Quint M. Barefoot: 2022 Distinguished Engineering Alumni

November 9, 2022 Staff

Quint M. Barefoot received the Distinguished Engineering Alumni (DEA) award during a dinner and ceremony on campus on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022.

Quint earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from NC State in 1985 and completed his MBA at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in 1996. His career is highlighted by leading successful entrepreneurial entities from the start-up phase to the ultimate sale and integration into publicly traded firms.

After completing engineering school, Quint joined Four Seasons Environmental, Inc. and proceeded to lead the company through a rapid growth phase from less than $1M in annual revenue to $42M employing over 280 personnel in six offices at the time the business was sold to Great Lakes Chemical Corporation. Thereafter, he continued as the president leading the firm as a division of a publicly traded company expanding to 16 offices with over 500 employees applying remediation technologies on environmental clean-up projects.

After Four Seasons, he was a founder of Monosep, LLC, started in 2001 as a firm providing water treatment systems to the energy sector. The company is now integrated into Siemens Water Technologies.

Thereafter, Quint started Zappa-Tec, LLC, a polymer converting business focusing on super absorbent polymer compounds used in telecommunication products, energy applications and medical devices. The business was acquired by a publicly traded company, Chase Corporation.

Quint is presently the CEO of Info-Gel, LLC, which produces thixotropic gels for the fiber optic industry.

Quint has been extremely generous to the College of Engineering and the CBE Department with his time and his financial support. Quint served two terms, from 2001 to 2009, on the Engineering Foundation Board of Directors. He has been a frequent speaker on campus including serving as the keynote speaker at the 2018 COE Welcome Event and delivering the commencement address at the 2010 CBE graduation ceremony. He has spoken to the CBE senior design class every year for the past 17 years and he has participated in the college’s summer engineering camp for at least 10 years.

Quint created two endowments at NC State: the Robert M. Barefoot Scholarship named in honor of his father and the $100,000 Barefoot Family Academic Enhancement Fund. The academic enhancement fund provides support for the Barefoot Ambassador program and for our AIChE Student Chapter. In recognition of his professional accomplishments and contributions to NC State, Quint was named a CBE Distinguished Alumni in 2019.

The award was established by the faculty of the College in 1966 to honor engineering graduates who have been recognized for outstanding achievements in planning and direction of engineering work; fostering professional development of young engineers; contributing to knowledge in the field of engineering; or bringing, in other ways, distinction to the University through engineering achievement.

Nominations for this prestigious award come from members of the Engineering faculty, and a vote by faculty representatives determines the recipients of the award.