Keynote Speakers.
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Larry Weaver
Motivation Speaker/Comic Motivational Larry Weaver is a nationally-touring motivational speaker and clean comedian backed by years of professional experience. His easy-going demeanor, Southern charm, and quick wit have won the hearts of audiences across America. Larry grew up in the rural village of Saxapahaw, NC, and started performing at a young age. After majoring in accounting at the University of North Carolina, Larry left his CPA dreams behind to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. He has shared the stage with entertainment legends like Faith Hill, Chris Rock, and "Weird Al" Yankovic —just to name a few. You can hear him daily on Sirius XM radio’s “Laugh USA” and “Jeff and Larry’s Comedy Roundup.” A true veteran of the stage, Larry has delivered thousands of keynotes at corporate events, conventions, annual meetings, and conferences across the United States. Session: Prepare to be Positive |
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Neil Chatterjee
Senior Advisor Washington, DC Neil Chatterjee is a former Commissioner and Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and has deep ties in Washington and across the industry, with extensive experience across the energy landscape both domestically and internationally. He is respected for his ability to strike compromise and work with a wide variety of stakeholders. In his time on the Hill and at FERC, Neil built a reputation as a bipartisan operator who builds alliances and cuts through red tape with an eye on always promoting innovation. Neil’s significant knowledge and experience is derived from operating at the highest levels of government and as such, is able to provide clients valuable insights and counsel when navigating the highly regulated energy industry. While at FERC, Neil championed several strategic initiatives, including streamlining and improving FERC’s liquified natural gas application review and approval process, bolstering power grid reliability and resilience, and boosting renewable resources’ ability to compete in renal power markets and for the reduction of carbon emissions. Neil is a policy reformer who broke down market barriers for the entrance of new technologies, particularly for low-carbon technologies. He has been an advocate for harnessing technology to mitigate physical and cyber threats to critical energy infrastructure. Prior to his time at the Commission, Neil served as an advisor to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) where he aided in the passage of major energy, highway, and agriculture legislation. Neil also has experience working as a principal in government relations for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. He began his career as a staff member on the House Committee on Ways and Means. Session: Benefits Utilities Can Expect After the FERC 2222 Implementation |
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Arun Sehgal
Amazon Web Services Worldwide Business Development - Energy & Utilities Solutions Arun Sehgal is a WW business development leader in the Energy & Utilities business unit. In his role, Arun works with utilities, software vendors and global system integrators who are building solutions for their business needs on AWS and helps drive digitalization transformation of utilities around the world. Prior to this role, he has over 27 years’ experience in smart metering , smart grid and IOT industries around the world. Session: A Modern Approach to Grid Resilience |
Other Speakers.
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Andrew Martin
Engineering Manager Minsait ACS Andrew takes pride in creating a quality product for all Minsait ACS customers. He works diligently to formalize Minsait ACS testing procedures, keeping customers informed on product updates and EOL, and most importantly soliciting customer feedback that can help to improve Minsait ACS products. Andrew has set his goal to not only meet customer expectations but to exceed them and deliver the products the customers need, with a quality that will last over time. Sessions: PRISM Oneview Operator Interface PRISM Oneview - Reports, Configuration & Analytics Linux & PRISM System Admin PRISM Tips & Tricks (Option #1) PRISM Tips & Tricks (Option #2) PRISM Composer PRISM Focus Group Meeting (Limited Capacity Event) |
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Al Mahesh
Business Development for Emerging Technology Verizon Al Mahesh brings 20 years of telecom and data transport experience. Currently Al holds title of Principal Engineer and Technical Project Managers. Al works nationally with Electric Utilities implementing the Grid Wide solution. Al also works with partners to provide an eco-system that ultimately support the growth of the utility customers. Session: The Path to Neural Grids |
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Angelo Rizzo
President and CEO Systems With Intelligence Angelo Rizzo has over 20 years’ experience in the electric utility and industrial automation industry and has been instrumental in developing and supplying leading edge technology solutions for electric utility customers in the areas of protection relays, communications systems, video and SCADA systems. Mr. Rizzo is currently the President & CEO at SWI and in the past has held senior commercial and technical positions at RuggedCom and General Electric (Multilin). Session: Using Touchless Monitoring to Reduce Maintenance Costs |
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Arie Bohm
