The governing board is made up of members who represent commercial, utility and consumer advocacy organizations along with SECC’s legal counsel and president. Started in 2010, SECC’s Board has staggered terms, with approximately half the directors elected each year to a two-year term.
Laura Basili
Manager, Marketing & Customer Education, ComEd
Laura Basili is ComEd’s Manager of Marketing & Customer Education. In this role, Basili leads the marketing strategies and customer-engagement programs that support smart meter, smart grid and associated energy-management tools and programs for the organization’s 3.8 million residential and business customers. As ComEd nears completion of installing more than 4 million smart meters across the areas it serves, her efforts have instrumental in ensuring ComEd customers are aware of smart grid benefits. Basili also manages marketing strategies that increase education and awareness of ComEd’s newly developed solar campaign, initiatives created through Illinois’ Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) and utility of the future marketing initiatives. Prior to joining ComEd, Basili held marketing leadership roles with LaSalle Bank and real estate investment firm Tanguay-Burke-Stratton. Basili’s strong business acumen, combined with her expertise in the development, delivery and management of integrated marketing programs, have helped organizations launch successful client solutions and increase customer satisfaction scores. Basili received a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Northwestern University and lives near Chicago.
Jim Brennan
Finance Director, New Hampshire Office of Consumer Advocate
Jim is the Finance Director for the New Hampshire Office of the Consumer Advocate where he performs economic, financial and data systems analysis of utility fillings across all industries, drafts discovery, provides expert testimony (oral and written), and provides guidance on financial policy and regulatory issues. Jim has expertise in finance, technology, smart grid and utility analysis. Jim received his MBA (Finance) from Syracuse University. Jim was First Vice President for Chemical Bank/ JP Morgan Chase where he managed credit departments, managed commercial account relationships, and designed and instructed the MBA Risk Assessment Training program. Jim was Vice President of Waterhouse Securities where he managed the third largest brokerage statement operation on Wall Street which was awarded #1 ranking by Smart Money Magazine during his tenure. Jim designed IT applications in C#, cloud based customer relationship management applications in Microsoft Dynamics, database systems in SQL Server and Oracle, while working as Senior Systems Analyst, Project Manager at organizations including Mathematica Policy Research, U.S. Department Labor, Southern New Hampshire University, and the State of New Hampshire. Jim is married, lives in Concord New Hampshire and enjoys outdoor activities and travel.
Mark Brown
Senior Customer Programs Officer, Fayetteville Public Works Commission
Mark is Senior Customer Programs Officer at Fayetteville Public Works Commission (FPWC) in Fayetteville, NC. Mark’s responsibilities include Marketing, Conservation and Meter Services. Mark’s team is responsible for developing the programs, services and tools necessary for FPWC’s customer to take advantage of FPWC’s Smart Grid Initiatives. Prior to joining FPWC, Mark worked at DTE Energy for 23 years in progressively more responsible roles. Mark has a BSEE degree from Bucknell University and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Michigan –Ann Arbor. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the United Way of Cumberland County. Previously he served on the Board of Directors of The Plymouth Michigan YMCA, The Plymouth Fife and Drum Corps and the IEEE Southeastern Michigan Chapter.
Victoria Busch
Strategic Communications Executive, Ameren Illinois
Victoria Busch is strategic marketing communications professional with more than 20 years of experience. She is currently the communications lead for a five-year project within the energy industry as it relates to smarter technology that can help customers better manage energy usage and costs. She was honored for her leadership in Diversity and communications earning both the 2015 Diversity Award and the 2016 President’s Award and is part of several project teams that involves customer engagement. As a marketing communications professional, she is strong in branding, media relations and customer education. Her diverse background exemplifies professional versatility. Victoria is skilled in managing accounts and developing communication strategies. She is a strong believer in using research to guide marketing decisions. Her background consists of sales, public relations, media relations, customer educations and project management. She has served as a key spokesperson for a regional energy company. Over the years she has worked in mortgage banking, professional hair product sales, fundraising and development as well as employment advertising. With her entrepreneurial spirit, she has a cosmetics business and is the mother of two young adults. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Fontbonne University with a focus in Marketing.
