UCGEC Smart Grid Seminar Series No. 2 Speakers

Eric Wesoff, Publisher of the Greentech Innovations Report, Senior Energy Analyst, Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is a senior analyst at Greentech Media (www.greentechmedia.com) where he covers the financing and technology of renewable energy and cleantech markets.  His clients and networks include the leading investors and public and private companies in renewable energy. Prior to joining Greentech Media, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields. He also was the publisher of the Venture Power newsletter, a subscription-only newsletter covering venture-capital investment in renewable energy. Eric's expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists. From 1988 to 1996, Eric served as product marketing manager for Siemens Optoelectronics, where he oversaw complex product lines and managed relationships with global customers. He then became the U.S. marketing and sales manger for Akzo Nobel Photonics, which was acquired by JDS Uniphase. Eric later served as the sales director for Dicon Fiber Optics, where he was responsible for selling millions of dollars of fiber-optic telecom-equipment. He has consulted for Merck, JDSU, Coherent, IBM and scores of other firms, governments and organizations.

Ed Lu, Director of Engineering, Google

Edward Tsang Lu is a director of engineering at Google.  Prior to joining Google, Dr. Lu was an astronaut for NASA.  He flew on two space shuttle missions: first aboard Atlantis in 1997 and 2000, and then he lived on the International Space Station for six months in 2003 as flight engineer and NASA science officer.  Dr. Lu received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in applied physics and his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in electrical engineering.

Saadat Malik, Senior Manager, Software Development, Cisco

Saadat is with Cisco’s services organization and he is responsible for the strategy and development of smart grid solutions for the electric utility industry. Prior to this, he led a group of researchers working to improve the security of critical infrastructures in the United States and worldwide. Previously, at various points in time, Saadat has been responsible for leading Cisco’s internal product security evaluation efforts and heading the technical support operations for Security and VPN groups at the company. Saadat is author of the book, Network Security Principles and Practices, published by Pearson Education in 2002. He spearheaded the development of the CCIE Security exam, which has become one of the premier certifications for security expertise in the industry today. Saadat has taught computer networking at the graduate level at San Jose State University, and he is a regular speaker on various network security topics at industry events and conferences. Saadat has a master's degree in electrical engineering (MSEE) from Purdue University at West Lafayette.

John Skinner, Director of Marketing, Eco-Technology, Intel

Intel's Eco-Technology efforts include leadership in global organizations such as the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI), The Green Grid, and the IEEE P2030 smart grids standards working group.  John is an alternate Member of the CSCI Board of Directors, and co-chairs (together with Google) the CSCI marketing committee.   John helps lead The Intel Open Energy Initiative, focused on the integration of Renewable Energy, Smart Grids, Smart Buildings, and Empowered Energy Consumers.  John is also a volunteer with the Clean Tech Open and Sustainable Silicon Valley.   Before his current role, John helped start up Intel’s strategic relationship with Apple as director of Intel-Apple Software Programs, was the Director of Intel’s Global Software Alliances group, and Director of Enterprise Marketing at Intel.  As Intel District Manager in the 1990’s, John managed a team of global account managers and applications engineers, developed Intel’s relationships with multinational companies in Japan and Taiwan, and grew Intel revenues from $300 Million to $1 Billion per year.  John joined Intel in 1984, holds an MBA degree from Rutgers University, and a BS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University.

Bob Larson, UCGEC Smart Grid Steering Committee Chair; UCGEC President; Managing Director, Woodside Fund; Former President of IEEE

Robert Larson is Co-founder and Managing Director of the Woodside Fund. Dr. Larson has enjoyed a challenging and fruitful career in the computer and electronics industry for the past 35 years. He has an exceptionally broad exposure to the most recent developments in these technologies. Dr. Larson was co-founder, President, and CEO of Systems Control, a computer systems and software company with 500 employees, including 100 with Ph.D. degrees, prior to its sale to British Petroleum. In addition, he was President of the international Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the 340,000 member professional society for electrical engineers and computer scientists. Dr. Larson has worked for IBM, Hughes Aircraft, and SRI International. He was also a Consulting Professor at Stanford University in the Engineering-Economic Systems Department for over 20 years. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University, and a B.S. degree from MIT, all in Electrical Engineering. He has written six textbooks and 140 technical papers on software and computer systems.

