Management Team

Tom Pokorsky

CEO and Managing Director

Tom Pokorsky is CEO and Managing Director of Fluence Corporation. Mr. Pokorsky has 35 years of successful water industry executive experience, including 15 years as CEO working in North America, with activity in Europe, China and Israel. Mr. Pokorsky has run public and private businesses, achieving returns of 5–10x with IRRs up to 50%. He founded and grew Nexom in the wastewater sector, delivering 25% annual revenue growth and 50% EBITDA growth, leading to its sale to KKR. At Water Pollution Control Corporation (later “Sanitaire”), Tom doubled revenue and profits, negotiated its sale to ITT Industries, and then grew its Advanced Water Treatment group (now part of Xylem) from $60M to $350M in four years, including $100M in organic growth and five successful acquisitions on three continents.

Tony Hargrave

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Tony Hargrave is Chief Operating Officer of Fluence and is responsible for the Company’s global business and operational development. He has nearly 30 years of experience in water industry management in Europe, North America and across Asia.

Before joining Fluence, Mr. Hargrave served as Director of Civil Engineering, Water and Environment of Capita Property and Infrastructure. Prior to Capita, Mr. Hargrave served at the Degremont Group as President and Chief Executive Officer of Infilco Degremont, a company that provides water and wastewater treatment systems and products throughout the United States and Canada. Prior to this, Mr. Hargrave held other senior roles within Degremont, including Regional Director for Asia Pacific based in Paris, Managing Director for China based in Beijing, and Commercial Director for India based in New Delhi. Prior to that, he served as a Project Manager and Operations Manager from Wessex Water Group.

Mr. Hargrave is a chartered Engineer and holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with 1st Class Honors from Royal Navy Engineering College, Plymouth and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Bath. He served in the Royal Navy for nearly 10 years, where he specialized as a navigator.

Natalya Medinina

VP, CORPORATE CONTROLLER

Natalya Medinina serves as the VP, Corporate Controller of Fluence, where she is responsible for accounting operations, including financial reports, internal controls and budgeting.

Ms. Medinina has 20 years of experience in US GAAP and IFRS reporting, technical accounting, internal controls and FP&A.
Prior to joining Fluence, she was responsible for consolidation and internal reporting as a senior manager, accounting, at Sojitz Corporation of America, a US subsidiary of the Japanese integrated global trading company. Prior to that, Ms. Medinina worked as an internal audit manager and a consolidation and internal reporting manager for Quintiles Transnational Corporation (now iQVIA), an American multinational company serving the combined industries of health information technology and clinical research. Ms. Medinina began her career as a public accountant with KPMG.

Ms. Medinina is a NY State CPA and a Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA). She received her B.S. in Accounting from the State University of Ivanovo, Russia.

Ben Fash

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Ben Fash is the Chief Financial Officer of Fluence and is responsible for all financial, accounting, corporate development, information technology, human resources and administrative aspects of Fluence.

Mr. Fash has more than 10 years of strategic financial and operational leadership, mostly in the water treatment equipment and services industry, prior to which he spent 8 years in private equity and investment banking. His experience includes a unique combination of financial operating experience in addition to M&A execution, capital raising, company-building and strategic decision-making.

Before joining Fluence, Mr. Fash was CFO of Dumas Mining, a niche underground services provider in the mining industry. Prior to Dumas, Mr. Fash was EVP & CFO of Newterra, a global leader in providing modular water and wastewater treatment equipment and services. Partnering with their private equity owners, Ben was part of the executive team that led Newterra to double the size of the business, all while increasing profitability and improving cash flow management in all segments of the business, which ultimately led to a successful exit in 2020.

Prior to joining Newterra in 2012, Mr. Fash worked at Birch Hill Equity Partners, Canada’s pre-eminent mid-market private equity firm, where he was part of several platform acquisitions and supported a variety of existing portfolio companies. Further, Mr. Fash started his career in Investment Banking, spending several years at both Credit Suisse and RBC Capital Markets.

Mr. Fash graduated with a degree in Economics and Law from Williams College in Massachusetts.

Richard Cisterna

CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER

Richard Cisterna serves as the Chief Strategy Officer of Fluence and is responsible for Fluence’s corporate strategy, business and market development, partnerships, and acquisitions to drive business growth. Mr. Cisterna has 30 years of executive leadership and business development experience in the water and wastewater market and has led the development of over US$1 billion of projects for municipal, industrial, and commercial clients.

He is the Founder and President of Renewable Organics Infrastructure, a consulting and advisory company that focuses on sustainable infrastructure projects and technologies. Prior to ROI, Mr. Cisterna served as Executive Vice President of Business Development with Natural Systems Utilities and as part of the executive leadership team, where he led the firm’s development of decentralized water infrastructure solutions. Previously he was a partner at Hazen and Sawyer, an international water and wastewater engineering consulting firm, where he led business development in several geographic regions and served on the corporate strategic planning committee.

Mr. Cisterna received his M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University and his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno. He is a licensed professional engineer in the State of New York.

Spencer D. Smith, Esq.

CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER

Spencer D. Smith serves as the Chief Legal Officer of Fluence with responsibility for the legal affairs of the Company and providing counsel to the Board of Directors, the Chief Executive Officer and other members of senior management. Prior to Fluence, Mr. Smith served as the General Counsel for RWL Water.

Prior to joining RWL Water in 2016, Mr. Smith practiced corporate law at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in New York where he served as the principal outside legal counsel to RWL Water. While at Akin Gump, Mr. Smith maintained a diverse and active corporate transactional practice focused on representing public and private companies, private equity firms, hedge funds and family offices in connection with significant corporate events, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, restructurings, distressed asset sales and commercial contracts. Mr. Smith also regularly advised boards of directors, senior management, shareholders and creditors on all aspects of corporate governance matters. Prior to joining Akin Gump in 2011, Mr. Smith worked for IAP Worldwide Services, a government contractor and former Cerberus portfolio company, and practiced law at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York.

Mr. Smith graduated from Colgate University with a B.A. in Political Science and received his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. He is a member of the New York Bar.