the soft grid 2014

Ben Bixby is the general manager of energy services at Nest Labs, where he steers Nest's new product and global business development with its energy partners. Ben came to Nest in early 2013 when Nest acquired MyEnergy, the venture-backed energy data technology company he founded in 2007 and led as its CEO --- and which now powers a number of Nest's energy data capabilities. Ben earned his BS from Georgetown University. Together with his wife, he resides in Boston and Palo Alto --- fiercely supporting the Red Sox from both coasts.

Elisabeth Brinton is a trusted senior executive, thought leader and entrepreneur with a track record of successful innovation, execution, value creation and disruption across multiple industries, including Energy, Water, Food, Agriculture, and High Tech. 

Most recently, Elisabeth was the Corporate Strategy Officer for PG&E Corporation, a F200 Energy Holding Company that has been a global utility pioneer in renewables, customer solar, T&D, and energy efficiency.  She launched PG&E’s groundbreaking IOT “Grid of Things” business strategy, ran M&A and strategic investments, and led California’s exploration of new utility business models. Earlier, Elisabeth was the Chief Customer Officer of SMUD, running the $2 Billion Retail P&L for that vertically integrated utility, including complex 24x7, high-stakes operations and a team of 1,000 employees.

An entrepreneur at heart, Elisabeth has been in the C-Suite as an executive officer, CEO or Founder of four successful Silicon Valley start-up companies with technologies and products that were pioneering and disruptive for their time.  Ventures include, Loudcloud that pioneered the ASP business model and the now ubiquitous Cloud, where Elisabeth was on the founding leadership team and ran global marketing, helping the company scale and go public in record time for a US company.  Earlier, Elisabeth was the founder and CEO of her own technical product development and marketing agency where she created a business delivering over $100 million in value, serving both major consumer brands like Pepsico and Nike, and innovative start-ups delivering deep, pioneering work in food, agriculture and high tech, including the development of several patents and commercializing new category creating products like branded, value-added produce and early organic and specialty products from ice cream to natural sodas.

Elisabeth is a chemist and passionate creative, blending scientific/technical expertise with customer centric market innovation, business strategy and policy leadership.  She is a top honors graduate of Principia College with a triple major across scientific and humanities disciplines and both a Harry S. Truman and Lincoln Academy Scholar.  Out of College, Elisabeth worked for the US House of Representatives as a legislative assistant for a member of Congress and the House Judiciary Committee.

Currently, Elisabeth is a voluntary faculty Co-Chair for Singularity University’s Global Energy & Climate track (2013 Executive Program Alum) and serves on the Advisory Boards of Smart Wires, Rancho Purisima Farms, and the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center.

Andrew Cronk is an experienced engineer and entrepreneur driven to make better decisions through data. Andrew learned the power of data-driven leadership early in his career as an engineer at UPS and Motorola, and he used data to enable manufacturing decisions at the crowdfunding company he founded and successfully exited. Before TempoIQ, he partnered with his eventual co-founder Michael Yagley to lead the software development team at an innovative geothermal energy company. This experience revealed to Andrew and Michael the unique challenges of monitoring and analyzing massive streams of real-time sensor data, and they leveraged these insights in architecting TempoIQ’s sensor analytics backend. Andrew holds a Bachelors of Computer Engineering from Kettering University.

Mr. Edry has over 14 years of experience in the field of Communication IT and Data Security.

Mr. Edry served eight years as an officer in the Israeli Air force, leading a team of 250 soldiers in special operations and building new systems and was honorably discharged after rising to  the rank of Captain. During this time, he accumulated a total of 13 degrees and certificates of the highest levels from the world’s most renowned IT and Telecommunications institutes.

Before joining Nation-E, Mr. Edry worked for 3 years at Pelephone as the Head of Data and Security; for strategic organizations and companies, high ranking government officials and very important individuals.

Anil leads global Marketing at Silver Spring Networks, a leading provider of networking platforms for critical infrastructure in both the energy industry and in smart cities.  Prior to Silver Spring, he was at Sun Microsystems as General Manager of the $1 Billion software business composed of the Java platform, MySQL database and middleware. Among various roles at Sun, he was the Chief Marketing Officer with responsibility for all aspects of marketing ranging from product strategy, global demand generation, to market development and partner ecosystem programs.  Anil has a BSEE from Stanford University and an MM degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Kyle Haas is an Energy Policy Manager at the Maryland Energy Administration. He works with industry, environmental and ratepaying stakeholders to develop policies that support the deployment of a more dynamic, resilient and sustainable electric grid. His responsibilities include policy analysis, research, stakeholder engagement and program development. Prior to his position in the Policy, Planning and Analysis division, Kyle served as a Clean Energy Program Manager, where he designed and implemented  MEA’s first online application portal for the Clean Energy Grant Program, streamlining the agencies’ grant process. In this position, Kyle also managed the bioenergy program, focusing on opportunities to leverage resources like waste wood, poultry litter and municipal solid waste in a sustainable way.

