Daren Mancini, Chief Commercial Officer, Mara Holdings

John Hughes is the Chief Engineer for residential controls at Trane Technologies. John's responsibilities in this role include innovation, process improvement, mentoring, technical capability building, and sustainment. John is active in the Air Conditioning Heating and Refrigeration Institute Demand Response Task Force (AHRI 1380). As Chair of the Home Connectivity Alliance Technical Workgroup, John is leading the integration between 13 major appliance brands to improve user experience and help consumers make smarter choices about energy usage. Since 2014, John has held various roles at Trane, including Controls Systems Engineering Manager, and Home Controls Engineering Manager. Prior to working for Trane, John worked for L-3 Communications and Southwest Research Institute as a Project Engineer, Systems Engineer, and Radio Frequency Design Engineer.

Dan is an accomplished and experienced energy industry professional responsible for product development at ConnectDER. As ConnectDER's VP of Product, Dan oversees all product lines, product validation, and maintains relationships with NRTLs and standards bodies. Prior to joining ConnectDER, Dan held senior leadership positions at Exelon Utilities where he oversaw smart meter engineering, operations, and analytics for the PHI brands (Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power, and Pepco) across NJ, DE, MD, & DC. Dan has over 20 years of experience in the energy space and has worked extensively with utilities across the US as chair of AEIC / EEI committees. Dan is a member of the NEMA Grid Sector Leadership committee and technical committee member for ANSI and UL standards in the energy space. Dan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania with a minor in Mathematics, and a Masters in Energy & Environmental Policy degree from the University of Delaware. Dan has family roots in Philadelphia and firsthand experience working in the energy space as he grew up working in a family business focused on residential electrical work. Dan is excited to help lead the energy transformation with new technology, standards, and policy as the energy industry moves to electrification.

Wilmann Gomez, Director of Product, Smart Communities, SmartRent

Mac Keller, Manager, Resilience - Research & Industry Strategy, SEPA – Smart Electric Power Alliance

Jarrod Maddox is the Director of Product Development and Energy Innovation for Vistra Corp’s Energy Transition Solutions team. Vistra Corp is a leading integrated retail electricity and power generation company managing multiple retail energy brands across the U.S. deregulated markets and includes the flagship brand TXU Energy. Jarrod’s team focuses on taking complex energy ideas in the Solar, EV and Demand Flexibility space and transforming them into simple, consumer friendly products. This allows customers to make smart energy choices like charging cars during off peak hours (e.g., TXU Energy’s Free EV Miles product) or enrolling their connected devices in demand response (e.g., TXU Energy’s Connected Conservation program). Jarrod holds a BBA in Economics from Baylor University.

Svetlin Todorov, CEO, Shelly USA

Amith Kota is the Global Chief Technology Officer of Landis+Gyr, an industry leader in integrated energy management solutions and cutting-edge smart grid technologies. In his role Amith is responsible for all aspects of Technology, product, strategy, development, and solutions offered by Landis+Gyr. Prior to his current role, he was the Vice President of Software & Services and CIO, where he was responsible for the strategic growth and management of software, cloud and services businesses that support Landis+Gyr’s long-term vision to be a trusted utilities digital and technology partner. Amith has more than 25 years’ experience delivering digital change with leading-edge products and services to help customers achieve business value faster and work more effectively in the future. Prior to joining Landis+Gyr, he served as the Chief Enterprise Architect/CTO and Global Head of Emerging Technologies at Gulfstream Aerospace, A General Dynamics company, where he was accountable for global enterprise strategy, architecture, and innovation to create new revenue channels and optimize business profitability through technology innovations. Earlier in his career, Amith held various leadership positions at Progressive Insurance and startups across sales, delivery, and business IT organizations responsible for digital customer experience, Omni-channel engagement, and business systems. Amith is a board member of Advanced Energy United, has served in multiple non-profit boards championing clean energy. Amith is a member of various industry and CIO boards, a selective group of digital leaders from the most forward-looking companies. He holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and an Executive Certificate in Innovation and Strategy from the Case Western Reserve University.

Michael Norbeck leads the business development function for Grid Services at Enphase Energy, where he builds strategic partnerships and commercial transactions through which portfolios of distributed solar, battery and other customer-connected resources can deliver value as electric grid planning and operational assets. Michael began working in energy over 15 years ago, with positions in state and federal government focused on issues including retail electricity market deregulation and energy infrastructure management. At Pacific Gas and Electric, he managed integration of Distributed Energy Resources portfolios into wholesale markets, as well as utility procurement of DER products and services. Most recently prior to joining Enphase, he led business development for Grid Services at Sunrun, the largest residential solar and battery installer in the US.

