About TORAD
For the past 10 years TORAD Engineering has been developing the next generation refrigerant compressor. Our patented rotary spool compressor technology is designed to enable cost effective adoption of zero global warming air-conditioning across a broad range of applications.
TORAD’s compressor holds the promise of breakthrough cost and efficiency for zero global warming air-conditioning applications. TORAD Inc. is a privately held Climate Tech company.
Leadership Team
Combining a passion for innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and our deep business experience across multiple verticals and company sizes, we are focused on delivering an innovative technology to transform the air-conditioning and refrigeration marketplace.
Our previous successes, from Fortune 1000 to early stage companies have positioned TORAD for the future to improve the cost and energy efficiency of key industrial markets. TORAD’s leaders are also intent on attracting and inspiring like-minded professionals who share a passion for cooperation and continuously enhancing TORAD technology and products for current and future generations.
Gary Parsons
Executive Chairman
As executive chairman, Gary is responsible for TORAD’s financial management, investor relations and strategic planning. With an academic background in engineering and business administration, Gary Parsons has spent over 40 years in the communications-media-technology (CMT) industry.
His primary achievements include the founding and early stage development of a number of companies (XM Satellite Radio, NextNav, SkyTerra, Siden, TerreStar, MCImetro, and Telecom*USA), each of which attained multi-billion dollar enterprise values.
He currently serves on the Boards of Omnispace, Devas Multimedia.
Gary holds multiple patents and has received numerous industry and business recognitions, including induction into the Space Technology Hall of Fame by the US Space Foundation in 2002.
Greg Kemp
Founder & CEO
As founder and CEO, Greg is responsible for the business development and market analysis, product innovation and design. He is the inventor and visionary behind TORAD’s revolutionary spool machine technology and holds multiple patents.
Greg is a serial entrepreneur who founded KnowledgeStorm (technology search engine) and grew the company to $10M in revenue before being sold to TechTarget in 2008. Previously, Greg held executive-level sales and marketing positions with Documentum, Dunn and Bradstreet Software, and Rockwell Automation. Greg has written and published numerous papers on HVAC and mechanical engineering topics. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois with highest honors.
Joe Orosz
President & COO
Joe has overall responsibility for TORAD’s strategy, organization, and operations. He has worked in the HVAC/R and compressor industry for 24 years gaining experience building businesses in the US, Europe, and Asia.
He has served a wide variety of technical and leadership roles with companies such as SSCI, Dunham-Bush, Hartford Compressor, Danfoss Scroll and Danfoss-Turbocor, including Director of Engineering, President of Operations, and President and Chief Executive Officer.
Prior to Joining TORAD, Joe served as President of Ithaka Strategy, a consultancy firm assisting early-stage product commercialization and business model renewal strategy.
Joe has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut (1984) and holds multiple patents.
John Montgomery
Director Advanced Manufacturing
John is responsible for the overall development and implementation of all manufacturing processes and quality management systems. John has more than 25 years directly related to precision compressor manufacturing.
Prior to TORAD, John was instrumental in the launch of Danfoss US scroll manufacturing, including coordination in machining operations at the Wujing, China facility.
John was Engineering Value Stream Director at the Scroll Technologies division in US.
John has held operationally critical positions as a tooling/manufacturing engineer and director.
John holds a B.S. in Manufacturing Engineering Technology from Central Connecticut State University. He is a Six Sigma Black belt and has extensive lean leadership and quality management system training.
Advisory Board
We Have an Incredible Group of Industry Experts Helping Us Every Step of the Way.
Dr. Eckhard A. Groll
Purdue University
Reilly Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Eckhard A. Groll is the Reilly Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and currently serves as the William E. and Florence E. Perry Head of Mechanical Engineering. He joined Purdue University as an Assistant Professor in 1994 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2000, to Professor in 2005, to Reilly Professor in 2013, and to Reilly Distinguished Professor in 2024. He received his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the Ruhr in Bochum, Germany, in 1989 and his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hannover, Germany, in 1994.
Prof. Groll teaches thermodynamics, and his research focuses on the fundamental thermal sciences as applied to advanced energy conversion systems, components, and their working fluids. He is a world-renowned expert in positive displacement compressors and expanders. Since joining Purdue University, he has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 160 research grants and more than 50 educational grants with a total budget of more than $18 million from various governmental agencies, professional societies, and more than 30 different industrial sponsors. He has advised and co-advised 37 PhD students, close to 100 MS students and more than 190 undergraduate project students, visiting scholars, and visiting research associates. He has authored or co-authored 170 archival journal articles and more than 320 conference papers. He has been the co-author of 7 book chapters and the editor or co-editor of 7 conference proceedings. He holds 10 patents. He has given more than 110 invited lectures and seminars, and 16 conference keynote lectures. He served as the Regional Editor for the Americas for the International Journal of Refrigeration for 17 years and is a fellow of ASHRAE and ASME. He has organized and chaired 11 international conferences on topics of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, Compressors, and Natural Working Fluids.
Prof. Groll has been recognized for his academic leadership in higher education. He is a 2010-2011 Fellow of the American Council on Education (ACE) and 2009-2010 Fellow of the Academic Leadership Program of the Committee on Institutional Collaboration (CIC-ALP). He has received numerous awards for his research and teaching excellence including most notably the 2024 F. Paul Anderson Award (ASHRAE's highest technical achievement award), being named a 2020 Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers in Scotland, the 2018 J&E Hall International Gold Medal in Refrigeration by the Institute of Refrigeration, and the 2017 Peter Ritter von Rittinger International Heat Pump Award by the IEA Heat Pump Centre. In addition, he was inducted into Purdue’s Book of Great Teachers in 2008.
Dr. Craig Bradshaw
University of Illinois
Executive Director of the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Center (ACRC) and Associate Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering
Craig Bradshaw is the Executive Director of the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Center (ACRC) and Associate Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. At ACRC, Dr. Bradshaw oversees 25+ pre-competitive research projects supported by 20+ companies applied to HVAC&R and other thermal management applications. He earned his BSME and PhD from Purdue University in 2007 and 2012, respectively. Until 2024, he was an Associate Professor and Carol M. Leonard Fellow at Oklahoma State University where he founded an industry/university cooperative research center, emphasizing collaborative development in HVAC&R systems. Prior to 2016 he was the Manager of Research and Development at Torad Engineering. Dr. Bradshaw is an expert in compressor modeling and development for heat pump, air-conditioning, refrigeration, waste-heat recovery, and industrial air applications. His research has led to over 100 publications and 4 patents.
Charlie Paparelli
Charlie is President and founder of Paparelli Ventures, a pre-formation investment company focused on entrepreneurs in the Atlanta technology market. Paparelli Ventures has funded over 16 Atlanta startups in the last 15 years, including TORAD. Charlie brings more than 30 years of experience in the information technology industry to TORAD, having served as entrepreneur, executive, IT Services incubator founder and venture capitalist. As an angel investor, Charlie leverages this experience to help seasoned professionals achieve the dream of starting and building their own companies.
He is also a frequent guest speaker on topics such as Raising Angel Funding, Bootstrapping, Going to Market, and Are You an Entrepreneur? Charlie is Chairman of High-Tech Ministries, the sponsor of the Atlanta High Tech Prayer Breakfast. He is a member of the Technology Association of Georgia, the Technology Executive Roundtable, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Forum, the CEO Council and Church of the Apostles.