South Carolina Business Review

SC-born compressed natural gas technology wins award

By Mike Switzer

Published April 14, 2022 at 5:30 AM EDT

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More and more light-duty truck and van fleets are turning to compressed natural gas as a cleaner alternative fuel. But it can be very expensive to start up such an operation which is why our next guest’s technology that can dramatically lower that capital investment was a finalist at the most recent Innovision technology awards program. Mike Switzer interviews Erik Versen with Ingevity in North Charleston, SC.

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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.

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