Mike oversees and manages all water and wastewater processes, including water purification, boiler treatments, and waste water treatment programs for Evergy’s 1700 MW Iatan Generating Station outside of Kansas City, MO. Iatan is a zero-liquid discharge plant with unique challenges in water and wastewater treatment. With over 16 years in the power industry, Mike's outside-of-the-box thinking and creativity has helped the plant overcome many technical challenges including several first-of-its-kind projects. He currently oversees the work of the plant’s 17 Process Attendants and all chemistry related matters. Mike is married with 7 children (and 6 grandchildren). He also dabbles in two small businesses, is very active in his church, and is also currently working on finishing construction of a new house.

With over 30 years of experience in engineering, consulting, and leadership, Sam is the President & CEO of Middough Inc. Middough provides major project solutions and consulting by combining the experience, expertise and reach of a large EPCM firm with the flexibility and customer focus of a local service provider. Sam leads the executive team and oversees the functional and financial performance of the company, ensuring alignment with the vision, mission, and values. Middough provides project solutions across several industries including: Chemical, Oil & Gas, Power, Refining, Metals, Agribusiness, Food, and Advanced Manufacturing.

Chief Information Office for GRID20/20 since 2012. BSEE from Virginia Tech in 1983 and has been working as a Software and Systems Engineer and Architect since college. Industry backgrounds include Building Automation Controls and Energy Management, Smart Home Systems and Appliances, Intelligent Demand Reduction Systems for Electric Utilities, Small Business Energy Management Systems, and Distribution Transformer Monitoring Systems for Electric Distribution Utilities.

Lincoln Bleveans has been an executive in the global energy industry for over 25 years, focused on electric power and sustainability. His experience spans the globe and the energy value chain, from start-ups and emerging technologies to independent power project (IPP) development to utility operations. He is an internationally recognized thought-leader, writer, and speaker on energy and sustainability. He is now Executive Director of Sustainability & Energy Management at Stanford University, leading mission-critical operations and world-leading innovation in sustainability, electricity, thermal energy, building energy management, water, and waste. Most recently, he was an executive at Burbank Water & Power, an innovative and high-performing electric and water utility in southern California. He is active as a mentor, advisor, and board for technology start-ups, infrastructure projects, and non-profits. Lincoln received a BA from Kenyon College, a JD from Northwestern University School of Law, and also attended Nanjing University in China and the National Outdoor Leadership School in Kenya.

Robert Bouwens studies Mechanical Engineering at Cedarville University and has a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Dallas. In 1998, he joined Rolls-Royce in the USA and has worked in gas turbine design, testing, project management, business development and customer field support roles. In 2006, he became the assistant Chief Engineer for the Trent aero engines in the UK. He took the role of General Manager for the R-R Joint Venture in Malaysia in 2010 for the AGT Oil and Gas business. Siemens acquired the JV in 2015. Since 2017, Rob has been leading the global sales for the SGT-A05 products.

John Brewer is an Engineering in the Energy Markets Analysis Team within the Systems Engineering and Analysis Directorate at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). Brewer leads NETL’s research into interconnected energy infrastructure systems dynamics and markets. His active areas of research focus on natural gas-electric interdependency, reducing the impact of fossil energy resources, and energy reliability, resilience, and affordability in the face of rapid fleet transition. Brewer was recipient of the Secretary of Energy’s Achievement Award in 2019 as part of NETL’s team that provided real-time situational awareness on the responsiveness and importance of fossil generation to stabilizing the grid during the 2018 Bomb Cyclone event in the Northeast. He is actively engaged in industry efforts representing NETL and the DOE Office of Fossil Energy on multiple industry committees and working groups tasked with identifying and developing best practices and management strategies to minimize system interdependency risks. In addition to supporting the DOE Office of Fossil Energy, Brewer also has on-going projects supporting the DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response. Mr. Brewer is a 2007 graduate of West Virginia University’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering program.

Biography (Gary Lee Brown)

Gary Brown’s career spans over 39 years in the on-line / under pressure repairs of various leaks in the following industries: Chemical, Petro Chemical / Refining, Co-Generation, Steel, Oil Fields, Pharmaceutical, Power Plants (Fossil Fuel & Nuclear) and last but certainly not least Electrical Transmission & Distribution Systems. His hands-on experiences include repairs to various equipment with temperatures from cryogenic to 1300°F and pressures ranging from vacuum to 4500 psi. During Gary’s leak sealing tenure his positions & responsibilities included:
Technician (Actual field repairs, 11 yrs), Supervisor (Training and responsible for technicians), Technical Sales (Territory development) & Branch Mgr (Operations, documentation responsibilities and the development of various on-line leak sealing procedures). In April of 2002 Gary along with three other experienced leak sealing gentlemen joined and created a new division for Colt Atlantic Services, Inc. called the Power Services Division. The commitment within this new division was to offer the Electrical Utility companies total dedication to repairs on Oil, SF6 Gas & Nitrogen leaks. Hence, a success rate on repairs second to none.
As of January of 2019 Gary was promoted to Division Manager / COLT Power Services
Education and/or Training: Sauk Valley Jr. College-Dixon, IL (Business Administration) Air Force & Army Guard-Biloxi, MS & Chicago, IL (Administrative Spec)-Honorable
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant-Avila Beach, CA (General Employee Training)

Philip Bruich is the Director of Market Administration with Southwest Power Pool (SPP). His career with SPP began in 1994, where he has worked in IT, Settlements and Operations. He implemented the Settlements department in 1998 and served as the director until moving to his current role in early 2015 as part of a staff rotation initiative within the organization. His current responsibilities include oversight of Market Design, Day Ahead Market, Real-time Balancing Market, Tariff Administration and Operations Support for control room operator visualization tools and software.
Before starting his current career with SPP in the electric utility industry, Philip served as director of finance for an aviation company and was an auditor for Price Waterhouse. He is a certified public accountant and holds degrees in accounting and computer science.

As executive vice president and chief operating officer for Evergy, Kevin Bryant has management responsibility for all utility operations, including generation operations and generation services, transmission operations, transmission and delivery services, distribution operations and customer operations.