Rob Caiello
VP Marketing and Customer Experience, Allconnect
Rob leads the teams responsible for Allconnect’s business-to-business marketing and communication strategies, email marketing and customer experience and quality oversight. He also oversees customer satisfaction research and measurement, including benchmarking Allconnect’s customer experience with national brands using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Prior to Allconnect, Rob focused on direct-to-consumer marketing through senior-level marketing roles with DIRECTV and Home Shopping Network. He began his career in the utility industry with Niagara Mohawk Power Company (now National Grid), where he worked for eight years in demand side planning, energy efficiency programs and at a deregulated spin-off. He received his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology, followed by a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Quantitative Methods from Syracuse University.
Jason Cigarran
Director of Marketing Communications - Distributed Energy Management, Itron
Jason currently serves as Director of Marketing Communications for Itron’s Distributed Energy Management business. Previously Jason was the Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications, at Comverge, a leader in helping electric utilities achieve meaningful outcomes from demand response and energy efficiency programs. Mr. Cigarran has more than 20 years’ experience as a marketing communications professional with information technology vendors that marketed to a variety of sectors, including energy, healthcare, financial services, and customer relationship management.
Liz Coyle
Executive Director, Georgia Watch
Liz Coyle joined the team at Georgia Watch in February 2012. Founded in 2002, Georgia Watch is the State’s leading nonprofit consumer advocacy organization working to ensure that Georgians are educated and protected on matters that impact their quality of life. Georgia Watch advocates for policies that open doors to the financial mainstream, increase individual and family financial security, improve access to affordable healthcare and lower the energy burden on struggling families. As Executive Director, Liz manages the organization’s operations and staff and oversees all Georgia Watch programs in the areas of Healthcare Access, Consumer Energy, Civil Justice and Financial Protection. Liz has more than 25 years of experience as a non-profit manager, communications professional and grassroots advocate. She has worked with a broad spectrum of organizations including multi-national consumer products companies, public utilities, non-profit associations, and local governments. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Comparative Literature. Liz is board chairman of the Historic Fourth Ward Park Conservancy and the BeltLine Network.
Patty Durand
President & CEO, Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative
Patty is the President & CEO for the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative; a consumer focused non-profit aiming to promote the understanding and benefits of modernized electrical systems among all stakeholders in the United States. Patty’s prior experience includes working on smart grid research at Georgia Institute of Technology where she helped prepare and submit smart grid grant proposals to ARPA-E and DOE. Prior to Georgia Tech Patty was the State Director for the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, Georgia’s largest grassroots environmental organization. Patty’s work there focused on programs addressing climate change and promoting sustainable energy policy. Patty has an IT background and worked on B2B projects with Hewlett Packard and Compaq Computers and currently serves on the board of the Smart Energy Society for the Technology Association of Georgia. Patty has an MBA from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg Virginia and a B.S. in Business from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond Virginia.
Scott Jarvis
Senior Associate, Alston & Bird
Scott Jarvis is an attorney at Alston & Bird in Atlanta where he focuses on a broad range of commercial litigation, including matters in the energy, smart grid, and utility space. Scott represents and advises clients in development of renewable electric projects across the country and has experience litigating disputes surrounding the natural gas, nuclear, and conventional power industries with amounts at-issue in excess of $1 billion. Scott is active in the firm’s Energy practice group, as well as several energy industry groups, including the Energy Bar Association. Beyond his traditional practice, Scott has been recognized as “Volunteer of the Year” by the Truancy Intervention Project, and “Humanitarian of the Year” by the African SOUP Project (a Ugandan non-profit working to educate rural Ugandan children). Scott received his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Berry College in 2005 and his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 2010.