A graduate of York College of Pennsylvania and the Vrije University in the Netherlands, Kyle holds a B.A. in Political Science and a MSc. in Environment and Resource Management:  Energy Studies. His graduate studies focused on energy system transitions and the policies that can serve as a catalyst in realizing a more distributed system. Most recently, Kyle co-authored the Resiliency through Microgrids Task Force Report, which laid out a roadmap for the deployment of distributed energy resources and intelligence to create a more resilient, dynamic and affordable grid. He is currently working with stakeholders to realize the recommendations in those reports. He can be reached at kyle.haas@maryland.gov or (410) 260-7523.

Nick Haschka is a Director of Strategy at NRG Energy, Inc's Station A Group. Station A is NRG's internal innovation and business disruption group focused on developing new distributed generation and smart microgrid lines of business through a combination of advanced R&D, strategic planning, and first-of-kind project execution. Nick joined NRG Energy in July 2013 from McKinsey & Company, where he was a member of its Global Energy & Materials management consulting practice. He has served utility and industrial clients across multiple business functions including strategy, finance, sales & marketing, and operations. Prior to McKinsey, Nick co-founded, grew, and sold a solar PV power plant development firm to a fast-growing solar technology manufacturer, where he subsequently managed power plant development efforts and supported its CEO in raising $100M in growth capital. He also advised Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber’s energy policy committee on boosting private sector investment into commercial building energy efficiency. Nick holds an MBA in strategy and social enterprise from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BS in Management Science and Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In his spare time, Nick is active in the MIT alumni association, formerly serving as President of the MIT Club of Chicago, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting MIT initiatives through alumni connectivity, professional development, and local engagement in key issues surrounding K12 STEM education, social entrepreneurship, and technology.

Pulse Energy is led by CEO David Helliwell, whose career has spanned 3 continents and has been focused on the energy sector since 1994. Before starting Pulse Energy in 2006, David was a poorly-paid professional windsurfer, an exploration geophysicist, a Paris-based management consultant to large multinational organizations and director of policy for a cabinet minister in the Canadian federal government. While with the Canadian government, David was responsible for reducing costs and improving environmental performance of 700 million square feet of office space across the country. David is an Action Canada Fellow, a member of the Selection Committee for the Canadian Merit Scholarship, a member of the BC Cleantech CEO Alliance, and is on the Imagine BC advisory board. David and his wife Nancy have two young daughters, and together they enjoy most outdoor activities involving bikes, water and/or mountains.

Mike Kaplan drives Retroficiency’s marketing efforts, including go-to-market strategy, product marketing, and lead-generation campaign development. Prior to Retroficiency, Mike was a strategy consultant for CSMG, where he led dozens of market opportunity assessments, business case development, and investment due diligence engagements for clients in the telecommunications, wireless, and digital media markets.

Previously, Mike held roles at several firms, including fama PR and FitzGerald Communications, managing public relations and marketing campaigns for high-technology organizations, ranging from early stage start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

Mike holds a BA from the University of Rochester and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Ajay Madwesh runs the Center of Excellence and Service Delivery for Space-Time Insight. He has over 21 years of experience in software development and technology management in Utility and Process automation environment, and has spent the last several years evangelizing the integration of Operational Real Time technologies with IT technologies. Ajay has built and run large R&D, Engineering and Service teams at ABB Inc, Infosys Limited and GE Energy, delivering enterprise-level solutions for advanced smart grid applications and operational analytics platforms in on-premise, hosted, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms. He holds BE/BS in Electronics and Telecommunications and an MBA in Finance. Ajay was part of ABB’s Corporate Executive education program at Duke University and GE’s Crotonville leadership program. He also received a Catalyst award at GE in 2010.

As head of the Customer and Community Services Business Unit, Frankie McDermott runs SMUD’s $1.4 billion retail electric business, including customer operations, services, and programs such as energy efficiency, renewables and advanced energy solutions. In addition, his role includes corporate strategy, brand, marketing, communications, and economic and community development.

McDermott served as SMUD’s Customer Services Director from 2010 to 2014. In that role he was responsible for SMUD's overall retail strategy and for managing SMUD’s changing relationships with customers. Prior to that, he served as manager of Enterprise Performance, where he introduced a process to measure SMUD's business performance. Upon first joining SMUD in 2003, he held positions in Supply Chain and General Services.

