“Co-founder of XMPLR Energy. Over 20 years of experience in the energy industry including: natural gas and electric power; environmental technology; coal-fired generation; analytics, diagnostics and optimization. Extensive experience in opening markets and introduced new disruptive technologies into the USA, Europe, China and South Korea markets; and structuring license and technology transfer arrangements in several markets.
Scott supports clients in formulating digitalization strategy with specific focus on using analytics and remote monitoring solutions for OEMs. Scott has worked extensively with Expert Microsystems, a leader in predictive analytics and remote monitoring solutions. Previously, Scott was Vice-President at Zolo Technologies, a laser-based sensor for ultra-harsh combustion environments that are integrated into data analytic optimization systems. Prior to Zolo, Scott was President of Doosan Babcock Energy America LLC (formerly Mitsui Babcock USA LLC) where he introduced the company’s after-market services business including coal boiler upgrades and innovative emission reduction solutions into the US market. Scott has a Petroleum Engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Brian Alessi is the Director of Marketing at Everactive, a technology company that combines batteryless wireless sensors and cloud analytics to deliver end-to-end Industrial IoT solutions. Brian drives product positioning and messaging, customer development, and go-to-market strategy for the company. In that capacity, he works closely with customers who are responsible for innovation initiatives, sustainability projects, maintenance & reliability, and overall plant management. During his time with the Everactive, Brian has held various operational leadership roles. Prior to Everactive, Brian worked in management consulting in New York, where he advised clients on business process, information technology, and controls-related challenges. Brian received his MBA from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and his BA from Boston College.

Chris Benson is the Chief Strategist & Communications Lead for Artificial Intelligence, High-Performance Computing, and AI Ethics at Lockheed Martin. He reports directly to the global Chief Data & Analytics Officer. Chris came to Lockheed Martin from Honeywell SPS, where he was Chief Scientist for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. He built and operationalized Honeywell’s first dedicated AI team from the ground up. Before that Chris was on the AI Team at Accenture. He is Co-Host of the Practical AI podcast, which reaches thousands of AI enthusiasts each week, and is also the Founder & Organizer of the Atlanta Deep Learning Meetup - one of the largest AI communities in the world, with nearly 3000 members

Dr. Berry began his career in the Research & Environmental Affairs organization in 1996 as an intern. Over his career he has held positions of increasing responsibility, including director of Research & Technology Management. After a stint outside of Southern Company as a research director at the Southern Research Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute, Dr. Berry rejoined Southern Company in 2015 as vice president of Environmental Affairs at Georgia Power.

He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Alabama A&M University and a bachelor's and master's degree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also earned a master's degree in public and private management from Birmingham Southern College and is a registered professional engineer in the State of Alabama.

Ben Berwick is a Strategic Marketing Specialist for Honeywell’s Asset Performance Management solutions. He joined Honeywell in 2018 with over 20 years of experience in various roles, including electronic and software design engineering, new product development management, and operations leadership for GE/Bently Nevada, Rolls-Royce and Dresser-Rand. Throughout his career, Ben’s work has focused entirely on creating machinery diagnostics and intelligent asset solutions that improve the reliability and productivity of industrial machinery. Ben possesses a B.Sc. Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from the Jones School of Business at Rice University.

Berk holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from Columbia University. His academic research focused on optimizing wireless and optical networks with efficient cross-layer algorithms. He developed scheduling algorithms for LTE-A and fiber-optic networks. He holds a patent in IoT systems for resilient fiber-optic networks.

Sandy Bouissa has been with ABB over 6 years as an Advanced Services Specialist, Simulation & Optimization application specialist and senior proposal engineer supporting ABB Inc.’s Power Generation & Waste Water business unit. Sandy has spent her career supporting the Power Generation and Water industries. Sandy holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Cleveland State University.

Matt Buck joined EPRI in 2015 after more than 16 years of operational experience in the power industry.
Matt is a currently a Senior Technical Leader in EPRI’s Operations and Maintenance (O&M) research group in the Generation sector. He oversees R&D that supports plant O&M excellence.
Matt’s work include O&M performance assessments, work planning, equipment reliability, and changing mission profiles for plants; but his passion is the Digital Worker concept. This work focuses on the use of advanced mobile technology to make the O&M field worker smarter, safer, and more effective.