Sales Director Minsait ACS Arie joined Minsait ACS in 2000. Previously Arie worked for FPL, one of the largest electrical utilities in the US, in the capacity of an electrical engineer. After an exciting career with FPL Arie assumed the position of Chief Electrical Engineer for the largest privately owned Sugar Mill and refinery, and thereafter worked for ABB in a similar capacity as with Minsait ACS. Arie continuously earns the trust, recognition, and respects of Electric Power Industry personnel that focuses on Mission Critical Energy and Information Management Systems. This with special emphasis on transmission/distribution Substations and Distribution Grid Automation. Arie focuses on offering cost effective and technologically superior solutions enabling Grid resiliency and improving reliability. Session: Upgrading Legacy RTUs |
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Brian Max
Project/ADMS Engineer Minsait ACS Brian is a Project Engineer with Minsait ACS with seven years of experience delivering SCADA and DMS software. He specializes in DASmap modeling with GIS data and advanced DMS applications. Sessions: PRISM DMS Applications DASmap Modeling (GIS Import) |
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Carl West
Regional Sales Director - West Minsait ACS Carl rejoined Minsait ACS in October 2021, as the Sales Director for the Western Region. He worked for in the same capacity from 2014 until 2015. Carl brings over 30 years of experience working with power utilities at all levels of their system operation pertaining to energy management, distribution management, ADMS, substation and distribution apparatus controllers/monitors, and transformer monitoring DGA. He also has a strong working knowledge of communication platforms and protocols IE; IEC 61850, DNP, and many legacy protocols. Carl is an IEEE Member, and has completed training in Miller Heiman Sales Training, Solution Selling (Keith Eades), as well as corporate sales training by GE, Siemens, and ABB. Session: Are Distributed Energy Resources Service Connections Inundating Your Planning Department? |
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Caryn Denny
Regional Sales Director - Northeast Minsait ACS Caryn Denny has over 20 years of sales experience, eight of the last focused on Software Sales. Prior to joining Minsait ACS, Caryn lead Enterprise Solutions Sales at Aclara for the Northeast and parts of the Midwest Region. Session: Highly Resilient Grids: a DOE funded innovation project at Holy Cross Electric Cooperative |
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David Shpigler
President The Shpigler Group David Shpigler serves as President of The Shpigler Group, a strategy management-consulting firm serving the electric and water utility industry. David has worked with a variety of utilities in solving complex issues involving smart grid/smart water assessment, rate analysis, business case development, economic evaluation of network design, and industry benchmarking. Over the past 20 years, he has worked with over 250 utilities across the country. Session: Developing Plans in Grid and Water System Modernization |
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Eloy Gonzalez
Onesait Utilities Grid Minsait Eloy González Ortega holds a B.S. and M.S. from the University of Texas at Austin in Aerospace Engineering. He has been working for the Energy industry since 1996, when he started as a consultant in IT projects for the Utilities Sector (Distribution and Retail). From 2001 and for 8 years, he was the head of the Energy Distribution Division at Indra Software Labs in charge of overall development of IT systems for Utilities focusing on the energy distribution area. In 2009, he became the head of the Energy Innovation Division at Indra Software Labs in charge of overall R&D projects and activities in the energy area, both at the national and international level, with the focus being placed on Smart Grids, Smart Metering, Advanced Metering Infrastructure and Energy Efficiency. More recently, he was appointed head of product development for the Utilities Grid suite of products within Minsait, where he is responsible for overseeing all aspect related to the development of the highly advanced and disruptive products than conform the suite. Eloy has great knowledge and expertise working in multidisciplinary ICT environments leading large groups of people and he is PMP certified. Session: Minsait ACS Product Roadmap |
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Fredreka Gilstrap
Quality Assurance Tester – OMS Minsait ACS Fredreka is an Outage Management professional with over 10 years of experience in the Energy/Power Industry architecting, delivering, and bringing to market advanced technology solutions for utilities worldwide. Her areas of expertise are SCADA, Outage Management, Feeder Automation, and Substation Automation. She also has extensive experience in technical training and documentation related to Outage Management and a strong knowledge of Utility Operations. Session: OMS System Administration & Integration OMS Workflows |
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Gabriel Machado
Interim CEO Minsait ACS bio coming soon Sessions: Welcome, Opening Remarks & Business Update Creating Great Customer Experiences |
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Giovanni Polizzi
VP Sales & Marketing Minsait ACS Experienced energy industry professional, Giovanni Polizzi holds a degree in Aerospace engineering and a post-graduate diploma in Renewable Energy Technology. Giovanni is an energy enthusiast collaborating with the energy sector to shape the utilities of the future, through digital transformation, application of IoT and the Blockchain, to see, understand and enhance the changes that are occurring. He has been internationally consulting over IT systems and business processes transformation for the energy industry in topics such as Smart Grids, Transactive Energy, Industrial IoT for Utilities, Distributed Energy Resources (DER), and Conventional Power Generation. Sessions: Onesait Connected Assets Onesait Utilities Asset Performance Management (APM) Onesait Utilities Intelligence – Metering The Path to Neural Grids AMI Analytics for Transformer Health |
