Chris Ashley, VP, Utility Sales, EnergyHub
Chris Ashley joined EnergyHub in 2016. He manages the sales team at EnergyHub and is responsible for driving growth in the company's distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) business through new partnerships with utility clients. Prior to EnergyHub, Chris spent eight years in the utility demand response space with EnerNOC, serving in a variety of sales, market development, and management roles. Before entering the energy sector, Chris worked in corporate finance.
Kessie Avseikova, Director, Opinion Dynamics
Kessie Avseikova is a director at Opinion Dynamics, leading a team of data scientists and statisticians in developing cutting edge research and evaluation solutions for utility clients across the country to deliver accurate, insightful, and timely impact results. Kessie routinely works with clients on the evaluations of energy efficiency, demand-response (DR), behavioral, and integrated programs and brings a comprehensive understanding of the program designs, implementation challenges, including challenges with participation persistence, attrition, and design fidelity. Her work spans beyond delivering rigorous and accurate impact results - she advises clients on most effective program design components and strives to deliver actionable insights through data mining and customer research.
Freddie Hall, Resource Planner, Policy and Planning, Burlington Electric
Freddie Hall has five years of electric utility experience, and works on rate design, demand response, wholesale electric markets, and analytics at the Burlington Electric Department. He holds degrees in Economics and Environmental Studies and is pursuing an M.S. in Complex Systems & Data Science from the University of Vermont. Freddie is an avid outdoorsman and spends the weekends during the winter ski patrolling at Mad River Glen.
Jeff Hendler, CEO, Logical Buildings
Jeff Hendler serves as Chief Executive Officer of Logical Buildings, a smart building software and GEB solutions company that produces energy, water, and carbon emissions savings from real-time transparency of utility smart meter, building operations, and weather data. Jeff represents Logical Buildings as Innovation Member of the Smart Cities Council and Green Button Alliance. He also serves on the executive committee of the National Energy Marketers Association, as its Smart Grid Committee Chair. In addition, he is an active voting member of the NYISO and PJM wholesale power grids. Jeff is an acting advisor/member of the Wharton Energy Network, and graduate of the Wharton School of Business.
Michael Li, Bureau Chief, Bureau of Energy and Technology Policy, CT DEEP
Michael Li is the energy bureau chief for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. In this role, he serves on the Energy Efficiency Board and the Low Income Energy Advisory Board. He has dedicated his career to public service, having held many jobs in the public service sector before his current post at CT DEEP. Michael has a bachelor’s degree in environmental policy from Rutgers University and a master’s degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University, along with a master’s degree in global leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary.
Davis Lis, Director, Technology and Market Solution, NEEP
Dave oversees NEEP’s Technology and Market Strategies team, which is currently leading regional market transformation initiatives for air source heat pumps (ASHP), including variable refrigerant flow (VRF) technologies; smart energy homes and buildings; strategic energy management; and appliance standards. In this capacity, Dave provides strategic direction for the team’s development, management, and integration with other NEEP teams. Dave began his professional career as a high school math teacher in Boston. Prior to joining NEEP, he also spent two seasons living in Aspen, CO working as the Manager of the Annabelle Inn. His undergraduate degree is in physics from Middlebury College.
Vicki Luttrell, Founder, Exelorate Growth – Distributed Energy; Exelon Corporate Strategy, Innovation & Sustainability, Exelon
Vicki Luttrell is an Exelorate Growth Founder and part of Exelon’s Corporate Strategy, Innovation & Sustainability team. Mrs. Luttrell has nearly 20 years of experience in the energy industry, including renewable energy; nuclear, natural gas and coal generation; wholesale energy trading; and utility distribution. She is passionate about innovation and the role customers play in shaping a clean energy future the smart grid of the future. Mrs. Luttrell has developed and managed solar and renewable energy resources Advisory Councils in the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. She currently serves on DEFG’s Solar IQ Advisory Council, is a member of the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, the Smart Electric Power Alliance, the Electric Power Research Institute, and speaks about the future of the energy industry at conferences across the country.
Clay Nesler, VP, Global Energy and Sustainability, Johnson Controls
Clay Nesler is the Vice President, Global Energy and Sustainability for Johnson Controls. He also serves as interim president of the Alliance to Save Energy. Since joining Johnson Controls in 1983, Clay has held a variety of leadership positions in research, product development, marketing, strategy, manufacturing and corporate sustainability in both the United States and Europe. Clay received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a winner of the 2005 Corenet Global Innovator’s Award, the 2012 VERGE 25 award, a 2015 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Illinois and the 2019 Sustainable Leadership Award from the Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council.
Monica Neukomm, Senior Policy Advisor, U.S. DOE
Monica Neukomm is a Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy and currently leads the Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB) initiative for the Building Technologies Office (BTO). Her work at the Energy Department, starting in 2009, has focused on leading clean energy initiatives working closely with industry and government partners. She holds a master’s degree in Public Policy, Energy and Public Finance from the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Oregon.
Dr. Kurt Roth, Director, Building Energy Systems, Fraunhofer USA
Dr. Kurt Roth leads Energy Systems applied R&D at Fraunhofer USA. The team collaborates with industry on applied research to develop, analyze, test, demonstrate, and evaluate building technologies and technologies that enable integration of large quantities of renewable power with the electric grid. He has served as a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) on several multi-year U.S. DOE technology development and demonstration projects, and has also led several studies to assess the energy savings and commercialization potentials of building technologies, including building controls and diagnostics, HVAC, and information (IT) technologies, as well as studies to characterize building energy consumption by different end uses. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), all in mechanical engineering. He is a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA), and Sigma Xi.
Scott Taylor, VP, Business Development, Sense
Scott Taylor is the VP of Programs and Business Development for Sense Labs. Scott manages key strategic programs with utilities, energy efficiency programs, solar companies, home builders, and develops key forward-looking partnerships for Sense integrating with other technologies and platforms. Prior to joining Sense, Scott worked for 16 years in the speech recognition and natural language understanding field, helping partners such as Apple, Samsung, Comcast, and Toyota deploy speech solutions that interact with hundreds of millions of users through mobile phones, cars, TVs, and customer service.