Before joining SMUD, McDermott held management roles in the semiconductor industry at NEC Electronics in Roseville, California and in Ireland. After engineering school in Ireland, he earned an MBA from Golden Gate University and completed the Berkeley Advanced Management Program at the Haas School of Business at UC-Berkeley.

Badri is a technology leader specializing in transformative business analytics and optimization applications with an emphasis on application of Machine Learning techniques to solve real world, high ROI business problems. Over nearly two decades his career has spanned many verticals including Energy & Utilities, Banking & Financial Services, Retail, Telecom and Healthcare. Prior to FirstFuel, Badri helped lead the development of a global analytics framework for Energy & Utilities at IBM Research. He co-founded Prediction Machines, an analytics startup in the Smart Grid space with proprietary Analytic software. Badri has also held technical and business leadership positions at FICO and SAS Institute, including co-founding and building out FICO's Bangalore, India, offices.

Badri holds a Ph.D. from Northeastern University and MS degrees from IIT Kanpur and Carnegie Mellon University.
 

Deena leads the User Experience (UX) team at Opower, which is responsible for the user experience of the entire suite of Opower products. What gets her out of bed in the morning? The challenge of using persuasive design to motivate, educate, and engage people in a long-term conversation about energy use. Deena has been designing simple, friendly, engaging user experiences for over a decade. She received her Masters of Science in Product Design from Stanford University and her Computer Science degree from Duke University, and has worked for Smart Design, Clif Bar, and Avon Products. She's often seen doodling concepts on post-its, talking to people about Opower, or nagging friends to turn their lights off.

Rogers Weed is Vice President of Product Management for Doosan GridTech, responsible for marketing and product-related business decisions such as pricing, packaging and positioning. Rogers has over 15 years of experience in product management and business roles at Microsoft – he was a Corporate Vice President and part of the company’s Marketing Leadership Team. In 2009, Rogers was appointed by Governor Chris Gregoire to direct Washington State’s Department of Commerce where he provided leadership on economic development issues including the state’s energy policy. Rogers began his career as a Consultant with Bain & Company.

Rick Thompson co-­founded Greentech Media in 2007, leading the company from unknown upstart to the authoritative information services provider covering the transformation of the global electricity system.

Prior to GTM, Thompson spent 15 years at leading technology start­ups, incumbent networking and telecommunications companies, and technology media and market research firms. Rick was senior telecom analyst at Light Reading/Heavy Reading, the dominant online media & research firm in the telecommunications market, acquired by CMP Media in 2005. Mr. Thompson previously served as the vice president of marketing at PanGo Networks, a wireless software startup, and as director of product management and marketing at Sycamore Networks Inc., where he defined the product strategy and launch of the industry’s first intelligent optical switching platform through their IPO in 1999. Under his leadership, Sycamore deployed several of the world’s largest intelligent optical network infrastructures. Prior to joining Sycamore, Rick held product management positions with Packet Engines, a pioneer of Gigabit Ethernet switching that was later acquired by Alcatel; and FORE Systems, a leader in ATM networking that was later acquired by Marconi and, subsequently, Ericsson. Mr. Thompson earned a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Omar Saadeh is a Senior Analyst with GTM Research and is the lead author of the Grid Edge Customer Network executive briefings. Omar has published numerous utility and smart grid market reports covering policy development, the competitive technology landscape, market evolution and business model economics. He has delivered keynote presentations at industry conferences and has contributed to publications such as Bloomberg, ComputerWorld, E&E’s ClimateWire, PV-Tech, Utility Dive, Yahoo News, and others.

Before joining GTM Research, Omar completed a Master of Engineering degree in power engineering at McGill University, where he was awarded a Graduate Excellence Fellowship, authored research for IEEE and Cigré, and contributed as a staff writer to The McGill Daily. He has also worked as a building efficiency sales associate at Johnson Controls and holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from McGill University with a minor in economics.

Andrew is a senior grid analyst at GTM Research, where he has authored research on venture investment, grid modernization, demand-side management and unregulated utility service offerings. His coverage spans across a variety of technologies and services that enable end users to manage energy consumption and costs, with a particular focus on the non-residential market. Prior to joining the analyst team, Andrew worked on digital marketing for Greentech Media's online team. Andrew formerly worked for Climate Corps, a corporate energy efficiency program within the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Green Project at NDN, a think tank and advocacy organization. He graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University with a B.A. in International Relations.

Jeff St. John comes to Greentech Media from The Fresno Bee, where he covered solar-power, biofuel and biomass developments in California's Central Valley, and the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash., where his beat included nuclear power and nuclear-waste remediation, as well as the research and development of biofuels, fuel cells, energy-management systems and other energy technologies. He also has written for the Anchorage Daily News, UpsideToday.com, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and he won a National Headliner Award in 2005. Jeff has a master's degree from the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and believes green technology will save the planet.