2022 Speakers

Joelle Abi Nahed is a principal engineer at Electric Power Engineers LLC (EPE) with 6 years of experience in renewable energy integration and grid compliance of renewables projects. Ms. Abi Nahed is skilled in designing wind, solar and energy storage projects and conducting electrical system design analyses. Additionally, Ms. Abi Nahed is experienced in guiding clients through the interconnection process of their proposed generation projects

Presenter - EP Effects of the Energy Transition on Transmission & Distribution

Panelist - EP The Coming Demand Tsunami

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.

Moderator/Chair - EP Effects of the Energy Transition on Transmission & Distribution
Moderator/Chair - EP Technologies that Enable Efficiencies Throughout Your Generation Process

Akhil Batheja spearheads Bloom Energy's Hydrogen Business Development efforts globally, advocates for emerging hydrogen solutions, and develops relationships with industry leaders to continue momentum around hydrogen technology. Batheja brings over a decade of experience in business development in the energy and industrial sectors, including extensive work deploying and scaling fuel cell projects across international markets. In his 6+ years at Bloom, Batheja served as part of International Business Development, Product management and as a Sales Director for the US Commercial and Industrial team. During this time, he was responsible for the deployment of over 40 MW of fuel cell projects across the globe including a number of high resiliency microgrid projects. Batheja holds a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University and a master of business administration from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.

Speaker - EP Technologies that Enable Efficiencies Throughout Your Generation Process

Speaker - EP Net Zero - Is it Achievable?

Kate has spent the last 20 plus years working for Tennessee Valley Authority honing her skills and knowledge in the policy procedures and power production and core business of the industry. She currently serves as site management in rotational development capacity for several power plants in the TVA network.

Leader - Plant Management Institute - Plant Management 4.0/Open Forum for today?s plant management topics

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.

Leader - Plant Management Institute - Plant Management 4.0/Open Forum for today?s plant management topics
Chair - EP Are you Prepared for the Next Extreme Weather Event?
Chair - EP Operations and Information Technology - Bridging the Gap

Leader - Plant Management Institute - Plant Management 4.0/Open Forum for today?s plant management topics
Co-Chair - EP Are you Prepared for the Next Extreme Weather Event?

Panelist - EP Cybersecurity Roundtable - Dealing with Threats and Alerts

Rob Chapman is Senior Vice President of Energy Delivery and Customer Solutions, at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). He provides executive oversight for EPRI's broad portfolio of Power Delivery and Utilization R&D, including Integrated Grid and Energy Systems (IGES), Transmission and Distribution Infrastructure (TDI), and Electrification and Sustainable Energy Strategy (E&SES). The research and analysis spans across a large segment of the energy industry. His knowledge of the cross-EPRI research synergies, his relationships with EPRI's membership, and his understanding of the industry perspectives provide him with the right combinations of skills and experience to lead this sector. Chapman joined EPRI in 1999 as the Director of North American Technical Advisory Services and transitioned to Vice President of Member & Technical Services in 2006 and Vice President of E&SES in 2019. Prior to joining EPRI, Chapman was Director of Western Sales for Pacific Gas & Electric Energy Services during which time he led efforts to establish premium power services for technology companies in the Silicon Valley, California. Chapman holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and has completed executive business courses at The University of Chicago.

Keynote - The Way Forward - Opening Keynote Presentations
Panelist - Safe at any Speed? Debating the Pace of the Energy Transition

Howard L. Chesneau, President, Fuel Quality Services, Inc. Educational Background: Mr. Chesneau is a graduate of the University of Florida. His experience in fuel additives, microbial detection, distillate fuel problems, fuel filtration and tank remediation extends over 35 years. Mr. Chesneau has extensive knowledge and field experience of microbial contamination and detection. Brief Research Background: Mr. Chesneau is an active member of numerous professional organizations and associations. Mr. Chesneau is a Past Chairman for the International Association for Stability, Handling, and Use of Liquid Fuels (IASH) and was on the Board of Directors, a former member of the IATA (International Aviation Transportation Association) Working Group on Microbial Contamination. Currently, he serves on the ASTM D2 Section E committees dealing with fuel from middle distillates to heavy oil, the ASTM D2 Committee for establishing the specifications for Biodiesel and the ASTM J Committee for jet fuel. He is a past Chairman of the local Atlanta SAE. Mr. Chesneau was a member of the SAE Speakers Bureau providing technical presentation and seminars at SAE meetings and conferences. Mr. Chesneau has been invited to speak at various industry conferences on the topic of Microbial Contamination - Causes, effects, cures & detection methods. Mr. Chesneau served as editor for the ASTM, STP 1005 "Distillate Fuel Contamination, Storage, and Handling" and was a contributing author to Chapter 3 of ASTM Manual 47. In addition, has authored and co-authored many articles on the subject of fuel storage and handling which have been published in various trade magazines.