Chetan is responsible for leading Global O&M Services, providing Operations and Maintenance services to power plant owners/customers worldwide. Chetan’s portfolio serves 48 power plants, operating 33.6 GW of generation in 20 countries.

Prior to his present role, Chetan served as Region Operation Leader/ Director for GE Power Services for 5 years. Chetan lead the Sales and Services delivery providing power train maintenance to customers in the United States.

Chetan also served as Plant Manager for 9 years, leading the Operation & Maintenance of 5 combined cycle power plants serving regulated utilizes, IPPs and merchant plants in the United States.

Chetan began his career as a Plant Engineer and Project Manager, developing power plants in North America, Brazil and Asia covering a range of technologies from Gas, Steam, Hydro & Renewables.

Rahul Chillar is the Senior Director – Product Management for GE’s Digital Application – Asset Performance Management (APM)

Rahul is responsible for product managing and developing the APM application for the power industry. This includes the development of product, domain content, domain analytics, service and solution roadmaps, and designing new customer experiences and business models.

Rahul has worked for 16 years in the Power industry with over 55 + patents, Rahul has held multitude of roles from power design, product dev engineer, customer service engineering, new product development, business development to leading risk management in GE contractual service agreements and most recently digital transformation for GE in the Asset performance space.

Rahul has Masters in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and Bachelors in Mechanical Engr from Mumbai University.

John began his career as a process control engineer for Eastman Chemical, where he implemented control strategy improvements, advanced control applications, and controller performance monitoring to automate and enhance process operation. Following 25+ years at Eastman, John joined Seeq Corporation in 2018. In his role as an Analytics Engineer for Seeq, John loves to help customers succeed through his passion for combining software and data analysis to reveal operational insights. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University and a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee.

Tom Cross is the Southeast Account Manager for ABB. Tom retired after 22 years from the Tampa Electric Coal Gasification Plant in Polk County, Florida as the Controls technician for the plant. Tom served 4 years in the US Navy as a shipboard electrician, has an AS in Electronics Engineering technology from Broward Community College, and a BS from University of South Florida in IT with a security concentration.

Pete is a Dad, husband; proud dyslexic; and digital engineer. Working on tomorrows energy problems today, by combining engineering and digital technologies to create complete solutions to help the world in our energy transition to a lower carbon future. Pete has worked in the energy sector for 11+ years on the boundary between IT and engineering or trading delivering solutions for the opportunities and problems that arise in this space. Prior to the energy sector Pete worked in pharmaceuticals supporting the R&D and recipe aspects.

Pete is the founder of Enerlytics by Uniper, a digital platform which combines Uniper’s engineering expertise based on a pedigree of 100 years; owning and running 34GW of power plant with a drive for OEM independence

Hannah Davis is the project lead for the Utility Blockchain Interest Group (UBIG) at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). UBIG is a utility focused interest group that uses a collaborative approach to accelerate industry learning and applications by sharing use cases and lessons learned and developing best practices.
EPRI is an independent, non-profit organization that conducts research, development, and demonstration projects for the benefit of the public in the United States and internationally. EPRI is focused on electricity generation, delivery and use in collaboration with the electricity sector, its stakeholders and others to enhance the quality of life by making electric power safe, reliable, affordable, and environmentally responsible.
Hannah holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Georgetown University and bachelor’s degree from Franklin and Marshall College in Environmental Studies.

David DeBari is a Process Control Engineer for the ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. He studied Chemical Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering, and has an MBA. David has many years of automation experience in both continuous and batch processes. He is an original member of ExxonMobil’s Open Process Automation Program Team and is the Lead Engineer working on prototyping a standards-based, open, interoperable, and secure automation system. David is also the Co-Lead of the Application Portability Sub-committee of the Open Process Automation Forum’s Technical Working Group.

Shaswat Dixit( Sunny) has eight years of progressive Process Engineering and Data Analytics Consulting experience of Process Industries projects with recognized strengths in Downstream, Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals processes. From 2013-2017 he worked with different process simulators and equipment design softwares to troubleshoot various plant issues

Sunny is now a Data Analytics Engineer at TrendMiner and is responsible for providing software on-boardings, support, and services to process industry customers. He holds a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University.

Rachel is a Principal Digital Product Manager for GE Digital, responsible for delivering software solutions that improve productivity and production planning for power generation. With over 17 years of experience in Digital, Power and Aviation, she brings extensive knowledge in gas turbine and plant technologies, product and technology strategy and has been recognized throughout her career for bringing people and teams together to innovate and deliver value.
Rachel holds a B.S. and Masters in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and the Ohio State University, respectively.

