Keynote Speakers

Dr. Damir Novosel
Dr. Damir Novosel, Quanta Technology

Opening Keynote I: Wednesday, March 9th, 8:20-9:10 am
Learning From the Past Going Into the Future


Damir Novosel is president of Quanta Technology, a subsidiary of Quanta Services, a Fortune 500 company. Previously, he was vice president of ABB Automation Products and president of KEMA T&D US. He has led development and implementation of pioneering concepts, methods, and products that improved reliability and efficiency of power grids.
Damir is elected to National Academy of Engineers in 2014. Dr. Novosel, an IEEE Fellow, serves as IEEE Power and Energy Society President, and was chair of the PES Technical Council and Vice President of Technology. Damir is also member of the CIGRE US National Committee. Damir holds 16 US and international patents and published over 100 articles in Transactions, Journals and Proceedings, receiving IEEE PES 2011 and 2013 Prize Paper Awards. He has led or participated in numerous IEEE standards, publications and other initiatives. He holds PhD and MSc degrees in electrical engineering from Mississippi State University (where he was a Fulbright scholar) and the University of Zagreb, Croatia, respectively.

Mr. Mike Carlson
Mr. Mike Carlson, Siemens

Opening Keynote II: Wednesday, March 9th, 9:10-10:00 am
Embracing Distributed Energy-Opportunity or Threat?


Mike Carlson is the Head of Siemens Digital Grid business for North America, located in Minnetonka, MN, and he also serves as the President & CEO of eMeter, Inc., Siemens energy software product solution group headquartered in Foster City, CA.  In both of these roles, Mike is responsible for defining the business strategy and execution plan that incorporates product management, engineering/R&D, sales, delivery and customer support. He is accountable for the definition, execution and results of the business plan and performance for shareholder return and customer value. Prior to joining Siemens, Mike spent five years with General Electric in Atlanta, Ga., where he served as General Manager, Software Solutions for GE’s Energy Management Digital Energy business. In his role, Mike was responsible for the global enterprise software platform business within Digital Energy, including accountability for all grid software solutions, profit and loss, business strategy and operations as well as driving a solution strategy for a global Smart Grid product offering.   Throughout his 30-year career, Mike has held positions of leadership responsibility in the medical and energy industries, including Vice President & Chief Information Officer at Xcel Energy, where he was a key player in designing and implementing the utility’s groundbreaking smart grid project, the $100 million SmartGrid City in Boulder, CO and Senior Practice Leader for Arthur Andersen’s Finance and Technology business based in Minneapolis, MN. Mike holds a B.S. in Business Administration with emphasis in accounting, management and computer science from Union College and an M.B.A. in finance from Pepperdine University.

Dr. Kevin Tomsovic
Dr. Kevin Tomsovic, University of Tennessee
Thursday, March 10th, 11:30 am-12:20 pm
New Control Architectures for the Future Power System


Kevin Tomsovic is currently CTI Professor in the Dept. of EECS at University of Tennessee, and director of CURENT, a National Science Foundation and Department of Energy Engineering Research Center. He received the BS from Michigan Tech. University, Houghton, in 1982, and the MS and Ph.D. degrees from University of Washington, Seattle, in 1984 and 1987, respectively, all in Electrical Engineering. From 1992-2008, he was a Professor at Washington State University in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Visiting university positions have included National Cheng Kung University and National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He held the Advanced Technology for Electrical Energy Chair at Kumamoto University in Japan from 1999-2000 and was a Program Director at the National Science Foundation in the Electrical and Communications Systems division of the Engineering directorate from 2004-2006. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

 

Dr. Deepak Divan
Dr. Deepak Divan, Georgia Institute of Technology

Thursday, March 10th, 1:40-2:30 pm
Distributed Grid Edge Control-A New Paradigm


Dr. Deepak Divan is Professor, John E Pippin Chair, GRA Eminent Scholar and Director of the Center for Distributed Energy at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. His field of research is in the areas of power electronics, power systems, smart grids and distributed control of power systems. He works closely with utilities, industry and is actively involved in research, teaching, entrepreneurship and starting new ventures. Dr. Divan also serves as Founder and Chief Scientist at Varentec, in Santa Clara, CA, and was President and CTO from 2011-14. Dr. Divan is an elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineers, a Fellow of the IEEE, and past President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, and is a recipient of the IEEE William E Newell Field Medal. He has 40 years of academic and industrial experience, 60 issued and pending patents, and over 250 refereed publications. He has founded or seeded several new ventures including Soft Switching Technologies, Innovolt, Varentec and Smart Wires, and has helped to raise >$100M in venture funding. He has been on the faculty at leading institutions including the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. He received his B. Tech from IIT Kanpur, and his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Calgary, Canada.

Mr. John McDonald
Mr. John McDonald, GE Energy Management

Thursday, March 10th, 6:30-7:10 pm
Interoperability and Integration- Three Key Smart Grid Industry Initiatives


John D. McDonald, P.E., is Director, Technical Strategy and Policy Development for GE Energy Management’s Digital Energy business. John has 41 years of experience in the electric utility transmission and distribution industry. John received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. (Power Engineering) degrees from Purdue University, and an M.B.A. (Finance) degree from the University of California-Berkeley. John is a Fellow of IEEE, and was awarded the IEEE Millennium Medal, the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Excellence in Power Distribution Engineering Award, the IEEE PES Substations Committee Distinguished Service Award, and the IEEE PES Meritorious Service Award. John is Past President of the IEEE PES, the VP for Technical Activities for the US National Committee (USNC) of CIGRE, the Past Chair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee, and the IEEE Division VII Past Director. John was on the Board of Governors of the IEEE-SA. John was elected to Chair the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Board from 2010-2014. John received the 2009 Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award from Purdue University. John teaches a Smart Grid course at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Smart Grid course for GE, and Smart Grid courses for various IEEE PES local chapters as an IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer. John has published eighty papers and articles and has co-authored four books.

Mr. Andrew Reznack
Mr. Andrew Reznack, Itron
Friday, March 11th, 11:10 am-12:00 pm

Distributed Analytics: Expanding Intelligence to the Edge of the Grid


Andrew Reznack is a Senior Product Manager for Distribution Automation at Itron. His current responsibilities include working with product development, implementation, sales and partners to help deliver distribution automation solutions and multiservice networks that allow customers to leverage their AMI network beyond the meter. His previous work experience includes test engineering, project management and marketing. Andrew has both a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering as well as a Master of Business Administration from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.