Speaker - EP Are You Interested in Outage Planning, Dealing with Fuel Assets, Data Mining or Flue Gas O&M Challenges? Stop By!

Panelist - EP Cybersecurity Roundtable - Dealing with Threats and Alerts

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.

Panelist - EP Keeping up with the Current Policy Landscape

Speaker - EP Outage Management During the Supply Chain Disruption

Speaker - EP Cyber and Physical Security - Best Management Practices for Control Systems

Monique Dyers, P.E. is the Principal of Ensight Energy Consulting, LLC, a technically based management consulting firm, specializing in providing technical, environmental, commercial and financial advisory services and solutions to developers, owners, and financial institutions of energy, power and energy infrastructure projects. Ms. Dyers has over 16 years of experience in the energy and power industry and has contributed to the industry in various technical and leadership roles. Her leadership and consulting experience include leading project feasibility studies, transmission and interconnection evaluations, equipment bankability studies, construction oversight and leading and managing due diligence reviews in support of the financing of energy, power, renewable energy and oil and gas projects. In addition, Ms. Dyers previously managed global teams in the design, development and performance validation of generator set engines and generators used in the energy and power industries. Ms. Dyers holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and has previously held senior consulting positions with other firms such as UL Renewables (formerly AWS Truepower LLC) and DNV Energy. In addition, she has held leadership and engineering positions with Vestas Technology R&D Americas and Caterpillar Inc. Ms. Dyers is a Professional Engineer licensed in the state of Colorado. As an accomplished energy professional and business leader, Ms. Dyers is passionate about ensuring that underrepresented communities are educated on energy polices and issues which may affect their communities. Her passion for community is demonstrated in her contribution and dedication to several groups and organizations. She's currently the President of the American Association of Blacks in Energy, Denver Chapter and serves on the boards of City and County of Denver Sustainability Advisory Council, and the Community College of Denver Foundation. Ms. Dyers has been recognized for her professional contributions as a recipient of the Denver Business Journal 2014 Forty Under 40 Award, 2015 Top Women in Energy Award, 2018 Who's Who in Energy, 2019 Who's Who in Energy and 2022 Top 40 Women Leaders in Energy Storage. During Ms. Dyers' tenure at Louisiana State University and A&M College, Ms. Dyers was initiated into the Mathematics Honor Society, Pi Mu Epsilon. She is also recognized as establishing a local Women in Engineering Networking group at a previous employer. Ms. Dyers is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana and appreciates spending time with her family and friends, mentoring underprivileged students in the areas of mathematics and science, travel, golfing and designing pottery. mdyers@ensightenergyllc.com

Panelist - EP Attracting and Retaining A Diverse Workforce

Steven Emmen joined WGA in July 2022 as a Policy Advisor and manages a portfolio that includes energy, air quality and water issues. A native of Colorado, Steven served as a Regional Representative for the U.S. Senate in the Denver Metro Area, Legislative Aide in the Colorado State Senate and most recently worked in the oil and gas industry. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Colorado State University.

Panelist - EP Keeping up with the Current Policy Landscape

Emnett leads the development and implementation of federal, regional, and state governmental, regulatory and public policy strategies for Constellation, the nation's largest producer of carbon-free energy and the leading competitive retail supplier of energy products and services for 2 million homes and businesses across the United States. He is responsible for identifying and assessing key federal and state policy issues of interest to Constellation, crafting the company's position on such issues and developing strategies for achieving public policy objectives on behalf of Constellation's customers and businesses. He is also responsible for managing the company's wholesale market design advocacy in each of the regional markets where the company operates. Prior to joining Exelon, Emnett was Senior FERC Counsel for NextEra Energy, Inc., where he provided legal support and strategic advice on federal regulatory matters. Before joining NextEra in 2014, Emnett served as Deputy Director of the Office of Energy Policy and Innovation at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where he led the development of regulations and rules governing wholesale electric markets and the provision of interstate transmission service. Prior to joining in 2006, Emnett was in private practice with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP. Emnett is married with one child.

