations.

Steve has spent his career successfully building technology start-up companies, commercializing technologies, forming and directing plant design engineering departments, and executing capital projects for the chemical, oil and gas, and pharmaceutical industries.

In 2001 Mr. DeCicco joined EmeraChem LLC—a technology company offering an expanding family of commercial catalyst products, including the lean NOx trap catalyst technology. He advanced from Director of Operations to V.P. of Operations to Chief Operating Officer. As operations leader and the senior engineer in the company, he has been involved in all aspects of product development, engineering, project management, purchasing, manufacturing and field service. His accomplishments include the design, testing, scale-up and commercial demonstration of several catalyst technologies operating on conventional and alternative fuels.

Prior to EmeraChem, Steve served at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corporation in D.C., International Technology Corporation, Thermatrix Inc., and QualPro, a process improvement company.

He received his master’s degree in chemical engineering from MIT and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from NYU. He holds four U.S. patents, has authored chapters in two McGraw-Hill handbooks and numerous publications, and has taught technical courses and seminars around the country.

Elizabeth Wells Burden joined MIRATECH as Director of Employee Engagement and General Counsel in 2019. Previously, Elizabeth worked as Director of Development for The University of Tulsa College of Law, and prior to that as an attorney at the law firm, Smakal, Munn & Mathis, PLLC.

Elizabeth holds a B.B.A. in Business Management from Price College of Business at The University of Oklahoma and a J.D. from The University of Tulsa College of Law. While attending TU Law, she served as senior candidates editor for the Tulsa Journal of Comparative and International Law and assisted small business owners participating in the Social Enterprise and Economic Development Law Project at the Boesche Legal Clinic. She also worked for Ireland’s Refugee Legal Services in Dublin, IE and has experience with International Litigation and Immigration Law.

While in private practice, Elizabeth focused her efforts on civil and domestic litigation, contract negotiation, estate planning, alternative dispute resolution practices, and civil appellate work. She enjoyed assisting individuals and companies navigate the complexities of the judicial system in responsible, efficient and creative ways.

As Director of Development at TU Law, Elizabeth oversaw all aspects of development, patron relations, agreement negotiations, and institutional advancement. Most recently, Elizabeth helped obtain funding for and was instrumental in the creation of a new Civil Legal Clinic that will help provide additional access to justice avenues for individuals in our community.

Elizabeth has been a member of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, and American Bar Associations since 2010 and was named Rising Star by Super Lawyer Magazine while in private practice from 2011-2014. She has volunteered for a variety of charitable organizations, including Legal Aid of Oklahoma, OBA Young Lawyers Division and most recently the TCBA Membership Committee where she focused her efforts on membership benefits and retention. She was also invited to serve on the TU Law Alumni Association Board of Directors in 2011 and served on the executive committee as Vice President until 2014.

At MIRATECH, Elizabeth is based in our Corporate office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She oversees Human Resources throughout our various locations and serves as General Counsel. She focuses her efforts on employee engagement, making MIRATECH the best place to work, and a variety of legal issues.

Elizabeth is currently licensed to practice law in the State of Oklahoma and in the Northern District Court of Oklahoma, United States Federal Court.

Mr. Merillat is the Vice President of Operations, with his responsibility managing facilities in Prior Lake, Winnipeg, Knoxville, and Tulsa. He is responsible for managing operating expenditures, capital equipment investments, and overall labor and quality control performance. He has worked for MIRATECH since 2007, where he started as an Application Engineer. He progressed through the company in varying leadership capacities, managing the Application and Design Engineering teams, as well as Inside Sales, and moving into his most recent assignment in 2020.

Mr. Merillat holds an advanced degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from University of Michigan, and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Tulsa.

Stefan Fuss is Managing Director of MIRATECH’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Operations. Fuss joined MIRATECH in January 2022, and he is based at the company’s EMEA Headquarters in Sinntal, Germany.

Fuss joined MIRATECH after spending four years as CEO of Hug Engineering in Switzerland, where he successfully achieved the improved strategic and operation set-up and globalization of the group, leading to a significant increase in operational efficiencies and profit.

Prior to his time at Hug, Fuss served as Executive Vice President and Senior Vice President at Heraeus from 2010 to 2016, where he was the Global Head of Sales and Marketing and Head of Global Business Unit Catalysts, respectively. Fuss also spent 12 years early in his career at Sud-Chemie AG, starting as a Product Manager and working his way up to Vice President.

Fuss attended Darmstadt University where he studied Chemical Technology. As a globally acting manager, he is fully fluent in German and English.

Kenneth Mui is Vice President of Operational Engineering and joined MIRATECH in 2022.  He is responsible for strategic development of global engineering activities and coordinates effective product launches that meet customer quality standards.

In previous roles, he has established production facilities in China and built a “Follow the Sun” model for 24/7 engineering support with teams based in the US, Europe and Asia. He began his career in New York City as a Mechanical Engineer developing medical imaging equipment for Schick Technologies, Inc. and moved to Tulsa when he joined Skycam, LLC as their Chief Engineer. He entered the oil and gas industry as a Program Manager for FWMurphy and solidified his knowledge of automated industrial welding equipment as Director of Engineering at Preston Eastin, Inc.  He expanded his knowledge of Oil and Gas equipment with air-cooled heat exchangers at Chart Industries, Inc. as VP of Engineering.

Mui has a BS in Agricultural / Biological Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, an MS in Manufacturing Engineering and an Executive MBA from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, formerly known as Brooklyn Polytechnic University.