Since joining KCP&L in 2003, Mr. Bryant has held a number of positions that have drawn on his strategic insight and finance/marketing experience. Prior to his current position, Mr. Bryant served as vice president of Strategic Planning, president of KLT and vice president of Investor Relations and Treasurer. He was named executive vice president Finance & Strategy and CFO in 2015.

A graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, Mr. Bryant has dual majors in finance and real estate. He received a master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in finance and marketing from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Bryant serves on the board of directors of the UMKC Foundation (University of Missouri at Kansas City), and the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Kansas City, an organization that works to lead youth down a path to success by ensuring they have the skills needed to pursue a career.

Dennis Buchanan, PE, is a Plant Director for Southwestern Public Service Company (SPS). SPS is one of 4 operating companies of Xcel Energy. Dennis has worked in the Electric Utility, Power Generation field for over 40 years. His background includes performance and plant engineering, project management, and senior management. A large portion of his career was dedicated to power plant process controls where he designed and implemented DCS retrofits throughout the SPS fleet. Currently, Dennis is the Plant Director of the Harrington/Nichols complex that consists of 3 coal fired units and 3 gas fired units. Dennis has a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University and is a Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

Dr. Benton H. Calhoun is Co-Founder and Co-CTO at Everactive. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Computer Science from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA, in 2000. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, in 2002 and 2006, respectively. Dr. Calhoun joined the faculty at the University of Virginia in 2006.

Jose L. Carranza, Head of Products and Solutions for PXiSE Energy Solutions, joined PXiSE in September of 2019. He is responsible for the vision and roadmap for the development of new technologies and building products that enable reliable and efficient operation of a modern electric grid. Additionally, Mr. Carranza drives innovation on behalf of end users and represents their needs throughout the design, build, and deployment process.

Prior to joining PXiSE, Mr. Carranza worked for San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) and has over 28 years of experience in the power industry, including over 9 years of managing union represented personnel. His experience at SDG&E includes working within the numerous engineering and operational departments including Substation Engineering and Design, Electric Distribution Operations & Training, and Electric System Reliability.

Chatterjee leads MISO’s System Operations, overseeing day-to-day transmission reliability, generation dispatch and real-time operations processes that ensure efficient and reliable grid operations. An employee of MISO since 2000, Ms. Chatterjee served in leadership positions within Operations & Markets and Transmission Planning. She was instrumental in the establishment and implementation of MISO’s Reliability & Market Services. Ms. Chatterjee has led multiple, high-profile initiatives including MISO’s wind integration, the development of seams agreements between MISO and its neighbors and, most recently, the RTO’s resource adequacy initiative. Her knowledge and experience in the field of information technology enabled her to lead MISO’s Application Services division where she improved operational excellence through business services integration. Ms. Chatterjee holds a Doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Chris Colbert is the chief strategy officer of NuScale Power, LLC, a position he has held since 2014. From 2011 to 2014 Colbert held the position of chief operating officer of NuScale Power, LLC.
Colbert joined NuScale from UniStar Nuclear Energy, LLC, where he was senior vice president for Projects and Services during 2007-2011. While at UniStar, Colbert was responsible for the deployment of the U.S. EPR at UniStar’s existing nuclear power plant sites and the provision of licensing and other project development services to other U.S. EPR projects.
Prior to joining UniStar, Colbert worked for a number of companies over nearly 15 years developing and financing over 6500 MW of fossil-fueled power projects.
Colbert began his career at GE Aircraft Engines as an engineer and later transferred to the General Electric Company Corporate Audit Staff.
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in electrical engineering and a minor in computer science, Colbert received an M.B.A. from the Walter A. Haas School of Business in Berkeley, CA. He is also a chartered financial analyst.

Dr. William M. (Bill) Conlon, P.E. is the founder and President of Pintail Power LLC, and inventor of patented liquid air and liquid salt energy storage technologies that bridge renewable and conventional generation by synergistic integration of thermal energy storage with thermal generation.

After receiving a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering and Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he worked on Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s Diablo Canyon Project. At International Power Technology he was responsible for control systems and received three patents for the Cheng Cycle steam injected gas turbine, led new product development, and transferred technology to international licensees.

Following forays in water treatment, industrial controls and software, Bill returned to energy to lead Ausra’s turn-around to price-performance leadership in the solar thermal market, and was instrumental in its merger with AREVA. As Chief Engineer and Senior VP he helped secure more than $1 billion of new business within 18 months of the merger and was responsible for Engineering, Commissioning and Operations teams on three continents.

Bill is a licensed Mechanical Engineer in California, a life member of IEEE and ASME, and serves on the ASME PTC-53 Committee, which is drafting the Performance Test Code for Energy Storage Systems.

Jeffrey J. Cook is a renewable energy market and policy analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He has been on staff at NREL since 2014, and focuses on state and local policy, permitting, resilience, technology cost reduction, and distributed energy resource aggregation. He received his PhD in political science from Colorado State University in 2017, where he was an instructor of environmental and public policy courses. He received his Master of Science in environmental science and policy from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay in 2012.

Shawn has 28 years of rotating machinery experiences, in both the power gen and refinery sectors around the world. His background is in project pricing, planning and execution. He has successfully completing over 500 outages in his career both in the field and in a management role.

Shawn is competent and trained in steam turbine and gas path repairs, metallurgical, evaluation, generator field and stator repairs as well as onsite machining and alignment of components. Field rewinds, stator rewinds, turbine rotor destacking, stator laminations destacking. He also is experienced in manufacturing oversight of new rotors and diaphragms, stems, buckets and parts- as well as installation of all types of rotating machinery.

Shawn enjoys working with customers/friends across the Western Hemisphere. When he is not managing, planning or pricing an outage he is avid backcountry snowmobiler as well as hunting around the world. This is all been made possible – (and allowable) by his great wife Nichole and 3 kids Josh, Samantha and Charlie.

18+ years Wide experience in handling Electrical system for Power plants, Industries, Smart cites, captive plants etc.
Exploring New technology areas such as Energy storage, Electric vehicle, Micro grid
National sherpa award winner in 2015 for implementing new concept in Power plant electric system
Published paper and articles on energy storage, Electric vehicles, Smart cities ., etc

In his current capacity as a Senior Manager at Nuclear Energy Institute, he is responsible for financial modeling, economic impacts, policy development, business strategy, and data analytics. Harsh is the lead for the Nuclear Innovation Week, an annual week-long program in Washington, DC.