Panelist - EP 24/7 Clean Energy: The Next Frontier in Power System Decarbonization

Jeff Fassett, President & Co-Owner, IEM Energy Consultants, LLC Mr. Fassett is Co-owner and founder of IEM Energy Consultants LLC has more than 36 years of broad based experience in the power and related industries. He founded IEM in 1998 as a boutique consulting practice which provides 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, and plant staffing analysis. In addition, he has also been involved in the negotiations of long-term service agreements representing over 30 GW of gas and steam turbine generating capacity worldwide and has testified as an expert witness regarding proper operations and maintenance practices and procedures. Under his guidance, IEM has experienced significant growth, and now employs almost 15 consultants. 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 and coal gasification. 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, and International Gas Turbine Institute, Education Subcommittee. 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

Leader - Plant Management Institute - Plant Management 4.0/Open Forum for today?s plant management topics
Moderator/Chair - EP Outsourcing the Entire Outage: Lessons Learned

Panelist - EP Outsourcing the Entire Outage: Lessons Learned

Matt Fry is a Senior Policy Manager, supporting the Carbon Management program, at the Great Plains Institute. Matt has over 20 years of experience in natural resource management, regulation and policy in both the public and private sectors. Matt served as a Senior Policy Advisor to Wyoming Governor, Matt Mead, where he focused on natural resource, energy and CCUS policy. Additionally, he developed and managed the Wyoming Pipeline Corridor Initiative (WPCI), which was a project that culminated with a federal authorization for a statewide pipeline corridor system in Wyoming intended to facilitate development of CO2 pipeline infrastructure and incentivize CCUS project deployment. Matt earned a Bachelor of Science in biology and chemistry from Davis & Elkins College, and a Master's in Natural Resource Law from the University of Denver - Sturm College of Law.

Panelist - EP Keeping up with the Current Policy Landscape

Panelist - EP 24/7 Clean Energy: The Next Frontier in Power System Decarbonization

James currently serves as the Southern Company Executive in Residence at Auburn University's McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security. In this role he works closely with industry, academia, and federal partners, including national laboratories on electric grid cyber security strategies. James also served as a senior fellow at the McCrary Institute, a prestigious group of nationally renowned cyber and critical-infrastructure security experts. With more than 28 years of service at Southern Company, James co-led an initiative to implement an enhanced Operations cyber and NERC-CIP program support model and has held various operational and engineering support leadership positions. Prior to joining Southern Company, James served in the U.S. Marines. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Auburn University.

Moderator - EP Cybersecurity Roundtable - Dealing with Threats and Alerts
Panelist - EP Operations and Information Technology - Bridging the Gap

Daniel is a turnaround expert, having held a series of roles in turnarounds over the last 10 years and managed large teams of engineers located in different facilities. As President, North America at Mobideo, he shares his turnaround knowledge, insights, expertise and understanding with customers, enabling them to appreciate how digitalization and automation can fundamentally change STO management and contribute to standardization of the STO market.

Speaker - EP Are You Interested in Outage Planning, Dealing with Fuel Assets, Data Mining or Flue Gas O&M Challenges? Stop By!

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.

Moderator/Chair - EP Are You Interested in Outage Planning, Dealing with Fuel Assets, Data Mining or Flue Gas O&M Challenges? Stop By!

Jeff Haskins has worked in the energy industry for more than 30 years. He started in the oil fields of Wyoming before attending college. Since that time he has held multiple front office positions in natural gas and power scheduling, trading, operations and analytics including management of the Xcel Energy renewable portfolio to ensure Xcel's compliance with state renewable portfolio standards . He currently works as the Power Operations Manager for Xcel Energy Services Inc. managing a team responsible for operating the Southwestern Public Service Company (SPS) resources in the Southwest Power Pool Integrated Market (SPP). Jeff also spends considerable time in regulatory related responsibilities for SPS. Xcel Energy serves about 3.7 million customers in eight states including Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota. Additionally, Xcel Energy operates more than 10,000 MW's of wind capacity and serves over 21,000 MW of peak demand. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree from Black Hills State University and a Master of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from Colorado State University.

Speaker - EP Are you Prepared for the Next Extreme Weather Event?

Brian Heinbaugh has a B.S. Engineering Technology and two Master's degrees, M.S. Management and Master of Business Administration. He has been in the Power Generation industry for over 25 years in a variety of O&M roles dealing with many different technologies. He has served as a Director of Operations with both GDF Suez and NAES over simple cycle, combined cycle, and coal plants. Currently he is a Plant Manager with ODEC at their new 1000 MW Combined Cycle Wildcat Point Generation Facility.

Leader - Plant Management Institute - Plant Management 4.0/Open Forum for today?s plant management topics
Moderator/Chair - EP Advanced Gas Turbines: A Plant Perspective
Chair - EP Cyber and Physical Security - Best Management Practices for Control Systems

John has been supporting companies with their North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) compliance program shortly after compliance became mandatory. The support provided has included developing new compliance programs, review of existing programs, revising, and updating programs that were already in place, and supporting registered entities through the NERC or regional audit process. Though still working with all of the NERC Standards, his primary focus has shifted to the NERC Standards that cover Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP). He has been an active participant in the standard drafting process for all versions of the CIP Standards beginning with version 3. More importantly, John is the proud father of one daughter and two sons and the proud grandfather of one granddaughter and the grandsons.

