Company Founders

VRHabilis founders Elliott Adler and Tom Rancich are U.S. Navy veterans with extensive practical and leadership experience in military and civilian demolition, explosive ordnance disposal and deep sea diving.

Elliott Adler

Elliott Adler, co-founder of VRHabilisElliott Adler has more than 24 years of military and civilian demolition and explosive ordnance disposal experience. Elliott is a qualified Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician and an Unlimited Dive Supervisor. He is experienced in all aspects of program management, on and off site project management, construction and industrial safety, quality control oversight, sampling and environmental monitoring, site characterization and hazard analysis, and environmental regulations such as Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERLA), Clean Water Act (CWA), etc.

As Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy, Elliott Adler oversaw the high risk training of over 150,000 recruits while stationed at the Naval Training Station at Great Lakes. He is the veteran of multiple overseas deployments and assignments. After retiring from the Navy in 1996, Elliott entered the commercial unexploded ordnance industry and worked his way from field technician to program manager. Elliott holds two US Patents for range targets and remediation and is in the process of securing a third for the modification of underwater clearance tools.

Tom Rancich

Tom Rancich, co-founder of VRHabilisBronze Star winner LCDR Tom Rancich is a combat veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Tom is the only Naval Officer in recent history to be qualified in three warfare specialties: Surface Warfare Officer, Special Operations Officer and Special Warfare Officer. He is also a qualified Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician, Deep Sea Diving Officer and maintains a US Coast Guard 100 ton Master license.

Tom earned his Masters of Business Administration from William and Mary University in 2001. Tom sits on the board of the Emergency Film Group and is an Associate of the Institute for National Security and Counter Terrorism.  Tom was recently invited to present an address at the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions conference held in Prague, Poland.

Tom Rancich is also a member of the Construction Institute’s Social and Environmental Concerns in Construction Committee. The Committee’s members, who focus on social, economic, technological and environmental concerns in construction, believe that VRHabilis’s business model, which is informed by both social justice and profit concerns, embodies the core vision and mission of the committee and its work.

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