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Ivan Protic
Senior ADMS Consultant POWER Engineers, Inc. Ivan Protic is a senior ADMS consultant with a strong electrical engineering background whose entire professional development revolves around ADMS and power utilities. He has participated in all stages of ADMS project implementation including roadmap development, design, testing, and cut-over, delivering solid consulting and technical support for electric and gas utilities in power applications, fire mitigation, OMS, FLISR, and GIS. Ivan has worked with 10+ power utilities worldwide on virtually all workstreams, following industry best implementation practices. Sessions: The Benefits of SCADA vs Model-Based FLISR Utilization The ADMS Journey |
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Juan Ramón Peña
Manager in Phygital, Geo & Mobility Minsait Juan Ramón Peña is Manager of Minsait's Geo & Mobility area. He has worked in the field of spatial information for 20 years and has extensive experience in project management with ESRI in the field of public administration, transport, industry, telecommunications and energy. He has experience in the implementation of Utility Network projects for both electricity distribution and Telco. Session: Deploying ESRI Utility Network - Benefits and Playbook for a Successful Migration |
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Jim Edwards
RTU Support Specialist Minsait ACS Jim joined Minsait ACS in 1999 as an RTU Product Specialist for the Taiwan Power project, responsible for Type Testing, Factory Acceptance Testing, Field Testing and Point-to-Point Testing of the over 500 RTUs delivered for the project. In 2001, he joined Minsait ACS' Technology Center group. In this role, he was strongly involved in creating System and Hardware test procedures, as well as performing benchmark testing of new products developed by Minsait ACS. Jim is currently a Senior Engineer for the Client Services group. He provides training for all substation automation products, as well as in-house and on-site installation and start-up assistance. Additional responsibilities include: investigating and evaluating hardware/firmware issues; evaluating new and revised product releases and providing feedback to the engineering group; and providing in-house and on-site assistance to Project Managers to ensure successful project completion. Session: NTX Configuration & Communication |
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Josh Burroughs
Client Services Engineer Minsait ACS Josh Burroughs is an Engineering Tech with Minsait ACS with four years of experience providing HelpDesk support to SCADA customers. Session: PRISM Remote Access (ePRISM, etc.) |
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Julia Clarke
Southern Company Engineer, Power Delivery R&D Julia Clarke is a distribution research engineer for SCS Power Delivery Research and Development group. She is responsible for all distribution research efforts across the Southern Company footprint and aids in helping the company find new ways to maintain a stronger more reliable and resilient grid, while the company pushes towards a net zero future. For the past 7 years Julia has worked for Southern Company. She has worked in distribution, transmission protection and control field services, and most recently with power delivery research and development. Julia holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Florida A&M University and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Renewable Energy and Sustainability Systems at Pennsylvania State University. Session: AMI Analytics for Transformer Health |
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Keir Walls
Project Engineer Minsait ACS Keir is a senior project engineer that has excelled in his ability to deliver difficult projects in spite of challenging circumstances. In his 7+ year tenure he has worked with many customers to help deliver customized solutions as well. His technical knowledge on how our system works on the backend does not cloud his judgement on meeting the expectations of the operators that use the system every day. Keir’s leadership be seen in our engineering team and by the value he delivers to our customers. Session: PRISM Remote Access (ePRISM, etc.) |
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Kurt Miller
Director of Engineering Suwannee Valley Electric Coop Kurt is registered Professional Engineer responsible for design and operation SVEC’s distribution network. Over his career, he has worked in generation, substations, transmission, and distribution segments for Investor Owned and Electric Cooperatives. Currently he is leading SVEC in deployments of power system technologies that improve consumer satisfaction and system operating efficiency. The goal is bringing best of breed power system technologies (SCADA, AMI, FDIR, V/VAR, DERs, OMS, AVL, CIS) into one concert with the conductor being a management platform (ADMS). Recently, his team has been charged with training and operating SVEC’s distribution network Energy Control Center (ECC). Session: Results & Lessons Learned after Successful FLISR Deployment at Suwanee Valley Electric Cooperative |
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Kurt Nolte
Regional Sales Director - South Minsait ACS Kurt Nolte has a deep understanding of the US Utility market having spent the past 30 years selling Smart Grid Solutions - including GIS, OMS, ADMS, Meter Data Analytics, Advanced Data Analytics, SCADA and RTUs, along with Minsait ACS’ other OT/IT solutions. Session: Assets Health: A Data Centric Approach That Leverages Existing Information |