In his previous role at the Department of Energy, he was an Advisor to the Technology to Market Director, focused on commercializing clean energy technologies through innovative programs and partnerships between the National Labs and private industry.

Harsh’s past roles include Consultant to the General Manager & Directors of the Naval Nuclear Laboratory (previously known as Knolls and Bettis Atomic Power Labs), Legislative Advisor to a senior U.S. Senator (2014 ANS Congressional Fellow), Senior Nuclear Engineer at Knolls Atomic Power Lab, and Nuclear Engineer at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.

Harsh has an MBA from New York University’s Stern Business School, along with BS & MS in Nuclear Engineering from NC State University.

Harsh is an active member within the community. He was recently elected and started his term on the American Nuclear Society Board of Directors.

Harsh enjoys going on adventures, such as chasing tornadoes, being an avid photographer, traveling, and brewing beer.

Dr. Leslie Dewan is a Founding Principal at Nucleation Capital, focusing on investing in new nuclear technology and other forms of carbon-free energy production. From 2011 to 2018, she was the CEO of Transatomic Power, a company that designed safer nuclear reactors that leave behind less waste than conventional designs.

Leslie received her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT, with a research focus on computational nuclear materials. She also holds S.B. degrees from MIT in mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering. Before starting her Ph.D., she worked for a robotics company in Cambridge, MA, where she designed search-and-rescue robots and equipment for in-field identification of chemical and nuclear weapons. Leslie has been awarded an MIT Presidential Fellowship and a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. She is a member of the MIT Corporation, MIT’s board of trustees. She was named a TIME Magazine "30 People Under 30 Changing the World," an MIT Technology Review "Innovator Under 35," a Forbes "30 Under 30,” a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

Jim Deyo currently is the Chehalis Generation Facility Maintenance Manager responsible for all facets of in-house and contracted combined cycle power plant maintenance.
Jim has over 35 years of coal fired and combined cycle power plant maintenance experience with an emphasis on pressure vessels, power piping, and rotating equipment.
Jim attend the Industrial Machine Maintenance program at Centralia College as well as courses at Hobart Welding Institute, NBIC, and ASME.

In his role as CEO and Managing Partner of DCO Energy, Frank is responsible for directing all DCO activities, including strategic planning, project development, project management, engineering, contractor, financing, legal and any regulatory issues.

Professional History

A recognized industry expert and pioneer with over 49 years of experience, Frank DiCola established DCO Energy in 2000 with 5 employees and a small office in Atlantic City. DCO is now an industry leader, with projects valued over $1 billion.

Frank personally has managed and/or developed well over $1 billion of energy projects, including award winning clean energy projects, some of the largest LFGE projects in the United States, and some of the most innovative projects in North America. Frank is regularly called upon to lend his expertise in areas including but not limited to CHP, CHCP, LFGE Biogas, BioMass, District Energy, Deep Sea Cooling and energy economics. Frank formally served on the Board of Directors of Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation.

Prior to establishing DCO Energy, Frank was a senior executive with Atlantic Energy Inc., the parent company of Atlantic City Electric and Atlantic Energy Enterprises, Inc. and was involved in establishing and running Atlantic Energy Enterprises, the non-regulated business unit of Atlantic Energy. Throughout his early career, Frank has held positions with Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation as Engineering Manager, Lead Engineer, and Project Manager for fossil, nuclear, and industrial work. Initially, Frank started his professional career working at Cincinnati Gas and Electric serving as a Power Plant Engineer responsible for installation, operations and maintenance of the County’s first gas turbine plants including the one of a kind Dick’s Creek 100 mw generating unit. He later transferred to assist in the development of the William Zimmer Nuclear Plant and was assigned to participate in the startup of Georgia Power’s Hatch Nuclear unit.

Education

Frank attended the University of Cincinnati where he received a BS in Mechanical Engineering and is Licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) as well as an ASME Lifetime member. He is also member of American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)

Jeremy Dockter is a Co-Founder & Managing Director of Expansion Energy LLC, a developer of innovative, patented energy & environmental technologies in the areas of: “bulk” energy storage; next-generation combined-cycle power generation; waste heat recovery; carbon capture & sequestration; small-scale LNG production; minerals recovery; and coal ash remediation.

Mr. Dockter’s responsibilities at Expansion Energy include business development, marketing, strategic alliances, strategic planning, intellectual property development and industry outreach.

Jeremy is also the Founder of The Kinetic Group LLC, a New York City-based energy & natural resources investment banking, project development and investment holding company.

Jeremy earned an MBA in Strategic Management & Finance from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from the University of Minnesota.

Matt Ellithorpe is Manager of Steam Turbine Engineering Mechanical Design at Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas. Since joining MHPSA five years ago, he has supported steam turbine retrofit design and MHPS-TOMONI, with a focus on developing new products and engineering solutions that address the unique challenges of individual customers. Previously, Matt held roles in product service, turbine design, and performance engineering with General Electric over a 10 year period. Matt holds a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Union College in Schenectady, NY.

Chris Evanich is the Program Director for Energy as a Service at Schneider Electric. He focuses on the global business development of Microgrids including financing. He has over 16 years of experience in the Electrical Power industry and has a wide range of experience in Renewable Energy, Battery Energy Storage, Microgrids, Smart Grid components and architecture. Chris has been published in over a dozen different publications worldwide. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Cleveland State University and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, Author of IEEE P2030.7, “Standard for the Specification of Microgrid Controllers” and volunteers as an IEEE PES Scholar Mentor.

Mr. Fassett is President and founder of IEM Energy Consultants LLC, (now part of CEIS), and has more than 39 years of broad-based experience in the power and related industries. He founded IEM in 1998 as a boutique consulting practice to provide consulting services in all aspects of power plant operations, maintenance, and management to clients worldwide. Mr. Fassett has provided services in outage planning, management and oversite, long range O&M budgeting, reliability assessments, plant staffing analysis and long-term service agreement negotiations.