Gregory Knight
Senior Vice-President and Chief Customer Officer, CenterPoint Energy
Gregory Knight is Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer for CenterPoint Energy. In this role he manages the company’s strategy and operations related to marketing, sales, customer service, home services and claims functions. Since joining CenterPoint Energy in 2009, Knight has been spearheading the company’s technology-driven customer relationship management strategy, and he is responsible for delivering a consistent and high-quality customer experience across various digital and people supported interaction channels to nearly 6 million regulated and retail customers. He is also responsible for fostering alignment of CenterPoint Energy’s corporate business growth and operational strategies with the needs and expectations of business and residential customers. He has been recognized as a utility industry thought leader in the area of customer interaction strategy, technology and continuous business process improvement. Knight has nearly 27 years of experience, in both service industries and utilities. His career includes tenures at IKON Office Solutions, Reliant Energy and MCI Telecommunications and Allen Knight Inc. where he has led a range of Sales, Marketing and Customer Service functions which span across technology, strategic planning, organization vitality, regulatory advocacy entrepreneurship and Six Sigma. Knight earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies, with a minor in economics, from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has also completed the executive management program at Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management in Houston. He serves on the board of Communities in Schools Houston, Tendril’s Advisory Board. CenterPoint Energy is headquartered in Houston Texas with over 9B in annual revenues. CenterPoint owns and operates an Electric Transmission and Distribution utility serving the Houston, TX metro area. It also owns and operates a Natural Gas Distribution Company serving customers in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi and Minneapolis. CenterPoint also owns and operates the largest independent appliance repair business in the state of Minnesota.
Brad Langley
Senior Director of Corporate Marketing, Tendril
Brad Langley is the Senior Director of Corporate Marketing at Tendril. He has more than 15 years of experience increasing awareness and driving demand for some of the world’s most recognized technology brands. In his role at Tendril, Brad leads the company’s marketing department, including thought leadership, demand creation, digital, brand communications and public relations. Prior to joining Tendril, Brad spent six years at Blanc & Otus, ultimately becoming the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the San Francisco office. There he led a team of 20 communications professionals tasked with meeting the diverse needs of a range of technology clients. Brad has strong experience in enterprise software, energy and semiconductor markets, having worked with both global brands and start-ups. This includes his current role at Tendril, as well as his work on the agency side with leading companies like Analog Devices, CA Technologies, Cisco, Comverge, NEC Electronics, Oracle and QUALCOMM. Brad has a B.A. in English from Santa Clara University.
Michel Losier
Executive Director, Energy Efficiency and Community Engagement, New Brunswick Power
Michel is the Executive Director of Energy Efficiency and Community Engagement for New Brunswick Power. He currently leads the portfolio and the delivery of Energy Efficiency programs for the Province of New Brunswick within New Brunswick Power. Michel has a broad level of exposure to the utility industry and is focused on the utility sector transformation with a keen focus on the evolving energy consumer values and experience. He has been actively engaged and is a frequent public speaker at energy conferences across North America focused on a customer centric approach to transformation. He’s presented at Grid Edge as NB Power received an award as a GTM Top 20 Disruptor in the utility industry in 2015. He has extensive experience in customer service, community relations, public speaking and media relations. Recently, Michel was the Program Director of the award winning “PowerShift Atlantic” project; focused on collaborative and innovative solutions, engaging customers and leveraging new smart grid – energy storage technologies to better integrate renewables such as intermittent wind in the Maritime Provinces. This was a new experience for customers as they played an active role in renewable integration. NB Power and the project received a number of awards including the Smart Grid Canada “2015 Innovation Award” for Canadian Utilities. New Brunswick Power is focused on a comprehensive utility transformation strategy working with Siemens on modernizing the grid and offering “value added” solutions for customers. Michel is a graduate from the University of New Brunswick in Mechanical Engineering and a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick. Michel is married and has two young adults completing university. He is an avid runner and loves the outdoors.