Speaker - EP The Coming Demand Tsunami

Duane joined Tri-State in 2019 and has 36 years of experience with cooperatives. Previously serving as President/CEO for Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. (AECC) and Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AECI), he led an organization that provided reliable, affordable, responsible power through 17 member systems to 1.3 million consumers. Duane serves on the Southwest Power Pool Members Committee and serves as Co-Chair of the Electric Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC), coordinating security efforts between electric utilities and the U.S. Government.

Keynote - The Way Forward - Opening Keynote Presentations

Kristen Himmerick is a higher education and nonprofit administrator with extensive experience working with higher education institutions and systems to launch large-scale academic technology projects. She joined CAEL in June 2012 as Director of Academic Technology and Student Engagement for the CAEL's national portfolio assessment program, LearningCounts. As Director, Kristen led the internal operations and platform design of LearningCounts. In 2022, Kristen became the Vice President of the Solutions Team, which focuses on developing technology to support regional, workforce, and higher education initiatives. In addition to tech development, Kristen leads the group that manages both EPCE and NACTEL signature programs and has a special interest in linking learning and work for a region or industry. Before joining CAEL, Himmerick was part of the Innovation Lab at Southern New Hampshire University, where she helped author the proposal for a self-paced, competency-based associate degree awarded the $1MM Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant for College Completion (SNHU's College for America Program). Before SNHU, Kristen was the District Director of Academic Technology at the City Colleges of Chicago, managing the first system-wide LMS and student email system launches. She earned an M. Ed., concentration in eLearning from the University of Illinois, and holds a B.S. in Communication Studies and a Musical Theater certificate from Northwestern University. Kristen is a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner. Also, an actress and singer, Kristen, has performed in theaters across Chicago. Past regional theater appearances include roles at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Second City, and Drury Lane Oak Brook.

Moderator - EP Attracting and Retaining A Diverse Workforce

Rizwan James, Director-Power Generation System Operation Joined Dominion Energy in 2004 as a combustion turbine technician at the Fairless Energy Power Plant. Through series of career advancements his new role is Director Power Generation System Operations. Rizwan James is responsible for providing fleetwide operational support to Power Generation assets which include regulated fleet asset management and budgetary oversight, regulatory reporting, and oversight of the PG Operational Excellence team. He is also responsible for leading Power Generation operations teams, leading Power Generation's hydrogen strategy for combustion turbines, and providing support for Project Construction

Speaker - EP Advanced Gas Turbines: A Plant Perspective

Alex Krowka is a Seattle-based Consultant for the U.S. Energy Association. In this position, Alex helps manage the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded Consensus Program to build global and domestic understanding, consensus, and cooperative action on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) and Carbon Management Technologies (CMT). 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 8 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.

Chair - EP Keeping up with the Current Policy Landscape

Ms. Kruslemsky is Commonwealth's Chief Talent Officer responsible for leading People & Culture and Learning & Development. She is a progressive leader in the talent management space, with over 25 years in Human Resource Leadership. The majority of her experience came from 20 years in automotive advertising where she served in Executive HR roles supporting the advertising agencies for General Motors and Ford Motor Company. Ms. Kruslemsky serves on the Board as the Vice Chair of a non-profit, Youth Solutions, which empowers disadvantaged Youth by connecting them to job and educational opportunities. In addition, she serves on the HR advisory group; providing thought provoking and best practice solutions to colleagues in the Talent space. Ms. Kruslemsky holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology & Sociology and a Master of Science in Human Resources and Organizational Development from Eastern Michigan University and has been credentialed as an SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources). She is passionate about growing and enabling talent for business success.

Panelist - EP Options for Advancing your Career in Power Generation

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.

Moderator - EP Outage Management During the Supply Chain Disruption

Moderator - EP Options for Advancing your Career in Power Generation
Moderator/Chair - EP Reducing Phosphorous Discharge in Wastewater

Larry Lesh is a Steam Plant Operating Supervisor for the City of Los Angeles, Department of Water and Power (LADWP). In this capacity, he oversees operations for LADWP's 1738 MW Haynes Generating Station. Prior to this current assignment Larry served at all levels of equipment and control room operations, as well as serving in the role of operations scheduler. He began his career in 1999 as a steam plant assistant, supporting the recommissioning of the 512 MW Valley Generating Station. This experience shaped the trajectory of his career, often gravitating toward assignments in support of system repair, upgrade, and recommissioning. His experience includes leadership assignments at the plant and system level, as well as roles in outage leadership for fuel recommissioning, major SIRs, WECC certification, and system upgrades such as control systems and SCADA. Larry has operating experience on conventional circulation boilers, combustion turbines, Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG), super critical boilers, and methane fired micro-turbines. Larry is a proud member of IBEW Local 18, and a strong advocate for workers' rights and elevating the contribution of the blue-collar workforce, and has represented labor on joint labor-management committees throughout the LADWP/IBEW Local 18 ecosystem. Serving as a shop steward for 13 years, Larry is known for his subject matter expertise of organization and regulatory policy, as well as the IBEW Code of Excellence. Larry prides himself on his strong knowledge of the power system and is a champion for technological and workforce innovations. He considers it a great honor to mentor the rising generation of electrical worker and to support their professional and personal growth.