Prior to forming IEM, Mr. Fassett held roles of increasing responsibility with various utilities, both regulated and IPP’s, as well as petrochemical process facilities. These roles included Plant Engineer, Maintenance Engineer, Start Up Manager, Maintenance Manager and Plant Superintendent. His experience includes coal, simple and combined cycle CT’s, coal gasification and specialty chemical manufacturing. Mr. Fassett sits on the Board of Directors of the Plant Managers Institute, the Advisory Board of the Electric Power Conference, is a member of the ASME Power Committee. He has taught college classes in Energy & the Environment, Ethics in the Energy Industry, Electronics and Power Plant Operations. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University with an emphasis in Power Plant System Design

Max Fuentes started his career with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in 1984, he is a Journeyman Lineman, has led and directed crews as a Line Foreman and retired in 2015 as a Grid Assets Line Supervisor – Business Operations. Max has been the Vice President and President of two Post-Secondary Vocational training schools for lineworkers. He currently is the owner of Fuentes Consulting LLC, utility consultant providing training development consulting, he writes policies and procedures for utility companies from safety to work procedures to include: Personal Protective Grounding, Clearance and authorizations, Distribution Smart Grid technology, and a host of other subjects geared towards the high voltage electrical worker. Max is a sought-after Leadership and Professionalism speaker having provided workshops for line foremen and supervisors for utilities, conferences and the IBEW. He is a contributing writer to T&D World Magazine, Max currently has a recurring column called “Ask Max” the column focuses on Frontline supervisor and line foreman leadership development. Max also works as an Expert Witness for lawyers. He is a member of ASSP, IEEE, CMUA, and the NFPA.

Dr. Jeffrey Goldmeer is the Director of Gas Turbine Combustion & Fuels Solutions at GE Gas Power. In this role, Dr. Goldmeer leads the strategic development of fuel and combustion system technologies for emerging power generation fuel applications around the globe. He has worked on power projects involving the use of ethane, syngas,
hydrogen, biofuels, crude oils, heavy fuels oil, and multiple other fuels. Dr. Goldmeer joined GE as a Combustion Research Engineer at GE’s Global Research Center and later became Manager of the Center’s Combustion Systems Lab. Prior to joining GE, he was a US National Research Council Research Associate at the NASA Glenn Research Center.
Dr. Goldmeer received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He has authored over 100 papers & presentations on a range of combustion topics. Dr. Goldmeer holds 12 patents on a variety of combustion system technologies.

Melanie Green is a Sr. Director in Power Generation at CPS Energy, the municipally owned electric and gas company serving San Antonio, Texas – the nation’s 7th largest city – and surrounding region.

A native of Missouri, Melanie graduated from the University of Missouri – Columbia with a BS-Mechanical Engineering. She has over 30 years experience in of power generation.

Mr. Michael Harbison is the Founder and Owner of M E H & Associates, LLC. In this capacity, he performs unit walk-downs and assessments, modifies combustion systems, reduces emissions through advanced computational modeling, assesses and tunes boilers / boiler operations. Mr. Harbison covers the full US for the power generation sector.

Mr. Harbison specialized in process optimization for over twenty-five years.

Mary Hauner-Davis is an environmental engineer and is also a Department Manager at Burns & McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc. Mary manages environmental permitting and licensing for power generation facilities as well as other industries. She has over 20 years of experience in environmental permitting and compliance for power projects. She specializes in complex air permitting projects for power generation and industrial facilities. Her work experiences require her to be up-to-date with the ever-changing regulations affecting the power industry.

Heather Hoff is a reactor operator and procedure writer at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in California. She cares deeply for both the natural environment and humanity, and believes nuclear power is necessary to enable people to overcome energy poverty while also living in concert with the Earth that supports us. This is why she helped start the non-profit organization Mothers for Nuclear, where she works to share her knowledge and experiences with people who are less comfortable with nuclear power, particularly mothers and women. Heather spends time in nature—running, hiking, and working in the yard.

She is actively involved in professional societies such as Women In Nuclear and supports her company and community by routinely volunteering with nuclear educational outreach, building nature trails, and restoring native habitat. Her young daughter often joins in these activities and can accurately describe how mommy helps make clean energy so friends can run things like efficient appliances and electric cars. Heather has a materials engineering degree from California Polytechnic State University, and has positive hopes for the use of technology, particularly nuclear, to solve energy challenges both now and in the future.

Entering my 21st year in the industry. Currently, I provide management oversight of our company’s chemistry program for our generation fleet. Providing supervision over a staff of 14 individuals including Plant Chemistry Supervisors, Sr. Plant Chemists, Plan Chemists, and Chemical Laboratory Technicians. Monitoring, developing, and providing support to programs that include but not limited to, chemistry safety, boiler chemistry, cooling water chemistry, regularly compliance analysis, macro-fouling chemistry, budget, instrumentation management program. Graduate of Southwestern College, Kansas with a Bachelors's Degree in Biology. Hobbies and interests include spending time with the family, competition bbq, and playing guitar.

Mr. Hutt is an experienced electrical engineering with over 15 years of industry experience. His expertise is in project management and electrical power systems. He specializes in relay protection engineering, coordination, arc flash analysis, short circuit analysis, transmission planning, electromagnetic field analysis, and automatic generation control using CAPE, ASPEN, CYME, ETAP, SKM Power Tools, EasyPower, CDEGS, AcSELerator QuickSet, PowerBase, PSS/E, Ovation and TRANSMISSION 2000®. He is working with a team to build a relay test lab to improve training and quality at Commonwealth and is also the team lead for the Commonwealth Mentoring program since 2011. He is a active member of IEEE and MSPE, and holds chair positions supporting the consultants affinity group as well as young professionals in engineering. Also, he has presented topics that have been published through IEEE and given presentations at the CAPE UGM and MAHMP.

Carl Jakubowski has more than 45 years of power plant operations, maintenance, project management, and contract control experience. His background primarily has involved fossil-fueled generation facilities (coal, oil, refuse-derived fuel, and gas-fired) and combustion turbines in the electric generation industry while with Sargent & Lundy and formerly with Commonwealth Edison, Midwest Generation, Foster Wheeler, and Fuel Tech. Carl’s experience also includes small auxiliary boilers (electrical, gas, and oil) for heating and process steam used in nuclear facilities, and pollution control systems. He has a stationary engineer’s license and has conducted internal inspections, assessments, and burner replacement evaluations on heating and process boilers. Since joining Sargent & Lundy in 2008, Carl has been conducted due diligence reviews for lenders, owners, and buyers for assets in more than 30 countries. He also has participated in incident investigations for catastrophic failures, and operational performance evaluations for boilers, combustion turbines, concentrated solar power plants, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities. This work has encompassed evaluating and assessing operational performance and strategic capital upgrades.

