Industry leaders and innovators
Shaping the energy management and sustainability landscape.
Sanjoy Malik
CEO, Urjanet
SPARK20About Sanjoy
Sanjoy is a seasoned entrepreneur and experienced executive who has built and operated several successful technology businesses. In 1999 Sanjoy founded Air2Web, a leader in mobile marketing services. Under Sanjoy’s leadership Air2Web grew from a pioneering wireless services provider to become a market leader and global strategic mobile partner for over 100 of the most trusted brands in the world. Prior to Air2Web Sanjoy founded Synchrologic, a company that created the first enterprise class data synchronization platform for mobile devices. Sanjoy was responsible for raising venture capital, hiring a successful management team, and establishing partnerships with key industry leaders. Synchrologic was acquired by Intellisync which later became part of Nokia.
David Metcalfe
CEO, Verdantix
SPARK20About David
David is the CEO and a co-founder of Verdantix. Since 2007 he has developed a global network of relationships with executives responsible for energy, EH&S and sustainability in some of the world’s largest firms. He advises clients on a wide-range of strategic issues with a focus on growth strategies in sustainability services, energy and environment software and environmental innovation. Prior to founding Verdantix David was a Senior Vice President at Forrester Research and Head of Analysis and Forecasting at BT Group, the UK’s largest fixed line telecoms operator.
David is a frequent speaker at industry events including at the World Economic Forum, Green Corporate Energy, Sustainable Brands and Greenbiz Forum as well as Verdantix Summits in the UK and the US. He holds a PhD from Cambridge University which applied game theory to assess negotiations on the liberalisation of European energy markets. He is a co-author of the award-winning book “Negotiation Analysis” published by Harvard University Press.
Erik Becker
VP of Sales, Urjanet
SPARK20About Erik
Erik is a technology executive with expertise in developing sales and marketing strategies for emerging technology companies, and scaling businesses once go-to-market plans are in place. Erik brings years of experience selling hardware, software, and SaaS-based solutions, through direct sales, reseller channels, and OEM relationships. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester.
Jana Schmidt
President & CEO, Ecova
SPARK20About Jana
As president and CEO of Ecova, Jana Schmidt is responsible for maintaining a clear vision for the company as the leader in total energy and sustainability management. Jana is recognized as a proven leader with a depth of experience in sales and client advocacy who can grow companies through driving results and enhanced customer loyalty to become leaders in their respective industries.
Prior to becoming president and CEO, Jana was responsible for driving revenue growth as head of the sales and client management teams. She also led operations for Ecova’s foundational expense and data management service. Before joining Ecova, Jana was Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Harland Clarke Corp. In that role, she led a national sales, client management and marketing organization that served over 11,000 clients in the financial services industry with over $1 billion in revenue. Prior to this role, Jana led Marketing Services within Harland Clarke, responsible for sales and operational leadership, including call center management. Jana also served as Vice President of Business Development for Harland, leading the company’s organic growth strategies for its three business segments which included integrating acquisitions and developing cross sell methodologies across the organization.
Jana holds a B.S. in psychology from Colorado State University. She sits on the board of directors of Junior Achievement of Georgia and the National Diversity Council named Jana Schmidt one of 2010’s Most Powerful and Influential Women of Georgia.
When she is not leading Ecova, Jana loves spending time with her family and is an avid tennis player and a beginner golfer.
Mike Pridemore
VP of Product Development, Urjanet
SPARK20About Mike
Michael Pridemore is widely considered a pioneer of the email marketing and marketing automation software industry. Previously, Pridemore served as CEO and co-founder of Socketware, Inc. the maker of Accucast. He grew it to be a global leader in the space before its successful acquisition. Pridemore is also the founder of Sockethead Studios and uses his technology development and corporate management experience to create and market consumer applications. With a passion for helping entrepreneurs, Pridemore serves corporate boards and is active in his community along with his wife Tricia. He is an alum of the University of Central Florida.