Speaker - EP Outage Management During the Supply Chain Disruption
Speaker - EP Operations and Information Technology - Bridging the Gap

Speaker - EP Net Zero - Is it Achievable?

Tom Logan is an engineering and technology development executive with experience leading global teams in the power generation and oil and gas industries. He is currently a product line manager in Intelligent Solutions at Mitsubishi Power Americas, where he leads new product development, technology roadmap definition, and integration strategy. Tom's career spans technology and innovation, new product development and commercialization, and manufacturing and operations, delivering strong revenue and EBITA growth. A certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, he has provided Six Sigma leadership and training. In addition, Tom served as a nuclear-trained officer in the U.S. Navy for more than a decade. Tom holds a BS in Physics from Stevens Institute of Technology and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech. Mitsubishi Power Americas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., leading the industry in power generation, energy storage, and intelligent digital solutions that empower customers to affordably and reliably combat climate change and advance human prosperity. Mitsubishi Power is at the forefront of green hydrogen and battery energy storage systems.

Speaker - EP Cyber and Physical Security - Best Management Practices for Control Systems

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.

Panelist - EP Options for Advancing your Career in Power Generation

William "Bill" McEvoy is a Global Industry Principal for power and utilities with OSIsoft, now part of AVEVA, and has been with the company for five years. Previously, Bill spent over 34 years working within the power and utility business and information technology industries at Eversource Energy, holding roles in transmission, distribution, power generation, gas, operational technology (OT), and information technology (IT). Bill is an active participant on several industry committees associated with smart grids and cybersecurity within both Europe and North America. Bill retired as the Executive Director of information technology and real-time systems at Eversource Energy on April 1, 2016. He was responsible for all real-time IT systems within the transmission, distribution, generation, and gas businesses. His responsibilities included identifying, prioritizing, and aligning all IT services and investments with the company's strategies and objectives. Bill was also the Eversource Energy smart grid information technology Program Director. Before being named the smart grid Program Director, he spent four years as the Director of the Northeast Utilities cybersecurity program. A native of Waterbury, CT, McEvoy holds a Bachelor of Science in computer information systems and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in information systems management, both from the University of New Haven. McEvoy represented Eversource Energy on the EEI cybersecurity working group, EEI smart grid working group, North American Transmission Forum cybersecurity working group, and is a voting member on the North American Reliability Council (NERC) Critical Infrastructure and Protection Committee (CIPC). He also served as the Chairmen of the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) Task Force on Infrastructure and Technology (TFIST) for two years.

Panelist - Safe at any Speed? Debating the Pace of the Energy Transition

Mark Mechenbier has worked at Xcel Energy for over 40 years with 30 years at Harrington Station in the positions of engineering, operations management, and maintenance management. Mark moved into a new department as the Reliability Services and Overhaul Management (RSOM) Manager (TX/NM). In his current role over the last 9 years, Mark has provided oversight of Energy Supply programs and projects that have corporate and strategic implications over power generation initiatives. An example of these initiatives includes supporting rate cases in Texas and New Mexico jurisdictions and oversight of the NERC compliance of the generating facilities in the Southwestern Public Service Company (SPS) region. Southwestern Public Service Company, a New Mexico corporation, is an electric utility company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Xcel Energy Inc. SPS serves approximately 378,000 electric customers in a 50,000 square mile area of the Panhandle and the South Plains of Texas, eastern and southern New Mexico.

Speaker - EP Are you Prepared for the Next Extreme Weather Event?

Moderator - EP Keeping up with the Current Policy Landscape
Moderator - EP The Coming Demand Tsunami

Ravi Mundhe serves as Microsoft's Energy Commercialization and Business Development leader covering Commercial Business Development, Strategic Alliances, and Co-Innovation Product Management. He collaborates with his partner's C-Suite team to help them leapfrog to their fullest business potential - through creative strategic partnerships, transformative business revenue models and disciplined execution of innovative business product solutions. Ravi partners deeply with his clients for hands-on Business Strategy, Operations & Governance with 25+ years of extensive multi-industry, multi-cultural, global experience.

