OUR STORY

Hello, I'm Reid Thornley. I'm the owner of Aquatell Canada and I'm the author of most of the content you'll find on the site. And for content that I didn't write myself, I most certainly supervised the people who wrote it and can vouch for it's accuracy.

The subject of residential water treatment is an important one as it relates directly to human health and wellbeing. So I'd like to tell you about myself and about the journey that led to the creation of this business, because I want you to know that this business was built to help people. Through my education, work experiences, and my tenacity and curiosity, I'm somebody you can trust to tell you the truth about this important topic.

You can see my resumé on LinkedIn here. You'll see that I have a Biology degree from Western University. My educational experience gave me a great understanding of the fundamentals of chemistry, biochemistry, ecology, and physics and prepared me well to look for a job where I could use these skills. My father was an environmental scientist at the Ministry of the Environment and through him I gained an appreciation for our natural environment and especially in water and water quality. So I went looking for a job related to that subject matter.

I began my formal work experience in 2000 as a Research and Development associate at major water treatment manufacturer called Trojan Technologies. At Trojan I was deployed to field research stations where I was responsible for testing prototypes of new ultraviolet disinfection equipment for the treatment of wastewater. I would install equipment, run it, and then use a biological assay technique to see if the new prototype was a performance improvement. After two years in this role, I moved into sales where I learned that I was able to take complex science-centric topics and make them understandable to my customers.

It was also through this sales experience that I came to learn that the residential water treatment industry had a problem: the subject matter was very "sciencey" but the sales channels used by equipment manufacturers weren't very good at translating the science to actionable information for consumers. In other words, there were lots of confused consumers with unsolved water quality issues.

I left the water treatment industry in 2004 to work for a computer components manufacturer in London, ON, called StarTech and I ended up in charge of their online sales division. I got to visit and "see behind the curtain" of the top eCommerce computer components companies in North America. I found their sales models fascinating. It was the dawn of eCommerce and what struck me most was the reach these companies had. They could put content on their websites and a staggering number of people could see it.

In 2007 I decided to strike out on my own. I combined my love of water, water quality, and water treatment with what I learned about business models in the computing industry and launched Aquatell. My goal was, and continues to be to provide an education-first approach to selling residential water treatment products. We have and will continue to strive to help consumers figure out how to solve complex water issues and do it with honesty and integrity. In 2015 I was able to achieve the highly coveted Master Water Specialist designation with the Water Quality Association.

More recently, I was asked to join the board of directors of the Canadian Water Quality Association. In this role my main focus is to help this organization modernize its web presence to reach more consumers and potential member companies.