Kenneth Ferguson has been involved in high profile initiatives for over forty years as an engineer, senior manger, and consultant .His current affiliations include being involved as a technology Vice President as well as providing strategic planning services .Involvements have included the power generation, information technology ,petrochemical industries including the private sector and government agencies. A recurrent responsibility has involved program development, change management, and transforming organizations to respond to key situations ,establishing effective cyber culture is a relevant, high priority involvement.
Dr. Ferguson has physics and engineering degrees from the University of Michigan(Ann Arbor) and Carnegie-Mellon University. Past affiliations have included as employee of Westinghouse Electric, and then Price-Waterhouse Coopers. He has operated his own consultancy for over ten years.

David Foose is the Security Solutions Program Manager at Emerson Automation Solutions, Power & Water Solutions. In this role, David is responsible for setting the direction of Emerson’s security solutions business including establishing product and service roadmaps, providing sales support and leading the Ovation Cyber Emergency Response Team. David frequently presents on the topics of cybersecurity and industrial control system protections at industry conferences and trade shows and is active in the threat intelligence community ensuring Emerson is able to provide timely notification to its user base regarding current threats and malware campaigns. Previously, David was the Ovation Security Technology Development Manager responsible for the overall design, development and implementation of security controls for the Ovation control system as well as Emerson’s Power and Water Cybersecurity Suite. Prior to joining Emerson in 2008, David worked for more than 10 years in a commercial IT environment as a network administrator responsible for security hardware and software evaluation. David’s educational background includes a Bachelor’s degree complemented by a Master’s of Science degree in IT Security and Assurance from Robert Morris University along with several industry certifications focused on the security and defense of Industrial Control Systems. David resides in Gibsonia, PA with his wife Jaime and two daughters Paige and Piper.

Kim Gilbert, PhD is Director of Technical Sales Engineering at Beyond Limits, a pioneering AI company creating advanced software solutions for the world’s most demanding industries. Kim leads a team of Sales Engineers to develop prototypes of cognitive solutions that solve industry challenges. Prior to Beyond Limits, Kim served as Director of R&D at ALOVIAM, a renewable energy startup.

In 2015, Kim received her PhD in High Pressure Geochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. Kim’s graduate research included creating a novel method to predict carbon dioxide solubility in aqueous solutions, which provided insight into the molecular interactions between carbon dioxide and dissolved ions in deep subsurface conditions. In 2016, her work was published by the peer-reviewed Journal, Applied Geochemistry.

For over five years preceding graduate school, Kim worked at National Instruments - initially as an Applications Engineer, and ultimately as a Product Strategist guiding the development of a control hardware platform.

Kim earned a PhD in High Pressure Geochemistry in 2015 from the University of Texas at Austin, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BSc degree in Chemical Engineering in 2000 from Arizona State University. In addition, Kim taught graduate-level Aqueous Geochemistry and undergraduate Research Methods courses at the University of Texas at Austin.

o Lauhael Godinho is the Director IT for SCADA, ICS, Controls & Operational Systems for Refining & Midstream at Phillips 66. He has a BE in Information Technology (IT), MS in Computer Information Systems (CIS) & MBA in Management of Technology. A large portion of his career has been focused on bridging the OT ~ IT divide, and enabling Digital Transformation with an eye towards ICS Cybersecurity across the Refining & Midstream business units.

James Goosby is serves as the Instrumentation and Controls Support General Manager within the Southern Company Technical and Project Solutions organization. He and his team are responsible for plant Instrumentation and Controls Field Support Services and Generation Cyber Security Program Management.
James has held various leadership positions within Southern Company Generation over the past 24 years to include plant Operations, Maintenance and Engineering. Prior to joining Southern Company James served in the U.S. Marines and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University.

Mike has over 25 years of experience with Databases, Information Systems and Plant Automation. He is currently the Operational Technology Lead for the Enterprise Asset Management Office of Nova Scotia Power, the utility for the province of Nova Scotia. He is responsible for the successful integration of NSPs many Operational information systems into a platform that provides end users with a dynamic asset based Operational Risk across the NSP Thermal fleet.