Gomathi Sadhasivan is Vice President – Energy Systems at DNV Energy North America and part of its regional leadership team. She fosters trusted partnerships and helps clients navigate the energy transition. She brings to bear 30 years of experience studying customers to provide nuanced insights on energy efficiency, load flexibility, EVs, rates, digital services, solar, storage, and home automation. This includes a focus on low-income customers, rural customers, seniors, and other disadvantaged communities ensuring that the transition to clean energy benefits all. She is Chair of the Board of Directors for the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative. She is a Guest Lecturer at Willamette University and the Northwest Public Power Association, teaching Customer Engagement to rising utility leaders. She holds an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio Graduate School and graduate degrees in Mathematics & Statistics from Michigan Technological University and the University of Mumbai.

Jason McGrade, as Deputy Director of SECC plays a key role in producing SECC's research reports and consumer education materials. Prior to joining SECC, Jason served most recently as a Senior Program Manager for Touchstone Energy® Cooperatives. In this role, he drove strategic planning efforts, produced events and webinars, as well as leading market research and IT initiatives. He considers himself a lifelong learner and is always on the lookout for delicious local specialties when traveling.

Josh is the Founder and CEO of ThinkLabs AI, a specialized AI development and deployment company developing AI agents electrical grid planning and operations, with a mission to empower critical infrastructure towards energy autonomy and sustainability. Josh brings over 20 years of experience in cleantech, including utility grid modernization, solar, storage, microgrids, hydrogen, and DERMS. Josh was formerly founder and CEO of Opus One Solutions, rated #1 Grid DERMS by Guidehouse, and General Manager of Grid Orchestration at General Electric.

Astrid Atkinson is CEO and Co-Founder of Camus, a grid orchestration software platform for electric utilities. Astrid built her career on managing complex, distributed systems. Before founding Camus, she spent 15 years at Google in systems reliability, most recently as Senior Director of Software Engineering. She led the development of Google’s global web-serving platform and the common, performant, scalable set of infrastructure frameworks which now power all of Google’s major product lines. A respected expert on the clean energy transition, Astrid is frequently quoted in top energy and climate publications. She serves on the Gridwise Alliance’s Board of Directors and speaks globally as a thought leader on distributed systems and reliability engineering.

Joe Zhou is a technology executive with twenty-five years of experience in applying information technology for business transformations. He is a thought-leader in the utility industry, driving technology standards and innovations for the digital utility of the future. Having worked on consulting and systems integration projects with over thirty-five different utilities, he has gained a comprehensive understanding of the utility businesses from people, process, data, and technology perspectives. Mr. Zhou leads the Digital Advisory team of Black & Veatch Global Advisory.

Lisa is a seasoned energy sector professional with over 20 years of experience in energy efficiency, sustainability and client success. Currently, the Senior Manager of the ecobee Energy team. She has a passion for helping energy partners create and implement impactful energy programs that deliver exceptional customer experiences through ecobee's Smart Thermostats. Lisa's expertise in smart thermostat technologies focuses on enhancing home efficiency and helping Utility partners engage consumers with innovative energy solutions.

Kerri Carnes, Director, Customer to Grid Solutions, APS - Arizona Public Service

Julian Durand, SVP Product Management & CSO, Intertrust

Dai Lin is the VP of Product at UtilityAPI, where she leads the vertical responsible for product design and development, market strategy, and analytics. UtilityAPI is a data access platform focused on ensuring open, equitable, and efficient access to customer data to accelerate the clean energy transition. Concurrently, Dai advises climate tech startups as a coach at Elemental Impact and previously at RMI's Third Derivative accelerator. As a MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) Society of Energy fellow through MIT’s System Design and Management program, Dai worked on low-carbon solutions with Shell TechWorks, the Hewlett Foundation, and MIT’s Office of Sustainability. Prior to her career pivot, Dai developed augmented reality and education technology products at startups in New York City and Shanghai. She has taught in East Harlem with Citizen Schools, South Africa on a Fulbright, and Azerbaijan as a Peace Corps volunteer. She is a dropout of the Harvard Kennedy School where she researched data privacy & cybersecurity, opioids, and water policy.

Vera has been leading partnerships for a decade in the technology industry with companies like Lyft and Facebook. Most recently, she led business development and operations for Andy Rubin at Simple Things. After her experience building smart home devices at Simple Things, she joined Leap to focus on climate and energy. Vera currently leads all partnership efforts for Leap in their Smart Buildings and Devices vertical.

Chris Rauscher, JD, is the Head of Grid Services & Virtual Power Plants at Sunrun. He leads the business unit responsible for originating and operating distributed power plant programs and contracts across the country. He and his team aggregate tens of thousands of customers and hundreds of Megawatts to provide peak reduction, capacity, and demand response, among other utility services. Chris joined Sunrun in 2015 and was previously Senior Director of Market Development & Policy, where he led new business policy and regulatory work with a focus on market entry and development of Sunrun’s EV and electrification business as well as storage, virtual power plants, and wholesale markets. Prior to joining Sunrun, Chris was an energy policy advisor in the US Senate where he worked on a diverse issue set, with a particular focus on DERs. Chris has been on various political campaigns and involved in a number of startup businesses. Chris serves on various boards, including the Efficiency Maine Trust, and was the founding board president of the Puerto Rico Solar and Energy Storage Association.