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Leonard Timmons
OT/IT Manager Minsait ACS Leonard was born in Savannah, Georgia. He graduated with High Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology and received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering (BEE). He has worked at Minsait ACS for almost 30 years. His career began as a firmware developer. He wrote several SCADA WAN protocols in C and assembly language at Minsait ACS. Today he works designing networks and network security systems. He designed and implemented a secure multifactor access platform for Minsait ACS’ access to its customers in 2003. He designed and implemented a major upgrade in 2015 that replaced over 120 devices. He is also a database administrator (DBA) for Oracle databases and is responsible for developing the Minsait ACS Oracle deployment. Session: PRISM Cybersecurity & Patching |
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Leonardo Alfredo Suárez Mora
Electronics Engineer in Automation and Control Systems SCADATECH Electronics Engineer with more than 15 years of experience in communications tools, as well as communication protocols for the power industry, such as, DNP 3.0, IEC- 60870-5-101 103 and 104, Modbus, IEC 61850 Standard (MMS/GOOSE) and ICCP. Knowledge of RTU configuration of different brands over electrical protocols and their integration to SCADA systems. Sessions: Retrofit of 8 Telegyr Using NTX-U57 System Capabilities (Español) Retrofit of 8 Telegyr Using NTX-U57 System Capabilities (English) |
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Leonardo Benitez
Managing Director - Phygital Division Minsait Leonardo Benitez is an Electrical and Information Technology Engineer with more than 25 years of experience in the energy and utilities sector. He has worked in different projects associated with the implementation of technology to support the business processes of energy companies in Europe, Latin America and Asia. After assuming different responsibilities at Soluziona and Indra, he is currently the Managing Director for the Phygital Division of Minsait. Session: Welcome, Opening Remarks & Business Update |
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Lissette Giron
International Sales Director Minsait ACS Lissette is an electronic engineer and business manager professional with 19+ years’ experience in the Latin America energy market, specialized in transmission and distribution solutions for utilities. She started her endeavor as the substation manager for Union Fenosa DEOCSA-DEORSA in Guatemala and since then she has been in different roles and companies such as Siemens, EFACEC, ABB, etc. with broad training and experience in business development, project management, automation, control and sales. She rejoined Minsait ACS in 2018 as Sales Director for Latin America and the Caribbean and expanded her responsibilities to Pre-sales for LATAM. Session: Retrofit of 8 Telegyr Using NTX-U57 System Capabilities (English) |
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Mark Dunlap
Utility Market Manager Activu For 15 of his 20 years in the a/v industry, Mark Dunlap has worked at Activu, helping customers improve their situational awareness in hundreds of control rooms, while partnering closely with ACS for 12 of those years. This experience enables Mark to understand the unique requirements that control rooms face in critical environments, and how platforms and technologies which enable efficient collaboration and seamless information-sharing—like Activu—result in accurate, quick, and confident decisions for people who manage these key tasks. Session: See, Share, & Respond Beyond the Control Room |
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Martha Ramirez
Client Services Manager Minsait ACS Martha Ramirez, a natural born citizen from Nicaragua and a graduate in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Orleans, has worked with Minsait ACS for more than a decade. During her time with Minsait ACS, she has had the opportunity to work with great mentors, learning the product, working to build relationships with the customers, and helping to create processes that have led to new opportunities. Martha is extremely passionate and driven about her work, and strives to be a mentor to her team and colleagues, carrying on the tradition of customer engagement and satisfaction. Sessions: PRISM Database & Display Building PRISM Tips & Tricks (Option #1) PRISM Tips & Tricks (Option #2) PRISM Composer |
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Matko Papic
Chief Technology Officer Evans Matko is the Chief Technology Officer at Evans. In addition to his role of managing technology platforms and development for Evans, he is also responsible for Evans’ Consulting business, global product development and strategic business development. Matko has 20 years of experience in the control room industry working at various levels of engagement with Evans’ customers ranging from first principles solutions design to compete turnkey and program level design of control rooms. In his consulting role, Matko helps Evans’ customers conceptualize and implement control rooms from an early planning stage, including technology assessment and operational planning, through to detail design development and implementation. In his career Matko has worked with global customers including the FAA, NASA, Shell, BP, Exxon, US Military & Intelligence Agencies to name a few. Matko is Professional Engineer and holds an MBA from University of Calgary and a Leadership program form Queens University. He is also an active member of the Board of Governors for the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. Session: The Future of Control Rooms: How Technology is Changing the Way We Think About Control Rooms |