Panelist - EP The Coming Demand Tsunami

Mike Nasi is a partner with Jackson Walker, where he practices environmental and energy law. Mike has been practicing before state and federal environmental and energy agencies and appellate courts for 24 years. Mike's compliance counseling, permitting, and enforcement defense work spans the following federal (and related state) programs: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Solid Waste Disposal Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act. Mike is often asked to play a strategic planning role on behalf of his clients in the midst of large, complex project developments. Mike is counsel for parties in ongoing EPA regulatory proceedings relating to carbon dioxide, interstate air quality, regional haze, and coal combustion residuals, including appeals pending before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Eighth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. Mike helps coordinate multi-state outreach efforts regarding these and other regulations impacting the electric power and mining sectors, appears at hearings and energy policy events across the country, and is published in several trade, law, and business journals on environmental law and energy policy topics. Mike is a past Chairman of the State Bar of Texas Environmental and Natural Resources Law Section and serves on the faculty for Rice University's "Leadership & Decision Making in the Energy Industry" course and as a guest lecturer in the "Energy Law & Policy" course at the University of Texas Law School. Mike is consistently recognized on several "Who's Who" and "Best Lawyer" lists and was recently awarded the "Energy and Environmental Trailblazer Award." Mike is the Chairman of the Central Texas Salvation Army Advisory Board and is a Board Member for the West Austin Youth Association (WAYA).

Panelist - EP Keeping up with the Current Policy Landscape

Larry is part of the cybersecurity and smart cities and infrastructure teams at ARC, with a 30-year background in process control, process safety, and field devices/field networks. Larry has also supported many of our end user clients in the oil and gas and refining industries and has conducted several supplier selection workshops.

Panelist - EP Cybersecurity Roundtable - Dealing with Threats and Alerts

Hassan Obeid is a Senior Global Technical Advisor - Energy Management Solutions at Cummins Power Generation focusing on technical vision, business strategy and solving a wide range of complex problems. Hassan has been with Cummins since 2007 in a variety of roles: power systems design engineering, project engineering and applications engineering. Hassan has designed power systems involving switchgear, controls, paralleling, transfer switches, generator sets, renewable DERs, microgrids and digital solutions. He has developed and conducted technical power seminars on several topics and products involving paralleling, grounding, power systems and controls. Hassan received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science and master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Presenter - EP Effects of the Energy Transition on Transmission & Distribution

Rob's power experience starts in early high school, while interning at a local coal facility in West Virginia. He graduated in 2008 with a mechanical engineering degree from Ohio Northern University where he played football, and went straight to work for Siemens Westinghouse out of the Pittsburgh district office. He completed 45 projects with the company, from simple troubleshooting efforts, to maintenance contracts, and retrofits. Rob is currently a Sr. Staff Engineer for Rotating Equipment within Entergy's Fleet Engineering Group. Entergy has an installed base of over 30GW.

Panelist - EP Outsourcing the Entire Outage: Lessons Learned

Dan Patry is Fluence's Policy Innovation Manager, where he leads the company's regulatory and external affairs work in the Americas region. Prior to Fluence, Dan has held regulatory and government affairs roles at Pacific Gas and Electric Company in addition to roles in the solar and demand-side management industries. Dan lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and two children.

Presenter - EP Effects of the Energy Transition on Transmission & Distribution

Jeff is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology with a Minor in Chemistry. Jeff has over 37 years of water treatment experience working with high pressure boilers, industrial wastewater, dust suppression, fireside additives, and power plant cooling water systems. Jeff is the Vertical Power Industry Leader in the west for Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions. Jeff has authored several papers and presented at conferences such as, Experience Power, PowerGen, PRB Coal User's Group, AREGC, Electric Power, and the Southwest Chemistry Workshop. Jeff recently located from Colorado Springs to Litchfield Park, AZ and is in the process of lowering is golf handicap.

Speaker - EP Reducing Phosphorous Discharge in Wastewater

Bruce Phillips is a Senior Advisor at the NorthBridge Group, a leading economic and strategic consulting firm serving clients in the U.S. electric and natural gas sectors, including regulated utilities, competitive generators, and other companies and organizations active in the energy space. In over 30 years of consulting, he has advised companies in the electric utility, merchant power, private equity, technology development, power marketing, natural gas pipeline and gas marketing industries, as well as government agencies and non-profit organizations. His recent work has focused on electric generation markets, design of greenhouse gas policies and the deployment of low-carbon energy infrastructure at scale. Bruce is Co-Chair of the advisory board of the Yale Center for Business and the Environment and serves on the board of directors of the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit organization working to advance technologies and policies needed to achieve a zero-emissions, high-energy planet at an affordable cost. He received a B.A. from the College of the Atlantic, a M.F.S. from Yale School of the Environment, and an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management

Panelist - EP 24/7 Clean Energy: The Next Frontier in Power System Decarbonization

Carver Powers is a Security Associate who specializes in the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards. At Utility Services, he assists electric utilities registered with NERC in maintaining their regulatory compliance programs. He is also a member of Utility Services' Sentry Services division, which is responsible for planning, delivering, and executing tabletop exercises with a focus on incident response and incident recovery. Prior to Utility Services, Carver worked in cyber and physical security while serving in the U.S. Navy for eight and a half years, much of which time was spent as active duty.