Ed Rogers
Senior Director of Global Sustainability, UPS
SPARK20About Ed
Ed Rogers serves as the Senior Director of Global Sustainability for the logistics company UPS. Ed’s responsibilities include coordinating and communicating the company’s sustainability vision, objectives, goals, strategies, initiatives, and reporting activities. His 20+ years of UPS experience includes strategic planning, industrial engineering, program management, business process improvement and internal consulting.
Prior to joining UPS he served as a U.S. Air Force officer in Dayton, Ohio, managing programs to modernize the defense manufacturing industry. He subsequently worked eight years as an engineering management consultant on a variety of manufacturing and logistics systems improvement projects for more than twenty clients, including UPS.
He earned his Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the University of Dayton, and an Executive Masters in International Logistics also from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, the Institute of Industrial Engineers, and has served on various industry advisory boards.
Paul Shahriari
Founder & CEO, ecomedes
SPARK20About Paul
Paul is an authority on green building and the application of technology in the real estate, design, engineering and construction industries. He has been a sustainability consultant since 2000. He has founded 3 greentech companies: ecologic3 and ecoScorecard which were acquired in 2010. In 2014 he launched ecomedes, a data platform that leverages product performance data to simplify green decision making and purchasing. ecomedes streamlines the analysis of economic and environmental impacts for anyone looking to make a better data driven decision. Paul is a graduate of the University of Florida with a Masters of Engineering.
Huiet Joseph
Senior Manager, Sustainability and Engineering, Cox Enterprises
SPARK20About Huiet
Huiet Joseph is a Senior Manager of Sustainability and Engineering leading the energy conservation effort for Cox Enterprises. Huiet leads a team of engineers and is responsible for executing strategies, initiatives, and capital projects to reduce Cox’s carbon footprint. In the nine years Huiet has been with Cox, he and his team have completed more than 300 energy conservation and water conservation projects across the company’s subsidiaries – Cox Communications, Cox Media and Cox Automotive. Huiet holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Dillard University, a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Middle Tennessee State University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and holds several certifications from the Association of Energy Engineers, including the Certified Energy Manager and the Certified Energy
Procurement Professional titles.
Tim Leigh
Global Lead Product and Service Development, Accenture
SPARK20About Tim
Tim is charged with Global Product and Service development for Accenture’s Energy Solutions practice. This team of 450+ global energy experts is currently helping several thousand commercial and industrial clients (across industry groups) manage their energy spend around the world. Accenture’s services span energy trading & risk management, regulated energy rate optimization, demand management, energy IoT services and global information management.
Tim joined Accenture (for the 2nd time) after most recently serving as the Vice President of National Accounts for APN. He has over twenty-five years in the Energy, Maintenance and Sustainability Sector. His roles included Director of Energy, Maintenance and Sustainability for Macy’s, founder of a $200MM Energy Services Company and ten years with Southern Company.
Jay Zoellner
Managing Director, Industrial Solutions, EnerNOC
SPARK20About Jay
Jay is the Managing Director, Global Industrial Solutions at EnerNOC. He has over 30 years of profit and loss management experience in the energy and energy efficiency fields, including the start-up company of an energy management company that he founded that successfully developed and commercialized one of the first real-time SaaS sustainability platforms for commercial and industrial enterprises. Mr. Zoellner has served as an invited panel member for the California PUC’s Diversifying California’s Green Economy Forum, discussing the impact of California’s AB 32 climate change legislation. He often speaks at industry and trade conferences on energy efficiency and sustainability. Mr. Zoellner received his Bachelor’s degree in Physics and served as an officer in the US Navy nuclear submarine service. His business experience includes board director, executive management, company finance, and sales. His technical experience includes the development, design, construction, operation, ownership, finance and management of all forms of energy at industrial facilities including its generation, transmission, distribution, controls, efficiency, software intelligence and program management. He has successfully deployed enterprise programs for aerospace, medical device manufacturing, food and beverage facilities, cold storage warehousing, heavy industrial metals, plastics, foam and chemical manufacturing, agricultural, cheese and dairy and utility enterprises. Mr. Zoellner’s role is to help the industrial enterprise understand how EnerNOC’s energy management software and expertise improves energy use and energy spend intensities without impacting its unique production quality and volume requirements.