Steve Lee, UCGEC Smart Grid Steering Committee Member; Senior Technical Executive, Electric Power Research Institute

Dr. Lee has over 40 years of electric power industry experience.  He received his S.B., S.M., E.E. and Ph.D. degrees from M.I.T. in Electrical Engineering, majoring in Power System Engineering, in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972, respectively.  He worked for Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation in Boston, Systems Control, Inc. in Palo Alto, California, and he was Vice President of Consulting for Energy Management Associates (EMA). Before joining EPRI in 1998, Dr. Lee was an independent Consultant in utility planning and operation. At EPRI, Stephen Lee is involved with technical research programs for power system analysis, planning and operations, and has been actively developing new concepts and tools for power system operation and probabilistic transmission planning. He is considered one of the top Thought Leaders of EPRI. Dr. Lee actively engages the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in reliability standards and certain reliability applications. He is active in the research of the Smart Grid at the power grid operations and planning level.

Ed Cazalet, UCGEC Smart Grid Steering Committee Member; Vice President, MegaWatt Storage Farms

Dr. Cazalet has over forty years of electric power experience as an executive, board member, consultant, and entrepreneur. In 2007 he co-founded MegaWatt Storage Farms. MegaWatt deploys and manages grid-scale electricity storage farms for multiple applications including integration of intermittent wind and solar generation. Dr Cazalet was appointed by California Governor Schwarzenegger in 2004 to a three-year term as a member of the five-person Board of Governors of the CAISO. The CAISO is charged with safe and reliable real-time operation and planning of the high voltage transmission system in California. Dr. Cazalet founded APX in 1996 and served for many years as CEO. He conceived the business opportunity and raised $66 million in investment capital in three rounds. APX provides independent transaction services for electric power and environmental registries. He founded Decision Focus, Inc. (DFI) in 1976 and led DFI to become a leading firm in energy and electric power market modeling and decision analysis consulting. Prior to DFI, he was an early member of the pioneering Decision Analysis Group at SRI International. With both DFI and SRI, and also as an independent consultant, Dr. Cazalet has participated in and led high-level consulting and decision analysis engagements for several of the world’s largest corporations and many government agencies.

Chuck Wells, UCGEC Smart Grid Steering Committee Member; Platform Architect, OSIsoft, Inc.

Dr. Wells helps OSIsoft customers maximize value from their software and assisting with the development of new features and functions in OSIsoft products. With over 30 years experience in real-time control and monitoring, Dr. Wells published over 50 technical papers, awarded five US Patents, and co-authored two textbooks. Dr. Wells originated the large scale distributed generation applications with Detroit Edison using the DEW software developed at EPRI, designed Phaser applications with Entergy, and compliance monitoring systems with California Independent System Operator. He developed and patented new technology in detecting power grid stability in real time and systems for improving efficiency of pulverized coal fired boilers. He developed carbon efficiency reduction programs using United Nations approved methods. He has also applied innovative OSIsoft technology to Pacific Ocean Environmental measurement systems, transformer condition monitoring systems, and large-scale traffic forecasting problems. At Systems Control, Inc Dr. Wells was a leading developer of large-scale state estimators and worked for many years in the field of sparse matrix inversion techniques. Dr. Wells participated in the development and use of dynamic Kalman filters for real time grid fault detection. Dr. Wells received his BS in Chemical Engineering at Vanderbilt University and a MS in Chemical Engineering majoring in Polymer science and PhD in Electrical Engineering under Prof. John Zaborszky at Washington University specializing in modern control theory and large dynamic electrical power systems. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Chemical Engineering and Control Systems.