Legionella services, education and ASHRAE risk management services expand
March 9, 2016 (Pittsburgh, Pa.)—Special Pathogens Laboratory (SPL) announced today that Bill Pearson, CWT, has joined SPL to expand the firm’s Legionella services, including education and ASHRAE 188 risk management resources. Pearson comes with a wealth of experience in industrial water treatment and business development having spent the last 40 years at Southeastern Laboratories, Inc., where he served as executive vice president and director of sales, consulting and technical services since 1989. As a biologist, biochemist, and certified water treatment professional, Pearson brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in professional and trade organizations, in which he specializes in bridging the gap between water treatment and Legionella management programs.
Bill Pearson will serve as SPL’s Senior Vice President of Business Development to meet the urgent demand for Legionella education and prevention, especially among the water treatment industry, while advancing SPL’s goal to end Legionnaires’ disease.
“Legionella knowledge and preventing Legionnaires’ disease has been my passion since the historic outbreak in Philadelphia in 1976. As a biology major fresh out of academia, I was fascinated by Legionella and endeavored to learn all I could. And now, since the passage of ASHRAE Standard 188 and the New York City legislation, the demand for people with combined expertise in Legionella is huge but scarce. That’s why SPL was the only choice for me,” says Pearson, the author of numerous publications on water treatment and Legionellosis, including the Association Water Technologies (AWT) Legionella document, and numerous technical manuals, educational training workshops and seminars.
“I’m excited to join the world’s authority on Legionella and use my technical expertise and love of teaching to advance ending this disease. Legionnaires’ disease is a preventable disease so why not prevent it?” he says.
Pearson is one of only two American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) approved instructors for their ALI course on ANSI/ASHRAE 188-2015: Legionellosis: Risk Management for Building Water Systems. He is past chair (2007-2009) of the ASHRAE Water Treatment Technical Committee, and a voting member on the ASHRAE SSPC-188 (Legionellosis) committee and the Cooling Technology Institute (CTI) Legionellosis committee.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Bill to the SPL team,“ says Dr. Janet E Stout, president and director of Special Pathogens Laboratory. “Few in the industry possess Bill’s enthusiasm, leadership, knowledge, and depth of experience in both water treatment and Legionella prevention. I can think of no other person better than Bill to build strong, lasting partnerships with the water treatment industry and advance the prevention of Legionnaires’ disease.”
A past AWT president and board member, Bill is the recipient of the prestigious Ray Baum Water Technologist award. A leader in many water treatment technical trade associations, he serves as the AWT liaison to ASHRAE and CTI, and is on AWT’s Task Force to the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), the Green Task Force to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)and leads the Legionella Task Force.
Special Pathogens Laboratory, The Legionella Experts®, helps prevent Legionnaires’ disease through a cohesive strategy to detect, control, and remediate Legionella and waterborne pathogens in water systems. Founded by Drs. Janet Stout and Victor Yu, world-renowned experts in Legionnaires’ disease prevention, SPL provides Legionella and pathogens testing, education, and expert consultation based evidence-based research to healthcare, hospitality, and water treatment industries, as well as government, commercial and industrial sectors.