In his role as a Performance Engineer in the Generation Support group, Jeff has responsibly to oversee and support PacifiCorp’s Net Unit Heat Rate Improvement Program, update fleet heat rate coefficients, provide technical expertise and consulting services related to overall boiler/plant performance, develop and maintain Rankine Cycle, Combined Cycle and Simple Cycle performance models, provide project support to the fleet for performance related projects, and develop engineering studies and calculations in response to company directives.
Prior to joining PacifiCorp, Jeff had been the Mechanical Integration Division Manager at Carotek, a Principal Engineer, Boiler Performance for Diamond Power International, Lead Mechanical Engineer for Applied Synergistics, and a Principal Engineer for Framatome Technologies. Jeff is a graduate of the University of Tulsa with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Jeff is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia, and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Jeff currently serves on the Electric Power Conference Advisory Board and previously served on the PRB Coal Users’ Group Board of Directors. Jeff has presented at numerous industry conferences, typically as a furnace water cleaning and intelligent sootblowing subject matter expert.

Dr. Carlos E. Koeneke has worked in Rotating Equipment related field for more than 35 years. He joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1993 and worked for the Construction Department in Takasago Machinery Works in Japan. In 2001, he was transferred to Florida where he worked for the Service and Engineering Departments.
Prior to his current position, he worked 7 years for Venezuela’s petroleum holding company, in the Rotating Equipment Department.
Dr. Koeneke has a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Tokyo, and is an ASME Fellow.

Alex Krowka is the Deputy Program Director of USEA's Consensus Program. In this position, Alex helps manage this U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded Program to build global and domestic understanding, consensus, and cooperative action on Carbon Management Technologies. Additionally, Alex has worked with USEA’s Promoting International And Domestic Consensus On Oil And Natural Gas Program and USEA’s U.S. – East Africa Geothermal Partnership (EAGP).

Alex has 11 years of experience in Energy and International Development having worked at Energetics and the International Tax and Investment Center. His past clients consisted of multiple programs and offices within DOE including: Appliance Standards, Emerging Technologies, Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), International Affairs, Residential Buildings Integration, and Zero Energy Ready Homes. Alex graduated magna cum laude from American University’s School of International Service with a B.A. in International Studies.

Ms. Kunkel is a registered professional engineer with a BS in Chemical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. For the last 8 years, she has served as part of Sargent & Lundy’s Environmental Services group for the application of new and retrofit emission control systems for power generation. In this role, she has been active in applications of SO2, NOx, CO2 capture, gasification systems, and heat rate reduction at coal- and gas-fired power plants.

Mr. Kutz has over 17 years of operations and training experience obtained from working at an Ethanol plant, Oil Refinery, Gasification plant and Power Plant. Nik was hired at the Omaha Public Power District as a Plant Helper and worked his way up to a Unit Operator. Nik jumped at the opportunity to work in the Production Operations Training Department as a Training Coordinator for the Nebraska City Station and has since moved to the Production Operations Department Training Supervisor position. Some of his many responsibilities are providing Fire Brigade training to Operations Personnel as well as creating and delivering computer based training via OPPD’s Learners Management System. He currently resides in Nebraska with his wife and two children.

Aaron Larson joined the POWER team in September 2013 as an associate editor and was named executive editor in 2017. Aaron has a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering technology and a master’s degree, specializing in finance. He spent 13 years in the U.S. Navy nuclear power program, advancing to Chief Petty Officer. He has worked at commercial nuclear, biomass, and coal-fired power plants, functioning in operations, maintenance, safety, financial, and management capacities. Aaron holds a Chief A Engineer boiler operator license in the state of Minnesota.

John Lauletta has been involved in electric utility measurement technology since 1975. John’s career includes ten years with American Electric Power as Measurements Manager, 14 years as VP Scientific Columbus and since 2006 as CEO/CTO of Exacter, Inc.
John holds electrical engineering degrees from The Ohio State University and Purdue University and is the Past Chair of the Central Ohio Power and Energy Society Chapter of IEEE. John holds several patents in predictive failure technologies. John manages several research programs for IIoT sensor development for electric utility applications as Visiting Scientist at the University of Akron. John is the recipient of the 2018 Columbus PES Chapter Outstanding Engineer Award.
Exacter, Inc. is a developer of predictive technologies for electric utility reliability, grid conditions-based assessment, grid preventive maintenance, and Smart Grid network performance.

BSEE, Stanford, '65
MBA, Stanford, '71
Director, The Leighty Foundation, 1991 to present
Principal, Alaska Applied Sciences, Inc., 1990 to present

Kyle Lewis is the Unit Director at La Cygne Generating Station. He started at the station in 2004 and worked through boiler operations, shift foreman, operations superintendent, and now unit director.

Dr. Peter Lilienthal is the CEO of HOMER Energy. Since 1993, he has been the developer of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s HOMER® hybrid power optimization software, which has been used by over 200,000 energy practitioners in 193 countries. NREL has licensed HOMER Energy to be the sole world-wide commercialization licensee to distribute and enhance the HOMER model.

Dr. Lilienthal was the Senior Economist with International Programs at NREL from 1990 – 2007. He was one of the creators of NREL’s Village Power Program. He has a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. He has been active in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency since 1978. This has included designing and teaching courses at the university level, project development of independent power projects, and consulting to industry and regulators. His expertise is in the economic and financial analysis of renewable and micro-grid projects.

Angie Lucas is the Member Engagement Manager for the Energy Providers Coalition for Education (EPCE), a non-profit national membership of energy employers, energy-related associations, labor and education providers partnering together to educate and train the energy workforce. She facilitates the partnership and manages the development and implementation of EPCE’s online education and training strategies. EPCE is a signature initiative of the Council for Adult Experiential Learning (CAEL), whose mission is to link learning and work to help working adult learners succeed. In her prior role, she gained experience in facilitating meaningful consultation between tribal leaders, federal offices and industry partners to address concerns and collect advice around the issues impacting energy and infrastructure development across Indian Country. Angie earned a bachelor’s degree and MS in Leadership Development at Saint Mary of the Woods College.