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Matt Roberts
Regional Sales Director - Central Minsait ACS Matt has worked at Minsait ACS for over 4 years, previously leading the technical proposal team and currently serving as the Central region’s sales director. Having worked with utilities across Minsait ACS’ domestic organization but also internationally, having taken lead in some of the largest and most complex proposals internationally, Matt brings a great wealth of knowledge of our products and solutions. Session: Connected Assets: Leveraging Data for Deeper Understandings |
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Nikola Dizdar
Department Manager POWER Engineers, Inc. Nikola Dizdar is a results-driven leader with strong business aptitude and robust technical and customer service skills in ADMS. With a career built on the use of several GIS platforms, he applies his knowledge of drafting, digital conversion, mapping facilities and field inspections within the electric and gas utility industry. Nikola has been responsible for developing and leading a high-performing ADMS team capable of delivering innovative solutions to help solve challenges that utilities face. He is an accomplished ADMS program lead and has working experience in utilizing ArcGIS, ArcFM and AutoCAD to integrate with ADMS. Session: The ADMS Journey |
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Parnell Dujour
Project Engineer Minsait ACS Self-motivated, detail-driven, passionate computer engineer that has been in the smart grid industry for seven years whose key responsibilities are integrating, testing, and commissioning of RTUs and network distributed SCADA systems. Additional responsibilities include aiding in the development of project estimates, project schedules, and integration procedures, along with providing technical support and customer training. Session: PRISM Communications |
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Rob Sadler
Director of Business Solutions Minsait ACS As part of the Sales and Marketing team at Minsait ACS, Rob is responsible for technical pre-sales and product marketing. He performs product training and demonstrations, serves as a technical resource for the sales team and supports key RFP responses. Rob has been with Minsait ACS over 20 years and has served in a variety of roles that includes proposals, project management, operations, marketing, and product management. He received his BSEE from Georgia Tech with a certificate in computer engineering. Previously he was a project engineer with Siemens in circuit protection and controls. Session: Onesait Connected Assets PRISM Oneview for ADMS PRISM DMS Applications SCADA Applications FLISR with Centrix Results & Lessons Learned after Successful FLISR Deployment at Suwanee Valley Electric Cooperative Minsait ACS Product Roadmap |
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Terence Fernandes
Software Engineer Minsait ACS Terence previously worked for Siemens but has been with Minsait ACS for 25 years. He has an MBA in Information Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. He loves leveraging database & computing technologies to streamline business processes. In his free time, he enjoys home automation & DIY projects and even volunteers for Habitat for Humanity & Johns Creek Police Auxiliary Services. Session: PRISM Historical Data Archive & Reporting (Oracle) |
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Trevor Touchton
Power System Engineer Suwannee Valley Electric Coop Trevor graduated from the University of Florida in 2016 with an Electrical Engineering Degree (BSEE). He has been with Suwannee Valley since 2011 and has been involved in designing, upgrading, and implementing FDIR, SCADA, OMS, Protection & Controls, Communication Networks, and Distribution system design. Currently Trevor is the team lead for the Energy Control Center and for substation improvements, with a focus on bringing improvements impacting member experience. Session: Results & Lessons Learned after Successful FLISR Deployment at Suwanee Valley Electric Cooperative |
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Viet Minh Tong
Field Applications Engineer AMSC Viet Minh Tong is a Field Application Engineer for American Super Conductor Corporation. In his role he supports the application for the D-VAR VVO STATCOM. In addition to STATCOM’s, Viet has seven years’ experience working with a variety distribution apparatus such as padmount switchgear & reclosers. He holds a B.S. Degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering from Christian Brothers University in Memphis, TN. Session: Distribution Class STATCOM for Renewable Integration & Power Quality Improvement |
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Zach Lewallen
Principal Solutions Architect for Emerging Technology Verizon Zach Lewallen brings over 8 years of Verizon experience. As a Principal Solutions Architect for Emerging Technology he works with developers, customers, and sales leaders to bring products, solutions, and networks to Verizon Business Customers. Currently, these products and services are, but not limited to, Verizon Grid Wide, Critical Asset Tracker, Critical Asset Sensor, Condition Based Monitoring, Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC), with much more to come. “As the solutions architect, it is my job to work hand in hand with customers and product development to deliver world-class solutions for Verizon's valued business customers.” Zach attended the University of Sioux Falls studying in Exercise Sciences and Business Administration with an emphasis on media and marketing. Session: The Path to Neural Grids |