Speaker - EP Cyber and Physical Security - Best Management Practices for Control Systems

Thomas J. Pyle is the president of the Institute for Energy Research (IER). In this capacity, Pyle brings a unique backdrop of public and private sector experience to help manage IER's Washington, DC-based staff and operations. He also helps to develop the organization's free market policy positions and implement education efforts with respect to key energy stakeholders, including policymakers, federal agency representatives, industry leaders, consumer entities and the media. Previously, Pyle was the founder of his own consulting firm, Pyle Consulting, Inc., an active public affairs consulting firm with a wide range of private and not-for-profit customers. Prior to starting his own firm, Pyle served as vice president of the Rhoads Group in Washington, DC where he represented and advised a variety of association and corporate clients in meeting their strategic public policy goals and priorities. Additionally, he also served as director of federal affairs for a major integrated manufacturing and services company focusing on energy, environment, regulatory and transportation issues. Before coming to the private sector, Pyle held numerous positions on Capitol Hill including serving as a policy analyst for the Majority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives and as staff director for the Congressional Western Caucus, as well as other legislative staff positions. Pyle holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Southern California.

Panelist - Safe at any Speed? Debating the Pace of the Energy Transition

Aaron Ray is Associate Director in the Environment, Energy, and Transportation group at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) where he leads NCSL's Energy Program. Prior to joining NCSL, Aaron served as Deputy Director for Policy in the Colorado Governor's Office where he led a team of analysts overseeing nine state agencies, including the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Public Health and Environment, and the Colorado Energy Office. Previously, Aaron was a Program Examiner in the White House Office of Management and Budget with responsibility for Department of the Interior energy, science, and natural resources programs. Aaron holds a PhD in Political Science from American University, an MPP in Environmental and Regulatory Policy from Georgetown University, and an MA in Education from the University of New Mexico.

Panelist - EP Keeping up with the Current Policy Landscape

Chair - EP Net Zero - Is it Achievable?

Panelist - EP Attracting and Retaining A Diverse Workforce

Rob Shepard holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineer from Mississippi State University and is licensed as a professional engineer in Kansas and Mississippi. He is a certified project manager through PMI and has more than 30 years of experience in the power industry. He founded The Energy Group, PLLC in 2006 and recently merged his company with IEM Energy Consultants, Inc. and formed IEM Energy Consultants, LLC. This new company, has greatly expanded and provides consulting services in all aspects of power plant management, operations, and maintenance to clients worldwide, with current clients ranging from the Middle East to Africa to South America, the Caribbean and Australia, which complements all of their domestic US clients. He and his wife Sue Ellen have three children, two of which are married, and a grandchild on the way.

Panelist - EP Outsourcing the Entire Outage: Lessons Learned

John Shubin is the Director of Sales at ADRF, in charge of driving sales revenue from wireless service providers, system integrators and enterprise customers throughout the United States. John was previously a Director of Business Development and has nearly 20 years of experience on the front lines of the wireless industry, both in commercial and public safety in-building systems. Prior to joining ADRF, John was a business development manager at Kastle Systems, a global managed security and access control provider. He previously held leadership roles at Notora, PCTEL, and AT&T Mobility. John holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Phoenix.

Speaker - EP Technologies that Enable Efficiencies Throughout Your Generation Process

Tom leads a development and field-based sales team of experts responsible for growing and supporting Caterpillar's Energy as a Service business. His sales and development team also supports the sales and service of Caterpillar's generation products, including Distributed Power, Economic Dispatch/Resiliency and Combined Heat and Power (CHP). His team works with dealers, customers, and partners to develop and provide the best overall solution of power generation equipment and related products/services. Upon graduating from Miami University, Ohio, Tom began his career with Westinghouse Electric Corp. In addition to Westinghouse Tom has held positions of increasing responsibility with Rolls Royce Energy Systems, Equity Office Properties, Endurant Energy, and Professional Power Products Inc. Prior to joining Caterpillar, Tom was with Sterling & Wilson Power Solutions as President and CEO focusing on development, engineering and construction of micro-grid systems including cogeneration, hybrid, demand response and resiliency technologies. Tom is also very active in Power Generation industry associations including the United States Combined Heat and Power Alliance (President), Cogeneration World Coalition (Board Member) Northeast Clean Heat and Power Initiative and Midwest Cogeneration Association (Board Member).