Jacqueline Grunwald is Vice President and CIO at AdvanSix, a leading, integrated Nylon 6 business with 60+ years of operating history. Jacqueline joined AdvanSix in 2016 and established a modernization strategy for the IT landscape. In the past two years, 95% of applications have been migrated or transformed to run on the public cloud. Jacqueline and her team continue to drive technology enablement of the business through the leverage of contemporary solutions and innovation.

Prior to AdvanSix, Jacqueline spent 17 years at Honeywell, where she held positions of increasing responsibility in the Transportation Systems business and Corporate, including IT strategy and transformation, business partnership roles with Legal and Government Relations, Finance, Sales & Marketing, and Business Intelligence modernization. Before joining Honeywell, Jacqueline held several roles at Electronic Data Systems (EDS), including system design and development, configuration management, and data base administration.

Jacqueline lives in Mantua, NJ with her husband, Tom, and their two children. She has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan, specializing in Supply Chain and Business Information Systems as well as a Bachelor of Science degree also from Michigan State University.

Jared Hartness is a Sr. Product Marketing Manager with GE Digital, working with GE’s Asset Performance Management suite of solutions. Jared also serves as the industry lead for GE Digital’s oil & gas market segment. Prior to joining GE Digital, Hartness began his career with Meridium serving in a number of different capacities ranging from product marketing, marketing programs and digital marketing for their Asset Performance Management software solutions. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communication and Media Studies from Radford University.

Shannon has worked at Jayhawk Fine Chemicals for 19 years. Serving in his current position for the last seven. He is a Systems Optimization Leader which includes various responsibilities including technical support and troubleshooting.

Brad is a Senior Engineering Advisor with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. Brad has more than 30 years’ experience in the refining and chemicals industry. Most of his career has been focused in the control and optimization areas having been involved in the full range of activities from regulatory controls through raw materials valuation. Since October 2017, Brad has been the Program Manager for ExxonMobil’s Open Process Automation R&D program which is leading the development of a standards-based, open, secure and interoperable process control architecture. During his career Brad has worked in R&D, engineering and manufacturing roles.

Mr. Huang is a process control professional with over 28 years of experience designing and implementing advanced process control solutions for various industrial processes. Liwei specializes in control loop and process performance monitoring and analysis using data analytic and pattern recognition techniques for continuous and batch processes. He has presented papers on advanced process control and performance analysis at AIChE conferences and meetings. Liwei is an active practitioner of control loop monitoring and performance improvement within the US Advanced Services Group at ABB Inc.

Michael Magerstädt received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Berlin Technical University. Later, he completed a postgraduate study in business administration, focus marketing.

Michael holds the position of Manager, Global Industry Division Chemical at KROHNE Group, a leading global supplier of innovative products, solutions, and services for the process industry with close to 4000 employees and manufacturing plants on 4 continents. He also is the CEO of the KROHNE subsidiary KROHNE AG located in Switzerland.

After graduating, Michael spent 4 years conducting research in the United States; first at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA and later at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD. Then, he spent 13 years at Hoechst AG (later on Hoechst-Celanese, Frankfurt, Germany), formerly one of the three largest German chemical and pharmaceutical companies. After his time at Hoechst, he spent 19 years as CTO and CEO of privately owned manufacturing and technology companies in in Germany and Switzerland before joining KROHNE, the most recent of which was ROSEN, world leader in pipeline inspection and a major player in Asset Integrity Management.

Michael is author of one scientific book as well as numerous publications and patents. He was and is active in building and developing technology startup companies.

Michael Magerstädt is member of a number of professional organizations, including Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, American Chemical Society, VDI (German Engineering Association), SME (Society of Mining Engineers), AWWA (American Water Works Association), and NACE International (National Association of Corrosion Engineers), where he co-chairs a Technology Exchange Group on “Corrosion in Mining/Slurry Pipelines”.

Michael is married, and has two adult children; one son and one daughter. His non-professional interests besides his family include flying single-engine aircraft, skiing, and his international network of friends.

Dave Magill is a 40 plus year veteran of the oil, gas and power industries primarily in the US, with a background in finance and M&A. Dave has spent the last 14 years at Competitive Power Ventures leading CPV’s asset management group, which currently manages over 9000 MW of operating assets, mostly gas fired, for both CPV and third party owners. Dave recently transitioned to become Senior Advisor for CPV, advising and supporting CPV’s senior management in various strategic initiatives.

