u.s. energy storage summit 2017

Mary Powell has served as President and Chief Executive Officer for Green Mountain Power Corporation since 2008, following seven years as Chief Operating Officer. Mary initiated and implemented a strategic and comprehensive restructuring of the company that dramatically transformed Green Mountain Power and has been the backbone of a cultural transformation and service quality improvement.  Mary launched an ambitious energy vision to provide low carbon, low cost and reliable power to Vermonters. As a result, the company has built Vermont’s largest wind farm, made Rutland, Vermont the Solar Generation Capital of New England, and has installed smart grid technology across the entire utility infrastructure.  Mary is leading an energy transformation, providing customers comprehensive energy makeovers that help them save money and use less energy.  GMP is the first utility in the world to become a member of B Corp, showing a commitment to use energy as a force for good. In 2012, Mary led an acquisition of Central Vermont Public Service, with a promise to generate $144 million in savings for customers. GMP has grown from serving 88,000 customers in 2008 to serving well over 260,000 customers, with revenues of more than $640 million and $2 billion in assets. In 2014, Mary announced a new partnership with NRG Energy, Inc. to make Vermont a leader in sustainable energy. And in 2015, Mary led another partnership with Tesla, with GMP becoming the first utility to offer the Tesla Powerwall battery.  In 2004 Mary was recognized by Fast Company magazine as one of the "top 50 fast leaders" in the US and in 2014 was recognized by PowerGen as the Woman of the Year.

Roy Kuga is vice president, Grid Integration & Innovation, a team responsible for developing strategies and plans for:

• PG&E's grid of the future
• distributed energy resources, including energy storage, demand response, and net metering
• clean transportation
• technology pilots and demonstration projects.

Roy previously served as vice president, Energy Supply Management, overseeing the Company's procurement of gas and electric supplies, storage, transmission, financial hedging and greenhouse gas allowances.  He has worked on renewable and conventional power contracting and resource development, wholesale market design, and bidding, scheduling and dispatching PG&E's energy portfolio into California’s wholesale market.  Earlier in his career, Roy led the Company's strategic planning team for electric industry restructuring. 

Roy has also worked in the oil and gas and telecom industries.  He holds Bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, and a Masters degree in operations research.

Alta Yen is the Managing Director of Strategic Planning for General Electric Company as of February 2018.  In this role, she is responsible for managing long-term strategic planning across GE.  As a 20-year veteran in the energy industry, Alta is a consummate analyst who seeks to maximize value and drive outcomes using data, numbers and good judgment.  Her experience spans several business cycles, multiple large-scale energy crises and the massive disruption currently undertaking the energy industry.

In 1999, Alta joined GE Structured Finance Group as a portfolio manager where she ultimately managed and worked-out a $1.4 billion portfolio consisting primarily of distressed assets related to Enron, PG&E and Mirant.  In 2004, she helped launch GE Energy Financial Services, a debt and equity investor specializing in the energy sector through an operational role and in 2005, she returned to the investing side.  In 2007, Alta was promoted to Managing Director and served as the Chief Risk Manager for the $4 billion energy lending business. There she led or played a critical role in numerous transactions, most notably the ~$1 billion project finance loan acquisition from the Bank of Ireland.  In 2013, Alta became head of the Investment Strategy team responsible for developing long-term investing strategies based upon energy fundamentals and leading the unit’s new business development activities, notably in the commercial & industrial solar and storage sectors.

Prior to joining GE, Alta worked in New York City and Hong Kong before joining a Taipei-based freight forwarding company in business development. 

Alta earned a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University, a certificate in advanced Mandarin from the Inter-University Program (“The Stanford Center”) and received a M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from The University of Michigan.  In 2016, she co-founded the Greater New York City Chapter of the Women’s Energy Network where she remains a board member today.

Mateo Jaramillo is the Vice President of Products and Programs for Tesla’s stationary energy storage program. He conceived of and started the effort in 2009, securing initial funding and leading all aspects of business and engineering development along with product deployment. He is currently responsible for Tesla Energy's product line and business model definition, and as well global policy and business development. Mateo joined Tesla in 2009 as the Director of Powertrain Business Development, serving as commercial lead and primary negotiator on over $100M in new development and $500M in production contracts signed for electric powertrain sales. Prior to Tesla, Mateo was Chief Operating Officer and part of the founding team at Gaia Power Technologies, an early distributed energy storage firm. There he pioneered residential and commercial markets for first turn-key energy storage systems and led three generations of product development that grew company sales by 400%. Mateo began his career in the software industry as a Product Manager with Predictive Networks, an interactive TV software provider. Mateo earned his A.B. in Economics from Harvard in 1999 and a Masters in Theology from Yale Divinity School in 2004 where he won the Tew prize for outstanding coursework in Ethics, Philosophy, and History. He is a member of the 2016 Class of Henry Crown Fellows and the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute.

Steve Malnight is Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, for Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He is responsible for developing, coordinating and managing policy with state and federal regulatory agencies, including the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). He also is responsible for developing and filing rate proposals with the CPUC, and for oversight of the company’s gas and electric tariffs. Malnight joined PG&E in 2002 and has held diverse leadership positions within the company. After serving as Director of Customer Strategy and then Senior Director of Finance, leading the company’s budgeting and planning process, he became Special Assistant to the Chairman of PG&E’s Corporation in 2007. Subsequent roles included Vice President of Renewable Energy and Vice President of Customer Energy Solutions, an organization providing integrated energy solutions to help customers save energy and money. He was appointed Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs in September 2014. Malnight holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He serves as Chairman of the Board of the Smart Electric Power Alliance, an organization focused on facilitating electricity utilities in the transition to a clean energy future through research, education, and stakeholder collaboration.

Swami Venkataraman manages the development of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) analytic tools, assessments and the integration of ESG considerations into Moody’s credit ratings and research. As senior vice president-manager in Moody’s ESG group, he also leads Moody’s global renewable energy task force, is a member of the Infrastructure Finance Franchise Committee, and a ratings chair for the North American utilities and infrastructure ratings team.

Before moving to the ESG team, Venkataraman was a lead analyst in the North American utilities and infrastructure team since 2014. Prior to joining Moody’s, Swami was a director of project & export finance at Standard Chartered Bank in Mumbai, India, responsible for business development and execution of project and export credit financings in Asia covering power, renewable energy, and other infrastructure sectors. One of his solar PV projects won the “PFI Asia-Pacific Renewables deal of the year” award in 2013.

Venkataraman has broad expertise in energy and infrastructure, especially clean energy, across geographies over the past 20 years. He is a CFA charterholder, with a B.Tech in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras and an M.B.A. in finance and information systems from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta.

Mark Johnson is Smart Cities Chief of Schneider Electric and ‘graduated’ from the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, DC. He founded the clean energy nonprofit Helpanswers.org. He earned his MBA from Loyola Chicago, and his BA from the University of Notre Dame.