Fred Lyon has over 35 years experience in the electric power construction business. A principal in the energy construction consulting company, TriCon Power Group, and a partner at the energy construction law firm, The Lyon Firm, he has worked with major utilities, contractors, and OEMs. He has worked on a wide variety of projects of all fuel types and currently is advising utilities on transmission projects and contracting. He is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Virginia School of Law. He writes and lectures frequently on issues of industry wide importance.

Tom McDonnell is the Global Industry Manager, Power and Energy for Rockwell Automation. Tom has more than 30 years’ experience within the automation and power generation industry. He has an extensive background in sales, project execution and strategy. He incorporates his passion for client focus into his job responsibility by leveraging Rockwell’s product and service portfolio to provide clients with best in class solutions. His industry expertise ranges from all forms of generation technologies to global project execution. Tom has executed numerous complex international and domestic power generation projects during his career.

Prior to joining Rockwell Automation, Mr. McDonnell has worked with leading global engineering and automation companies in numerous business leadership and project execution positions.

Mr. McDonnell holds a BSME from Texas A&M and a MBA from St Edwards University. He is an active member of the Gulf Coast Power Association and holds committee positions as well as regularly participates ISA, IDEA, PowerGen, EUEC and NFPA activities.

John McPhearson has worked in the field of power generation for 35 years. The last 31 have been for Lectrodryer in a variety of roles with his area of focus generator auxiliaries. He also worked for AEP as a plant performance engineer early in his career.
While at Lectrodryer he has authored a number of papers on generator auxiliaries for ASME, EPRI and various other trade groups and meetings. He also has participated as a session chair in this area.
Lectrodryer first supplied dryers to the utility industry in 1935 and continues to be a significant supplier of turbine generator auxiliaries to many of the worlds leading OEM’s and operating utilities today.

Teresa Mogensen is senior vice president, Energy Supply at Xcel Energy,
headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is responsible for a 72-plant
generation fleet that produces 18,195 megawatts (owned capacity) of electric
power for 3.5 million customers in eight states.
Mogensen previously served as senior vice president, Transmission at Xcel
Energy, responsible for all aspects of Xcel Energy's current and future
electric transmission system and transmission and distribution substations
across 10 states. She was also president of the Xcel Energy Transco,
several transmission-only subsidiary companies engaged in competitive
transmission growth opportunities.
Prior to Xcel Energy, Mogensen served in various leadership roles with
American Transmission Company, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where she helped
launch the first for-profit, transmission-only utility company. She began her
career as an engineer with Wisconsin Electric, now We Energies, of Milwaukee,
Wisconsin.
Mogensen earned both a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in electrical
engineering from Marquette University. She serves on the board of directors for a number of industry and
community organizations, including the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and Minnesota Private
Colleges Council (MPCC).

“Prior to joining Nitto, Dr. Nahid Mohajeri was the CEO of HySense Technologies LLC., the company which she founded with a mission of developing & marketing a chemochromic hydrogen detection tape developed by scientists at NASA-Kennedy Space Center and the University of Central Florida.

In 2016, Nitto, Inc. acquired the assets of HySense – by utilizing Nitto’s cutting-edge adhesive coating and polymer function control expertise – the sophisticated hydrogen detection technology has been fully developed and commercialized into a simple to use pressure sensitive adhesive tape that helps to advance safety practices in several industries.”

Brady Moore is the new Business Development Manager across the Americas and Canada for Dropsafe. Dropsafe have been the global leader in drops prevention solutions for the last ten years, adopted by more than 300 leading business globally. Brady worked with Dropsafe Distribution partner GESCO as sales and operations manager in Houston for ten years, selling Dropsafe’s industry-leading safety solutions across North America and Canada. He has played a huge part in the implementation of a drops programme with Nabors, Patterson and Ensign. Brady has also worked with NOV to develop a similar programme as part of an enhanced offshore rig package, and more recently with H&P Offshore, Shell Offshore, OEG and PGE enhancing their drops prevention practices. He has also participated for more than 6 years in the DROPS North America chapter.

On a more personal level, Brady attended Winona State University, graduating with an undergraduate degree in education in 2004 and a masters in Education and Business in 2006. He then went on to work as an assistant professor and basketball coach at the same university, for five years, along the way winning two NCAA National Championships in 2006 and 2008, before moving into the Oil & Gas sector. Brady now lives in Houston, with wife Courtney and children Liv, 8 and Camden, 6.

Jeffrey W. Mullins, CSP -- Safety & Health Supervisor American Electric Power, James M. Gavin Plant. Jeff has worked in the power industry for 20+ years in the safety & health field. He has been at the Gavin Plant for the past 12 years. He is responsible for plant safety activities for 250+ employees & 200+ contractors daily.

Mike Murray is a co-founder and Director of Business Development at Ageto Energy. Founded in 2017, Ageto Energy's mission is to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy by simplifying the integration and controls of renewable power systems.

Prior to founding Ageto Energy, Mike was the Director of Microgrid Business Development at a software company where he grew their microgrid market. Before that, Mike was the Global Key Account manager at DEIF genset controls company where he worked closely with a major OEM to support and expand sales.

Mike spent the first eight years of his career at Caterpillar working in product and customer support in the mining industry.

Mike has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Emilie Nelson leads the System Planning, Information Technology and Market Structures organizations of the NYISO with a focus on proactively addressing the evolving challenges of the industry. Ms. Nelson joined the NYISO in 2004 and most recently served as Vice President, Market Operations with a focus on the capacity market, energy market, and demand response areas. She has 20 years of experience in the power industry and worked for several years in power generation. She earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and an M.B.A. from Pace University.

Una Nowling is the Section Leader for Fuels, Reliability, and Efficiency at Black & Veatch. She has 27 years experience assisting utilities and energy companies with fuel quality impact studies; heat rate and efficiency studies including EPA-ACE, fuel sourcing and mine planning studies; combustion and boiler operations analyses; emissions compliance; and technical and scientific training. Ms. Nowling has managed more than 100 projects in her career at Black & Veatch, and continues to manage several domestic and international projects dealing with fuels and power plant performance. She is an Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) campus, a radio hostess on Kansas City Public Radio.