John D. McDonald
SmartGrid Business Development Leader – North America, Global SmartGrid Strategy Group, GE Grid Solutions
John is the Smart Grid Business Development Leader for GE Power’s Grid Solutions business. John has 44 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 Life Fellow of IEEE, and was awarded the IEEE Millennium Medal in 2000, the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Excellence in Power Distribution Engineering Award in 2002, the IEEE PES Substations Committee Distinguished Service Award in 2003, and the IEEE PES Meritorious Service Award in 2015. 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 is the SECC Finance Committee Chair. John was the IEEE Division VII Director and on the IEEE Board of Directors. John was on the Board of Governors of the IEEE-SA (Standards Association) in 2010-2011, focusing on long term IEEE Smart Grid standards strategy. John was elected to Chair the NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Governing Board for 2010-2015. John is a member of the Advisory Committee for the annual DistribuTECH Conference, Vice Chair of the Texas A&M University Smart Grid Center Advisory Board, on the Board of Directors of the GridWise Alliance and Chair of its Technical Committee, on the NIST Smart Grid Advisory Committee and Chair of its Technical Subcommittee, a member of the Purdue University Strategic Research Advisory Council, and 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 substation automation, distribution SCADA and communications courses for various IEEE PES local chapters as an IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer. John has published eighty papers and articles in the areas of SCADA, SCADA/EMS, SCADA/DMS and communications, and has co-authored five books.
Gomathi Sadhasivan
Lead – Customer Decision Sciences, DNV GL
Gomathi Sadhasivan has two decades of consulting experience with skills in market research and advanced analytics. As Lead – Customer Decision Sciences in DNV GL’s Policy Advisory and Research practice, her recent work has included examining customer engagement in the context of the smart grid business case, evaluation of utility behavior programs, and designing research for increased insight into commercial and industrial energy customers.
Meghan Weinman
Product Development Manager, Puget Sound Energy
Meghan Weinman is a Product Development Manager at Puget Sound Energy (PSE) in Bellevue, WA. Meghan is responsible for product and services development primarily focused on transportation electrification. Her role at PSE includes developing product roadmaps and managing design teams for customer-facing launches. She has led various customer research studies that have informed market sizing, customer segments, and go-to-market strategies. Prior to joining PSE, Meghan managed domestic and international programs focused around climate, environment, and natural resources. Meghan holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Texas, and a BS in Civil Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Austin Whitman
Vice President of Energy Markets, FirstFuel Software
Austin Whitman is Vice President of Energy Markets at FirstFuel Software. In his current position he oversees FirstFuel’s strategic vision and works closely with utility clients on new product innovation efforts. Austin previously led FirstFuel’s regulatory affairs team, which advocated for utility industry adoption of data analytics and cloud computing solutions. Over his 19-year career he has focused on building innovative companies and programs focused mainly on energy and environmental issues. He has worked with some of the world’s largest utilities, investors, and non-profits. Austin began his career working in technology at a startup focused on human capital management that offered one of the industry’s first enterprise SaaS platforms. There he led marketing and strategy. He earned master’s degrees in business and environmental management from Yale, with concentrations in finance, policy, economics, and law. He then took on roles in finance and consulting at Cambridge Associates, Climate Change Capital, and M.J. Bradley & Associates. During this period he advised dozens of institutional investors, utilities, government agencies, and non-profits, to whom he brought expertise in climate change and renewable energy investing, energy and environmental markets, and policy. Austin has written articles in Public Utilities Fortnightly, Dataconomy, GreenBiz, EnergyCentral, and other energy trade publications, and he has been quoted in CNN, Bloomberg, the Boston Globe, Electric Light & Power, and other media outlets. He has guest lectured at the Boston University School of Business and speaks regularly at industry conferences and forums.
Lincoln Wood
Product Manager, Georgia Power
Lincoln Wood is a product manager at Atlanta-based Southern Company. Since 2006, Lincoln has worked in complimentary areas of marketing including marketing research, product development, policy development, and innovation. Some of his accomplishments include the planning, development, and rollout of an energy data usage presentment tool to over 3.5 million customers and playing a leadership role in the DOE’s to national energy usage data privacy project, DataGuard. Lincoln also works in Southern Company’s Energy Innovation Center, furthering industry advancement in electric transportation and home automation technologies. Lincoln holds Bachelors’ Degrees in Economics and Sociology from the University of Georgia, is a Certified Energy Manager, and a lifetime member of Alpha Kappa Delta Honor Society.
