Meet the Co-founders
When you meet us and our team for the first time, you will immediately pick up on our passion for both business and environmental success. While we are a U.S. start-up, our co-founders have decades of combined experience and know what it takes to cut through red tape while fostering the highest level of quality, innovation and speed in delivering science-driven business solutions.
The VSol Group was founded in 2002 in Brazil where it leads the environmental science industry in air, water, and soil contaminant risk investigation, laboratory testing, and financial project analysis. VSol’s U.S. partner, Volterre Environmental, was co-founded by Kelly Horiuchi in the Greater Los Angeles area in 2022 along with VSol Brazil executives Michel Tognoli and Rafael Sato. We envision an entire new business model and cutting-edge technical solutions for air, soil and water quality testing. Our clients see and feel the difference in both the quality and speed of results. We have active environmental projects in both the U.S. and Brazil.
People and Superpowers
Kelly Horiuchi – Innovation, solutions, and forever learning are her passion. Wife and mother of two teenage girls, Kelly has tackled many careers in EMT, culinary, finance, and environmental sciences. The common theme throughout all of her experiences is fixing problems and finding solutions. Her 20 years of experience across business and science gave her a core foundation to understand all kinds of situations and customer needs. With a bachelor’s degree in Biology and minors in both Psychology and Entrepreneurship, Kelly’s superpower is blending business strategy with data-driven scientific solutions. She brings both her environmental lab management experience and financial risk perspective to the table to bring a holistic perspective on profitability, people, and the planet. She remains a senior account executive with Transformation Financial and partnered with the VSol Group to bring new business and environmental solutions, technology, and testing devices to the U.S. in 2022.
Michel Tognoli – Business specialist, relationship builder, and happy guy with a sustainable life. Michel is a husband and father with proven business success and technical depth. Unencumbered by past environmental lab models and government bureaucracies, he seeks to innovate and provide small and large business clients with the best “triple bottom line” strategies across Profits, People, and the Planet. With over 16 years of consulting, business development, marketing, and management experience, Michel provides a unique understanding of different client needs. His superpower is creating successful partnerships.
Rafael Sato – A visionary, chemical analysis strategist, and innovator, Rafael has over 15 years of hands-on technical experience leading, developing, and supervising environmental laboratory and field projects. He attributes his consistent reputation in delivering success to the application of intelligent effort. He is an excellent teacher and connector of people. Working with clients across many industries has helped him anticipate potential challenges and create novel, scientifically sound, and legally defensible solutions that avert costly mistakes and potential liability. He is also a father and husband, and strives for a better, more sustainable world for his children.
Volterre Environmental opened in late 2022 staffed with fantastic chemists and analysts in its Camarillo, CA offices – along with a vast national network of specialists to help complete projects with great focus and speed. You will meet the team assigned to your project along with hands-on leadership from Kelly Horiuchi once the exact nature, methods and timeline of your project are determined.
