Who We Are

Brian E. Pitkin, Co-Founder and CEO
bpitkin@denovoproperties.com

Brian brings years of financial and deal-making expertise and experience to DeNovo. After spending several years in private equity and investment banking in Chicago, Brian returned to family-owned Ulrich Chemical, a Midwest-based multi-location chemical distribution business, in late 2003 where his achievements led to a highly successful sale of the company.

At Ulrich, Brian was responsible for the management and growth of company-wide revenue, gross profit and bottom-line profitability. Over several years he grew the business organically from revenue of $57.7 million in 2003 to full-year 2006 revenue of $83.6 million, while tripling its EBITDA over the same period. Brian then negotiated and fully executed the sale of Ulrich Chemical to Brenntag, a $7 billion global chemical distributor, at a value that dramatically exceeded shareholder expectations.

Brian is also the founder and owner of URI Advisory, LLC, which provides financial advisory services to middle-market companies, including advising and managing company sales, management buyouts, private equity capital raising, acquisitions and recapitalizations, among other strategic endeavors

Jonathon brings years of environmental remediation experience to DeNovo. The sole founder of Compass Environmental in 1995, he grew the company to over $100 million in revenue before selling the company in 2007 to a leading environmental and infrastructure company.

In growing Compass, Jonathon managed a tremendous number of large scale remediation, demolition and decommissioning projects bringing closure to facilities for Fortune 500 clients including ChevronTexaco, Motorola, Phelps Dodge, ConocoPhillips, Dupont, CSX and Pfizer, among many others. Through his successful management and leadership, Compass received numerous awards for its successful growth. Industry experts Engineering News Record ranked Compass as the 65th-largest environmental company in the country, while Environmental Business Journal and Zweig White recognized Compass as the nation's fastest growing environmental firm. All have praised Compass as one of the most dependable and professional remedial construction firms in the marketplace.

Jonathon also has experience in leveraging his remedial expertise in acquiring, remediating and restoring contaminated property. In 2002, he purchased a 300-acre former GST Steel site out of bankruptcy and completed the first major redevelopment on the east side of Kansas City in nearly 20 years.

Dick is responsible for developing and managing all remediation projects for DeNovo Properties. He is a civil engineer with nearly four decades of experience in engineering, environmental remediation and construction.

Prior to working with DeNovo Properties, Dick spent four years as Vice President of Compass Environmental, Inc. and was involved in managing remediation and cleanup projects throughout the country. These projects included thermal treatment, deep soil mixing, soil stabilization and mass removal of contaminated soil, slurry wall construction, mine closures, landfill construction, underwater capping, and water resource developments contracted to governmental and commercial clients.  Before joining Compass Environmental, Dick worked for twenty-seven years for a heavy equipment contractor and was responsible, on all levels, for the management of a wide range of heavy civil construction projects throughout the continental United States. These projects included waste remediation projects, and over one hundred new landfill and landfill closure projects. He also managed the construction of highways, bridges, dams, infrastructure for residential, recreational, commercial, and industrial sites, coal mining, and championship caliber golf course construction. Dick's expertise includes, among other things, estimating, scheduling, negotiating and administering contracts, project management, heavy equipment selection, dispute resolution, and departmental and corporate management.

Dick's first eight years were spent as a designer for a consultant engineering firm. He was involved with projects ranging from federal transportation systems, infrastructure development for commercial and heavy industrial sites, to landfill design and construction oversight. He also performed boundary, topographic, and hydrographic surveys.  Over the span of his career, Mr. Vorpahl has successfully completed hundreds of projects totaling more than two billion dollars of completed contract value.