MEET THE INVENTOR: BILL CONVERSE
THE ORIGINAL AIR PURIFIER FOR PETS – CRITTERZONE
William Converse is the president and inventor of CritterZone – the first-ever air purifier for pets and people. He has three decades of experience in the air purification industry.
Converse launched Alpine Industries in the 1980s when he developed a product that helped rid the air of contaminants. His wife noticed her headaches stopped when she was around the air purifier. Converse realized he was onto something, but the company he was working for at the time wasn’t interested in the technology he was inventing. He started his own company, and it quickly became a springboard for numerous product successes, including air purifiers. Alpine grew from revenues of $7 million in 1994 to $187 million in 1997.
As his product lines grew, Converse became a pioneer of non-filter air cleaning technology, especially in the home. He has served on the board of Indoor Air Quality and is a sought-after consultant in the air-quality industry.
Converse has been a guest on numerous radio programs and has testified at a Congressional hearing on air quality issues. He has been invited to speak at several university-sponsored indoor air quality conferences. He has shared his knowledge at an air-quality symposium of advanced oxidation techniques at the University of Beijing, as well as air-quality conferences in Canada and Japan and a medical conference in Mexico.
Converse also has used his expertise to help tackle high-profile global air pollution problems. He was invited by the Australian government to help Sydney reduce air pollution in the city’s tunnels. He also traveled to Kuwait after Desert Storm to help fight pollution resulting from the burning oil fields. After the tragedy of 9-11, Converse worked with the U.S. government to improve the air quality at the Pentagon.
He also holds a patent for a new air-purification system for use in food-processing plants.
Converse retired in 2002, but he couldn’t turn off his drive to invent. A few years later, he decided to return to the air purification industry. In 2013, Converse launched an innovative all-in-one pet odor eliminator and air purifier – CritterZone.