Kenan Ögelman is ERCOT’s vice president of Commercial Operations, overseeing Market Operations, Settlement and Retail Operations, and Market Design and Development.
Prior to joining ERCOT in October 2015, Mr. Ögelman served as the director of Energy Market Policy for CPS Energy. In that role, he was responsible for managing CPS Energy’s activities at ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and developing strategic policy. Previously, Mr. Ögelman worked for the Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel, which represents residential electric consumers in Texas, as a senior economist from 1997 to 2007.
Mr. Ögelman served as chairman of the ERCOT Technical Advisory Committee from 2011 to 2013. From 2013 until 2018, Mr. Ögelman served on the Gulf Coast Power Association’s (GCPA) Board of Directors, including presiding as vice president in 2014 and president in 2015.
He graduated from Boston University in 1987 with a B.A. in International Relations. Subsequently, he received an M.A. in Economics from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1991 and an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 1995.

Steve Ostanek is President and owner of Neundorfer, Inc., a 45 year old business that helps utilities and heavy industry identify optimization opportunities and create practical strategies that result in reduced capital and operating expenses related to their combustion and air quality control systems.

Steve's current roles include helping customers identify the opportunities where they can benefit from optimization strategies, guiding a team of dedicated, multi-disciplined people in finding innovative ways to meet customer needs and developing new technologies. He is excited about the new possibilities Neundorfer is exploring with using sophisticated multi-model smart systems to help utilities improve their bottom line.

Steve is a life long Northeast Ohio resident. He is married (29 years) and has two daughters (18 and 24). He is a graduate of the University of Akron.

A national award–winning multimedia journalist, Sonal Patel has covered a wide range of technology, business, and policy issues affecting the power industry worldwide for POWER and its sister publications since 2008. Along with keeping her eye on national and international matters for POWER magazine’s monthly department Global Monitor, she contributes in-depth analysis and spot news pieces for POWER and POWERnews. She also surveys, crunches, and visualizes power generation data and trends from around the world for POWER’s web and print infographics and other multimedia. She is a graduate of the University of Houston.

Wayshalee Patel works for Sargent & Lundy, a comprehensive consulting, engineering and design firm providing solutions for the electric power industry. She is currently the Director of S&L’s Environmental Technologies, Licensing and Permitting Group. Mrs. Patel is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Illinois and has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and Masters in Business Administration. She directs multiple project teams, each led by project managers and technical and engineering personnel. Her overall experience encompasses environmental permitting, regulatory compliance, and air pollution controls. She is well versed in existing and proposed environmental regulations, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). She has been involved with several air quality retrofit projects, new generation projects and transmission line projects where she assisted in project management, preliminary engineering and design, specification/procurement, and project implementation.

Klaus Payrhuber has a Dr. degree from University of Technology Graz, Austria. He was working for GE Power from 2001 until 2018 and since then INNIO Jenbacher. The last 15 years Klaus hold several positions in the Jenbacher gas engine organization where he is currently looking after strategic product developments of gas engines.

Mr. Pope is the Program Manager for Facility Decommissioning and Demolition Services at Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co., Inc. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a licensed professional engineer. Mr. Pope specializes in assisting utilities, power cooperatives, and industrial clients with the decommissioning and demolition of plants across the United States

Vinayaka Nakul Prasad is a Product Portfolio Manager at Siemens Gas and Power. In this role he is currently working on decarbonization strategies for the gas turbine fleet with a focus on hydrogen. In his previous role at Siemens, he worked as an R&D combustion engineer and project manager for the latest generation heavy-duty gas turbine combustor development programs.
He holds a Ph.D. from Imperial College London / Great Britain and a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt / Germany. Prior to joining Siemens, he worked as a researcher in numerical combustion at the University of Sydney / Australia.

Marc is a Project Engineer at Sargent & Lundy and one of the core members of S&L's Decarbonization Team. After joining S&L 4 years ago, Marc started working on coal, oil, and gas projects before transitioning to the decarbonization space with carbon capture, hydrogen, and clean fuel production projects. Prior to joining S&L, he spent 6 years working in oil & gas. Marc is the S&L process owner for hydrogen and is a registered P.E. in the state of Illinois. Marc holds a Bachelor's degree in both Physics and Mechanical Engineering and is finishing his Master's of Engineering degree in Energy Systems in 2024.

Darrell Proctor joined POWER in 2017. He has years of experience in the energy and publishing industries, including as a writer, editor and energy data analyst for Ponderosa Advisors and Bentek Energy (S&P Global/Platts). He has written numerous reports and white papers on power demand, particularly from industrial facilities, as well as natural gas and crude oil exploration and trading. He also has written about transportation of commodities, particularly coal, crude oil and natural gas, and the operation of crude oil refineries. He was an assistant business editor and assistant news editor as well as Technology Editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Colorado, and also was a senior editor at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. He is a graduate of Franklin College of Indiana.

Michael Schimmelpfennig is a Principal Engineer for Ameren Missouri in St. Louis, Missouri. He has more than 35 years experience in the design of coal fired power plant systems with emphasis in coal handling and coal dust control. In 1995, the St. Louis Chapter of the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers named him Outstanding Engineer in Industry. Michael received his BS and MS degrees in Mining Engineering from the University of Missouri - Rolla in 1980 and 1982 respectively. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Missouri and a certified Project Management Professional. He has completed numerous detailed studies associated with coal handling systems and coal dust hazards related to the utility industry, and has authored and co-authored several articles on power plant coal handling systems.

Justin Schnegelberger manages the Development Department within Burns & McDonnell’s Energy Division. Mr. Schnegelberger’ s team specializes in project development beginning in the early stages of resource planning through equipment and construction contract negotiations. In this role, Justin leads a team of engineers focusing on technology evaluation and assessment, feasibility evaluation, project scoping, conceptual design, performance and technical optimization and evaluation, and economic evaluation, This includes a strong understanding of current market trends and drivers, and in particular those impacting the gas fired generation industry.

Stefano Schnitger is the Operations Manager at PacifiCorp’s Chehalis combined cycle power plant. Stefano has over 20 years of experience in power plant operations, maintenance, and engineering. He has worked in both utility and industrial power plants, with a primary emphasis in combined cycle technology. Stefano will be discussing his experiences on the effects of routine plant cycling, as well as the benefits and challenges facing low load operation. Stefano holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Washington, and a certified Project Management Professional.

