2024 Advisory Board

Energy Industry Executive

Independent Consultant

Director, Innovation Strategy

Vistra Corporation

President & CEO

Middough Inc.

Sam has spent his 30-year career in the electric energy industry leading design, consulting, and project management across EPC and owners engineering models. The last decade being focused on energy transition: microgrids, DERs, BESS and EV Charging. At Charge Infrastructure, Sam is responsible for operations for EPC execution of EV charging infrastructure projects across the United States.

Dir. Generation

Austin Energy

Plant Manager Eastern Gas

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

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.

Chief Marketing Officer

Husk Power Systems

Senior Director Strategic Marketing NA, Clean Energy

W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc.

Business Development Manager, Advanced Energy Systems Research and Development

Southern Company

Ben Carmichael is part of the Advanced Energy Systems team at Southern Company Research and Development, where he works as a Business Development Manager to establish the national and international collaborations that support Southern Company’s advanced energy systems development programs. Ben joined Southern Company in 2006 and has had a variety of opportunities across Southern Company affiliates, including engineering roles in both Southern Company Fleet Operations and Generation Planning and Development, managing the nuclear fuel procurement program for Southern Nuclear Operating Company, and managing new nuclear development opportunities for Southern Nuclear Development, LLC. Ben holds a Bachelor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Master of Science of Civil Engineering from Auburn University, a Masters of Engineering in sustainability from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a Professional Engineer license in the State of Alabama.

Principal Nuclear Engineer

PSEG Energy Holdings

President

IEM Energy Consultants

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

Director, Generation Services

Kiewit

Diane Fischer, Kiewit’s Director of Generation Services, has more than 30 years of experience in the power industry. Diane is responsible for overseeing services provided for generation. This includes establishing and maintaining client relationships and ensuring quality to clients. Diane works with clients to help solve their design, operation and maintenance needs for studies, environmental issues, component and system engineering, facility evaluations and feasibility analysis. Diane supports clients in developing and implementing solutions to meet the challenges and demands of a low carbon energy market. Diane ensures the right internal resources are applied to meet expectations and keep projects within budget.

VP

Siemens Energy

Mr. George has worked in the North American Power industry for more than 35 years in the areas of Automation, Electrification and the Application of Digital Solutions for more than 35 years. In his career he has served as Design Engineering, Construction Engineer, Commissioning and Startup Management, Project Engineering, Project Management, Marketing, Sales, and Sales Management.

Professor. Director

University of Maryland

Ashwani Gupta is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park and also Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. and D.Sc. from Sheffield University, UK. He has co-authored three books and over 450 technical papers and edited 10 books. He is a Fellow of AIAA, ASME, SAE, and the Institute of Energy (UK). He is the recipient of AIAA Energy Systems award, and Propellants and Combustion award, the ASME George Westinghouse Gold medal award, James Harry Potter award and James Landis award, Worcester Reed Warner award, and University of Maryland President Kirwan research award and College of Engineering research award. He has also received several best paper awards from AIAA and ASME. He is an associate editor for AIAA J. Propulsion and Power, J. Applied Energy, and co-editor of the Environmental and Energy Engineering series of books published by CRC press.

President

M E H & Associates, LLC

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.

Plant Manager - Wildcat Point Generation Facility

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative

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.

Vice President, Solutions/Interim Director of EPCE

CAEL - Council for Adult and Experiential Learning

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.

Plant Manager Montrose & Sibley Stations

Kansas City Power & Light

Power Generation System Operations Director

Dominion Energy/ Atlantic Coast Pipeline

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

Associate Professor, ECE Department

University of Houston, College of Technology

Consultant

United States Energy Association (USEA)

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.

Training Supervisor

Omaha Public Power District (OPPD)

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.

Operations and Maintenance Manager

Kissimmee Utility Authority

Sr. Comms Business Partner

GE Vernova

Manager

Sargent & Lundy

Wayshalee (way-shaw-lee) A. Patel works for Sargent & Lundy, a comprehensive consulting, engineering and design firm providing solutions for electric power generation. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Illinois-Chicago and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Illinois. Ms. Patel is an environmental technology specialist and has 10 years of experience in process design of various air quality control equipment in the power generation industry including flue gas desulphurization, selective catalytic reduction, fabric filters and activated carbon injection.

VP of Corporate Development

Mesa Solutions

Tom Poteet is the VP of Corporate Development for Mesa Natural Gas Solutions. Tom’s purview in this role includes characterizing and casting the vision for the optimal use of natural gas-powered generation, monitoring the innovation stream for future sources of site power, and developing customized rate plans and progressive field applications to meet customers' needs and financial preferences. With over 30 years in engineering, Tom’s career has given him experience in electric power, telecommunications, and oil field production. Tom graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.

Sr. Security Engineer

Orlando Utilities Commission [OUC]

CEO

NuConsult Services, LLC

Mitchell M. Samuelian is General Manager for the Ivanpah Solar Plant for NRG and is responsible for the overall execution of the project. Mitch brings more than 32 years of electric utility industry expertise to his position at NRG. His experience includes positions in corporate asset management, engineering, plant management, and strategic planning. He was previously the Director of Plant Operations for First Solar and has been involved with the development, construction and operations of over 1000 MW of utility solar power plants. Prior to First Solar, he was previously the head of Tennessee Valley Authorities’ Hydro and Renewable Operations and Maintenance program, where he oversaw 50 facilities (pumped storage, hydroelectric, solar, wind, and methane plants) with a combined capacity of over 5200 MW distributed across 5 states. His duties included directing; power plant operations and maintenance with a staff of 250+ employees and an annual operating budget of 45 million. Additionally, he managed a 20 million capital improvement program, the quality assurance program, a technician training facility and performance monitoring / reporting for the renewable fleet.

VP Energy Alliances

Volta Energy Inc.

Key Account Manager & EV Program Manager

Santee Cooper

Plant Manager, Spurlock

East Kentucky Power Cooperative Inc. [EKPC]

Joe VonDerHaar has over 25 years experience split between the utility and manufacturing industries. On the utility side he has held positions in System Operations, Distribution and Generation. On the manufacturing front he was Plant Manager of Force Control Industries, a Power Transmission OEM. While in manufacturing he lived through the cultural and process changes required to become ISO9001:2000 certified. Joe is currently the Plant Manager at the Spurlock Power Station, a 4-unit, coal fired, 1356MW facility in Maysville Kentucky. He holds an electrical engineering degree from the University of Dayton. Joe and his wife Carla are proud parents of three sons.

Senior Account Executive

Trevi Communications