Avista Technologies, Inc. Celebrates its 25th Anniversary in Membrane Treatment Solutions
This year marks a significant milestone in membrane treatment solutions as Avista celebrates its 25th anniversary marked by innovation, dedication, and excellence in pioneering membrane treatment technologies.
From its humble beginnings in San Marcos, CA in 1999, Avista has evolved into a premier provider of membrane treatment solutions worldwide, offering a variety of products and services and serving various industries and customers in over 100 countries.
Back in 1999, in the early days of RO specialty chemicals, co-founder and former CEO of Avista, Dave Walker, took a leap of faith and decided to start a new RO specialty chemical company. Despite initial struggles to secure funding and slight skepticism from industry peers, Avista steadily gained traction and weathered the challenges faced by industry consolidation and revenue loss in the early 2000s. By 2017, Avista became a formidable player in the market, attracting acquisition interest from Kurita Water Industries. Though there was initial reluctance, a deal was eventually struck between Kurita and Avista, and thus Avista became a global brand of Kurita in 2019.
Avista is known for the introduction of disruptive technologies such as a “green” chemical product line (2006), Chromatic Elemental Imaging℠ (2013) for organic foulant identification, Avista Black Box (2014) for remote troubleshooting, Avista™ Advisor™Ci (2015) chemical dosing with complex ion technology, Avista Center of Excellence (2021), and the AvistaClean™ MF/UF product line (2023) to improve pretreatment results. The integration as a global brand of Kurita and the seamless leadership transition from co-founder Dave Walker to Toshi Maema in 2023 further underscore Avista’s journey of growth and evolution. The abundance of company milestones can be found here.
Avista owes much of its success to its dedicated employees over the past two and a half decades and has even earned a spot on The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Top Workplaces list in the small business category for both 2022 and 2023. Notable tenured employees include Mario Trevino (Regional Manager, Application & Sales, Latin America & Caribbean, 2000-Present); Jesus Pabloff (Facilities and Warehouse Operations Manager, 2000-Present); Juan Hernandez (Customer Support Services, OSCAR, 2001-Present); Tim Kirk (Territory Manager, Application & Sales, South Central, 2003-Present); Ken Robinson (Director, Application & Sales, North America, 2007-Present); Sara Pietsch (VP of Research & Development, 2010-Present); Doug Eisberg (Global Business Development, Membrane Treatment Solutions, 2010-Present); Armando Aviles (Technical Services, 2010–Present); and Melissa Kaysen (VP of Business Planning and Strategy, 2014-Present).
“Since I joined Avista a year ago, I’ve seen the truly impressive relationships our teams have formed, some lasting for a quarter of a century. The company has a remarkable history, from its modest origins to its current position. Our path has been marked by challenges overcome, goals reached, and dreams fulfilled. We appreciate the partners that have supported us with their constant dedication that has propelled not only us but the industry forward, and the endless opportunities that await us. You have been essential to our success.” – Toshi Maema, CEO & President.
Driven by a steadfast commitment to innovation, Avista continues to lead the way in developing high performance membrane technologies and best practices that optimize membrane systems. Through the Avista Center of Excellence’s (CoE) global collaboration, we will introduce new digital solutions and membrane chemicals for applications such as byproduct reuse and high recovery systems to realize Kurita’s vision for a more sustainable world. Knowledge exchange and transfer is a critical priority for the Avista CoE to develop the next generation of membrane process experts and continue advancing membrane treatment solutions to keep the world blue.