Ricky Seto is a Mechanical Engineer with over 10 years of experience specializing in piping systems design for the renewable power, and mining industries. Most recently has become the technical services manager for ROCKWOOL Technical insulation, a stone wool insulation manufacturing company.

Ricky Smith is a well-known Maintenance and Reliability Advisor, consultant, and best practices educator. Authoring such books as “Rules of Thumb for Maintenance and Reliability Engineers”, “Industrial Machinery Repair, “Planning and Scheduling Made Simple”, and “Failure Reporting Made Simple”.
Ricky has over 30 years’ experience working as Maintenance and Reliability Professional for companies such as Exxon Company USA, Alumax Mt Holly, Kendall Company, Life Cycle Engineering and the US Army. In addition, Ricky worked a Maintenance Consultant/Educator with hundreds of companies in over 30 countries world-wide.
Ricky is a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP), a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Technician (CMRT) and a Certified Reliability Leader (CRL).
Ricky worked for one of three plants in the world every certified as achieving “World Class Maintenance” and is commonly making the statement, “World Class Production thru World Class Maintenance.

Mohsen Tarassoly is the Sales Engineer Director at Electrical Builders, Ind. (EBI). Mr. Tarassoly is an electrical engineer, earning his EE degree from Penn State. He has over 30 years of experience in both the domestic and international power industry working with most major utilities, EPC’s, and engineering entities. His experience includes executive management roles with some of the largest OEM manufacturers of Isolated Phase Bus, Non-Segregated, and Segregated Phase Bus systems, including Powell/Delta Unibus and Technibus/ABB.

Cy Tilford is the Fire/Safety leader at Gerald Gentleman Station, a dual coal fired power plant located at Sutherland,
Nebraska. Cy is very dedicated in the operating and maintenance safety practices of NPPD. Cy is also very involved in
maintaining and training of all Emergency Response Teams for GGS such as Fire Brigade, Hazmat, EMS, and Rope Rescue.
Cy is the lead trainer for all Fire Brigade members at GGS and also attends Texas A&M (TEEXS) as an instructor during
Industrial Fire Training week. Cy has his Industrial Emergency Response Specialist Certification thru Texas A&M College.

Anne-Sophie has more than 18 years of experience as a performance engineer in the power industry, including gas turbine, combined cycle plant & coal plant performance, heat balance modeling, performance testing, emissions estimates, boiler maintenance planning, and engineering studies on CO2 capture and transportation, gasification, oxy- combustion, and renewable energy.

Gordon van Welie is president and chief executive officer of ISO New England Inc., having previously served as the company's executive vice president and chief operating officer. He joined ISO New England from Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution LLC, where he served as vice president and general manager of the Power Systems Control Division and was responsible for managing information technology solutions for electric companies. Before coming to Siemens, Mr. van Welie held several positions at ESKOM, South Africa's electric utility based in Johannesburg.

Joe VonDerHaar has over 35 years of experience in the utility and manufacturing industries. On the utility side he has held positions in System Operations, Transmission & Distribution and Power Generation. On the manufacturing front he was a Plant Manager for a Power Transmission OEM. A common thread in both industries is the tremendous change in process and mission because of competition, new technology and evolving regulations. Being able to adapt and even welcome change is critical to success.

Joe is currently the Plant Director at the Spurlock Power Station, a 4-unit, coal fired, 1500MW facility in Maysville Kentucky. He holds an engineering degree from the University of Dayton.

Riley Wells has worked for Southern Company in power generation for 20 years. He joined Southern Company in 2000 as an engineer at Georgia Power’s Plant Wansley. He later served as Maintenance Team Leader at Plant Yates and Operations Team Leader at Plant Hammond. In 2005, Riley transferred to Mississippi Power as the Compliance & Support Manager at Plant Watson. Riley next served as Engineering Manager at Alabama Power’s Plant Gorgas before being named Assistant to the Executive Vice President and Chief Production Officer of Power Generation in 2008. In 2010, Riley moved to Gulf Power’s Plant Crist as Operations Manager. He returned to Alabama Power in 2012 as the Operations & Maintenance Manager at Plant Miller before being named Plant Manager at Plant Greene County in 2013. In 2017, Riley transferred to Georgia Power's Plant Bowen as Operations & Maintenance Manager and was promoted to Plant Manager in 2019.

Riley has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana State University and a MBA from the University of West Georgia.

Riley and his wife, Marta, reside in Acworth, GA, with their five children, Caroline, Robert, Olivia, Scarlett, and Benjamin.

Briggs White, Ph.D., serves as deputy executive director of the Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. In this role, he works hand in hand with the 11 federal agency members of the IWG to advance its mission. The IWG is identifying and coordinating opportunities to connect energy communities for federal investments to help ensure the shift to a clean energy economy creates good-paying union jobs, spurs economic revitalization, remediates environmental degradation and supports energy workers in coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities. Prior to being appointed deputy executive director, White was central to a multi-agency effort to prepare the IWG’s initial report, which described existing mechanisms and provided recommendations for future actions that could support and revitalize the economies of energy communities.

White joined the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in 2007 and most recently served as a technology manager for three research and development programs, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management: High Performance Materials, Water Management, and Energy Storage. He is currently based out of NETL’s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, site and worked at NETL’s Morgantown, West Virginia, site from 2007 to 2015. White holds degrees in materials
science and engineering from Alfred University (B.S.), the University of Florida (M.S., Ph.D.) and the University of Rome (Ph.D.) with an emphasis on solid-state high-temperature electrochemical devices.

Kristin Zaitz is a civil engineer and project manager who works in nuclear energy, supporting the production of over 20% of California’s emission-free electricity at Diablo Canyon Power Plant. She is a licensed professional engineer and certified project management professional with over fifteen years of experience. Kristin is a co-founder of Mothers for Nuclear, and she believes in supporting all clean energy sources to address major humanitarian and environmental issues. Kristin has three young children who inspire her passion for environmental action. She is a past president of the North American Young Generation in Nuclear and a board member for Generation Atomic and Environmental Progress. Kristin holds a Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and she is an MBA candidate at Arizona State University WP Carey School of Business.