Mike Whitlatch
VP of Global Energy & Procurement, UPS
SPARK20About Mike
Mike is the UPS Vice President of Global Energy and Procurement and has worked at UPS for over 28 years. His career has spanned operations, aircraft engineering, logistics, finance, energy and procurement. Mike has extensive experience in energy supply chain management and is part of the leadership team that plans and deploys alternative fuel technologies at UPS. Mike currently oversees the procurement of UPS’s automotive fleets, support material and energy resources to support UPS global operations.
He currently chairs the Airlines for America (A4A) Energy Council and serves on the boards of several industry-related fueling entities.
UPS operates over 100,000 vehicles, more than 2,500 facilities, and 237 aircraft requiring a wide range of energy products including transportation fuels, electricity, natural gas, and alternative fuels. UPS also operates one of the largest private alternative fuel and advanced technology fleets with more than 7,000 all-electric, hybrid electric, hydraulic hybrid, CNG, LNG, propane, bio-methane and light-weight fuel-saving composite body vehicles. UPS will log over one billion miles with these vehicles by the end of 2017. UPS serves more than 220 countries and territories delivering more than 18 million packages and documents each day.
Daniel Howard
Fellow & Former CTO, Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers
SPARK20About Daniel
Daniel Howard was the first SCTE CTO, is now an SCTE Fellow, and he is responsible for driving the technical leadership, innovation and increased focus on energy efficiency, IP delivery over cable and integration of wireless into the last mile access network. He co-authored DOCSIS® 1.1 and 2.0 specifications and was a lead inventor on Broadcom’s primary DOCSIS 3.0 patent. Daniel brings to SCTE over 20 years of cable technology innovation and standards leadership with a variety of established and startup technology firms such as Broadcom, Motorola, and Digital Furnace, and his educational leadership includes co-founding a broadband telecommunications research center at Georgia Tech, teaching undergraduate courses in electromagnetic and graduate classes in cable access networks, and he is currently driving partnerships between the SCTE and colleges, universities, and trade schools to ensure the 21st century cable workforce is ready for the growth and challenges of the industry, and has developed a cable workforce management development course in partnership with Georgia Tech.
Allison Richards
Senior Energy Analyst, C&I Business Operations, Time Warner Cable
SPARK20About Allison
In her role as Senior Energy Analyst at Time Warner Cable, Allison Richards partners with operational groups across the Enterprise to define strategic energy policies to evolve the company’s environmental and social stewardship. The objective of Allison’s strategic policy initiative is to create a centralized resource for energy data, allowing TWC to baseline energy costs and consumption and prioritize projects to achieve energy management and carbon abatement goals. Allison also provides leadership in cable industry initiatives such as the Society for Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Energy 2020 Program.
Allison began working with TWC in August 2011, as a student enrolled in George Mason University’s Environmental Science and Public Policy Doctorate Program. Due to Allison’s extensive sustainability experience and education, she also serves as a valuable resource to TWC’s Sustainability Program and leads a multitude of corporate sustainability objectives such as supply chain, water use effectiveness and carbon abatement.
Asim Hussain
VP Marketing and Customer Experience, Bloom Energy
SPARK20About Asim
Asim has worked extensively in the areas of market and business development, marketing, sales enablement, and product management in early stage, high growth clean technology companies. He is the Vice President of Marketing and Customer Experience at Bloom Energy, a provider of breakthrough solid oxide fuel cell technology that generates clean, reliable, and highly-efficient power onsite. Asim’s responsibilities at Bloom Energy include new market development, sales enablement, customer engagement and experience, and corporate and product marketing.
Prior to Bloom Energy, Asim worked for CURRENT Group, a Smart Grid solutions provider, as the Chief of Staff for the CEO focused on building the executive team and strategic planning as well as marketing and business development activities. At CURRENT Group, Asim developed an industry-leading value model to quantify the monetary benefits of various Smart Grid applications. He previously also advised electric utility and telecommunication clients on strategy and systems integration initiatives while working for Deloitte Consulting.
