Tony Novello

Experience

Tony Novello is Operations Manager II at Element Fort Wayne, where he serves as Technical Director for both the ISO 17025/ISDH/NELAP accredited environmental laboratory and the ISO/IEC 17025/AOAC compliant food testing laboratory. He leads a team of approximately 50 employees across four laboratories, overseeing day-to-day operations including the organics and metals departments, route coordination, sample collection and courier services, and the food laboratory. In this role he manages complex P&Ls, prepares budgets and CapEx rationale, and drives throughput improvement through method development, optimization, and new methodology validation.

Prior to joining Element, Tony spent over six years as a Laboratory Scientist at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), where he served as PFAS Deputy Technical Manager and developed and implemented USEPA Methods 537.1, 533, 8327, and 1633 while supporting the laboratory’s Department of Defense certification. There he also supported EGLE’s laboratory certification officer in auditing all drinking water certified laboratories across the state of Michigan for EPA Methods 537.1 and 533. Earlier in his career, Tony held scientific roles at Neogen Corporation – where he worked across food safety microbiology, product validation, and customer-facing technical services – and at Michigan State University as both a Research Technologist and Laboratory Manager.

Career Highlights

Tony is a recognized expert in PFAS analysis by LC-MS/MS, with hands-on experience developing, validating, and implementing USEPA drinking water methods 537.1 Rev 2.0 and 533, environmental methods SW-846 8327 with isotope dilution, and CWA 1633A across both aqueous and solid matrices. At Element Fort Wayne, he has continued to expand this work into more challenging matrices, developing and standardizing procedures for low-level PFAS detection in food, oil, industrial products, and other difficult sample types – directly reducing the laboratory’s reliance on external sublet testing.

His operational leadership at Fort Wayne extends beyond PFAS, encompassing food safety microbiology, organic analysis, and the management of KPIs including turnaround time, on-time delivery, first-time-right rates, test volume, and revenue. He has also contributed to the development of Element’s proprietary LIMS to optimize data entry, quality control automation,sample tracking, and reporting.