Mr. Kopcha grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.S. in Physics in 1977. In 1984, he received an MBA in Finance from La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Mr. Kopcha began his working career in 1978 as an environmental consultant for Radiation Management Corp. in the nuclear industry and was involved with the clean up of the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. He was one of three energy consultants for AIG Consultants, a subsidiary of AIG, from 1986-1991. Mr. Kopcha has also done risk management in the insurance industry for a variety of companies. He has run Kopcha Resource Management, L td. since 1991. In 1991, with a business partner, Mr. Kopcha helped finance a wireless  telecommunications joint venture in Czechoslovakia between Slovak Telecom and TRT Philips, a subsidiary of Royal Philips Electronics N.V. Since then, he has done consulting for every major industry represented in the United States.