Keynote - The Way Forward - Opening Keynote Presentations
Panelist - Safe at any Speed? Debating the Pace of the Energy Transition

Panelist - EP Options for Advancing your Career in Power Generation

Panelist - EP Advanced Gas Turbines: A Plant Perspective

Dr. Sercan Teleke is an expert in energy storage, solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, microgrids, renewable energy integration, power electronic applications to power systems, and power system design and analysis. He is a Professional Engineer (P.E.) licensed in California and Maine. His professional career includes consulting experience and helping various electric utility companies and renewable energy developers across North America prepare for the renewable energy revolution, as well as manufacturing experience. Dr. Teleke is a patent holder and has published more than twenty articles and technical papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings. He is a senior member of IEEE and IEEE Power and Energy Society.

Presenter - EP Effects of the Energy Transition on Transmission & Distribution

Panelist - EP Attracting and Retaining A Diverse Workforce
Speaker - EP Outage Management During the Supply Chain Disruption

John has nearly 30 years of business and technical experience in the Project Management, Process development/improvement, Quality/ISO/CMMI Management, Technical Training, Reliability Engineering, Maintenance, Application development, Risk Management, & Enterprise Asset Management fields. His experience includes work as a Reliability Engineer & RCM implementer for NASA/JPL Deep Space Network, as well as numerous customer projects and consulting activities as a reliability and spares analysis expert. When needed, John works closely with clients and their third-party validation teams to ensure implementations meet FDA requirements for hosted and cloud-based software solutions. He has honed his project management, business, engineering, functional and technical consulting skills through his engagements with clients across the spectrum of industry and Government. John is very active creating both TRM and LinkedIn articles, eBooks, conference sessions, and blog posts around industry and product topics.

Speaker - EP Technologies that Enable Efficiencies Throughout Your Generation Process
Speaker - EP Are You Interested in Outage Planning, Dealing with Fuel Assets, Data Mining or Flue Gas O&M Challenges? Stop By!

Jonathan Tubb is a cybersecurity professional with extensive expertise and experience developing solutions to power generations' biggest security challenges. He specializes in identifying, mitigating, and remediating threats in critical infrastructure environments. Jonathan holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Ohio State University and maintains a Professional Engineer (P.E.) license in Computer Engineering. He brings over 15 years of hands-on experience to his current role, as Director of Industrial Cyber and Digital Security at Siemens Energy, Inc. He currently teaches an Operational Technology Cyber Security masters course at Duke University's Pratt school of Engineering. Outside the professional setting, he is an avid brewer.

Panelist - EP Cybersecurity Roundtable - Dealing with Threats and Alerts

Panelist - EP Attracting and Retaining A Diverse Workforce

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.

Chair - Plant Management Institute - Plant Management 4.0/Open Forum for today?s plant management topics

Tommy Waggoner has worked at Southern Company for over 30 years including positions in generating plant performance, system planning, operations, and settlement. In his current role as Operation Services Manager, Tommy manages a team providing project management, analytics, tool development and other support to the unit commitment and economic dispatch functions of Southern Company's power pool. The pool is comprised of over 300 generating units, serving more than 4.68 million retail customers in a territory spanning most of Alabama and Georgia, and southeastern Mississippi. Southern Company is one of the largest producers of electricity in the United States and the largest wholesale provider in the Southeast. Tommy holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from Auburn University.

Speaker - EP Are you Prepared for the Next Extreme Weather Event?

Andrew Webber is the Founder and CEO of Digital Power-Optimization LLC. He was previously CFO of searCH4power LLC. Prior to his career in cryptocurrency/blockchain, Andrew spent over 12 years in New York's finance industry including roles at Goldman Sachs and Fortress Investment Group. Andrew is also a former active duty U.S. Marine.

Keynote - Bitcoin's Vital Role in the Energy Transition
Panelist - EP The Coming Demand Tsunami

David Williams currently serves as Manager of Fleet Engineering-Controls, for the Energy Supply business unit of Xcel Energy. David has enjoyed a 45+ year career in power plant controls after starting as an operator at Plant X near Earth, Texas. He soon transitioned to the I&C Department, eventually serving as a Plant Controls technician. After graduating from Texas Tech with a BS in Electrical-Electronics Engineering, he transferred to Jones Station as an engineer and served as the plant contact for controls retrofits for both of the 250MW Jones units. David then had the opportunity to move to the Southwestern Public Service corporate office in Amarillo, Texas to join the team of controls retrofit experts and spent the next twenty five years leading or supporting 17 major controls retrofits.

Speaker - EP Operations and Information Technology - Bridging the Gap

Leader - Plant Management Institute - Plant Management 4.0/Open Forum for today?s plant management topics