South Carolina is Home to a World Class Water Treatment Company

By Mike Switzer

Published November 11, 2016 at 5:33 AM EST

After many years working as an engineer in the nuclear industry, our next guest and his partner, decided to take the entrepreneurial leap in 1999 and start a company that designs and builds specialized products and services for the wastewater treatment industry. Since then, the company has worked with more than 150 nuclear facilities in 14 countries including helping in the recovery and clean-up of the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan in 2011. In South Carolina, the company annually recycles more than 50 million gallons of wastewater and 800 million gallons of nuclear wastewater.

Mike Switzer interviews Jim Braun, President and CEO of AvanTech, Inc. in Columbia, SC.

Tags

Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

See stories by Mike Switzer