Asim earned a BS in Commerce with Distinction from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.
John Failla
Founder & Editorial Director, Smart Energy Decisions
SPARK20About John
John Failla has 25+ years experience in B2B media as a Publisher and Event Organizer, including responsibility for emedia products, magazines and face-to-face events. Smart Energy Decisions will launch in January 2016 as a B2B media brand serving corporate energy, facility and sustainability managers. Smart Energy Decisions’ mission is to help industry executives and their companies reduce their carbon footprint and succeed by adopting best practices in energy efficiency and utilization of renewable energy.
Prior to launching Smart Energy Decisions, John launched and developed Tesoro Business Media (Parent of Green Retail Decisions) which was acquired by Stagnito Business Information. Prior to that, John spent six years as Group President at VNU (Nielsen) Business Media where he was responsible for publications, trade shows, and online services serving several markets.
John began his career in Procter & Gamble’s sales management program.
René Spée, PhD
Senior Energy Consultant, Coppervale
SPARK20About René
Dr. René Spée received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Oregon State University. Following a career in academia, he held senior technical management positions at Maxwell Technologies, Smiths Aerospace and Alpha Technologies. Since 2008, Dr. Spée has been working as consultant. His consultancy focuses on all aspects of powering infrastructure, energy analysis, efficiency enhancements and utility cost reduction.
Dr. Spée is a Senior Member in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and has authored more than 120 technical papers, has given short courses internationally and is credited with three United States patents.
Felix Faulhaber
VP, Business Intelligence, Rubicon Global
SPARK20About Felix
Felix Faulhaber joined Rubicon Global in November 2014 to build a comprehensive set of operational performance metrics for internal and external use. In addition, Faulhaber is responsible for end-to-end process improvements and delivery of major operational programs from inception to end. Before joining Rubicon Global, Faulhaber was the Group Director, Design-to-Value at Coca-Cola North America. In this position, he was responsible for identifying opportunities to improve cost and consumer value of product features in the marketplace. Collaborating with a cross-functional team, the group works towards implementing complex improvement ideas, navigating various operational approval and testing processes. Preceding Faulhaber’s role at Coca-Cola, he was an Engagement Manager in the Atlanta Office of McKinsey & Company. He joined McKinsey in January 2009 in Berlin, Germany, transferred to South Africa in August 2009 and then to Atlanta in October 2011. During his time at McKinsey, Faulhaber worked in several industries, primarily in consumer and packaged goods and apparel with a focus on integrated operations transformations (including lean transformations, manufacturing strategy, supply chain strategy and integrated planning). Faulhaber has a Master in Business Administration (cum laude) at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa and further studied International Business and Aerospace Engineering in Nuremberg and Munich respectively.
Klaar De Schepper
Director of Data Management, Bright Power
SPARK20About Klaar
Klaar De Schepper leads Bright Power’s Data Team which is tasked with gathering and processing the myriad flows of data that help our analysts and engineers do their job and give our clients the ability to track their buildings’ performance over time. Since Klaar joined Bright Power in 2011, she has become a “utilibrarian” – a specialist in handling the intricacies of utility bill data from thousands of utility companies.
Prior to joining Bright Power, Klaar conducted information management research at IBM and the Columbia University Libraries. Klaar thinks that avoiding climate change and working towards a more sustainable way of managing our earth’s resources is a huge and complex project, but that gathering the right information to work towards it is a solvable part of the puzzle.
Klaar has a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Science and Sustainable Development from Columbia University. Klaar is an active member of Mission:data, an industry coalition that is promoting standardized utility data access from utility bills and smart meters by engaging with State Utilities Commissions across the United States.
Veronica Thomas
Data Manager, Bright Power
SPARK20About Veronica
Veronica is passionate about efficiency – from driving the most direct route to using less energy. She started at Bright Power three years ago working to help buildings understand their energy usage better so that they could reduce energy and cost, only to realize that there were just as many inefficiencies in getting fresh accurate data to analyze! She’s been working on the Data Team ever since. Veronica studied Civil Engineering and Psychology at The University of Southern California.