After more than 5 years leading O&M in Power Plants, Javier joined Mitsui Power Americas (MPA) in December 2011. MPA is a 100% subsidiary company of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., one of the most diversified and comprehensive trading, investment and service enterprises in the world, with 138 offices in 66 countries as of October, 2018. MPA is leader in providing O&M services to power generation assets, including digital services to optimize key plant indicators of these plants. Javier main responsibility is to lead the Monitoring Area of MPA with more than 3 GW of installed capacity in Mexico. In addition, he is collaborating with Mitsui HQ in the Digital Transformation of the company through several pilot projects including Cloud computing, Big data, System integration and Machine Learning technologies. Javier holds an MBA in Digital Business from the University Rey Juan Carlos of Madrid, and a Master Degree in Energy Engineering from University of Seville in Spain.

Joe joined CPV in 2006 and currently provides technical and overall Asset Management support throughout all of CPV. He focuses on high reliability and optimal thermal performance. Joe is currently serving as the Lead Asset Manager for the Middletown Energy Center. Prior to joining CPV, he worked for the independent engineering firm, R.W. Beck, Inc. (now known as Leidos) as an Operations and Performance Consultant and for PG&E NEG, where he held engineering positions at power plant sites and corporate offices. Joe has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Following a short career as a Marine Engineer Paul graduated from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh with an honors degree in the then new field of Computer-Aided Engineering. After a short period as a practicing design engineer at Unisys, Paul entered the IT industry ultimately acquiring and growing the UK’s largest Computer Aided Design (CAD) system vendor.
In 1997 Paul founded McLaren Software with a focus on Asset Intensive Industries including Oil & Gas, Utilities, and Construction. The business gained a market leadership position and international footprint with 60% of revenues in North America and significant businesses in Europe and Australia.

Paul has helped many Fortune 2000 companies improve Capital Project and MRO performance and compliance by leveraging enterprise software and cloud solutions focused on Project Controls, Contract Management, Mobility, and Business Process Management.

Today, as President of Mobideo, Paul continues to work with customers looking to leverage emerging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Enterprise Mobility, Cloud, and Analytics technology to drive service process transformation in the Oil & Gas, Chemical, Aviation and Power Industries.
Paul has lived in Houston Texas with his family since 2004.

Craig has over 20 years progressive power generation experience spanning across US, Canada and UK. Craig’s career progressed from leading gas turbine commissioning teams through to full P&L business management with multiple major Original Equipment Manufacturers. This includes managing Alstom’s North America Controls and Diagnostics Engineering teams, Alstom’s Canadian turbine business as well as a global leadership role in GE’s Cross Fleet organization. Craig brings deep domain knowledge and insights to the power plant controls and automation industry. He previously led design and development of innovative new power plant automation products and continues as a thought leader in Digital Transformation and automation innovation in the power industry. Craig currently consults in the power industry supporting Owners and Operators on a commercial and technical basis, including contract negotiation, plant controls retrofits and digital transformation.

"Ares Panagoulias manages the sales and engineering of IIOT Wireless Condition Monitoring product and services. He works directly with customers to utilize wireless data collection to improve rotating equipment maintenance strategies, increase availability, and reduce downtime in the Nuclear, Power Utility, Pipeline, and Oil & Gas industries.

Ares is also responsible for the operations and management of all functions related to testing of high energy pumps, primarily for the Nuclear (safety and non‐safety related), Power Utility, Pipeline, and Oil & Gas industries at Hydro’s Pump Test Lab.

Ares is a Category III ISO 18436-2 Vibration Analyst. He has contributed to numerous internal and external R&D projects, including the pump test software for the Hydro Performance Test Lab, a testing program for Toshiba VLP Drive Software, a preventative maintenance software based on measurement fluctuations in motor volt and amp levels, and ongoing efforts to improve condition monitoring equipment in field installations.

Juan Panama is the Global Business Development Leader for the Power Industry and has been with Emerson for six years. He is focused on helping utilities increase availability, reliability, safety and workforce effectiveness using wireless technology. He has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering as well as a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis Minnesota.

A national award–winning multimedia journalist, Sonal Patel has covered a wide range of technology, business, and policy issues affecting the power industry worldwide for POWER and its sister publications since 2008. Along with keeping her eye on national and international matters for POWER magazine’s monthly department Global Monitor, she contributes in-depth analysis and spot news pieces for POWER and POWERnews. She also surveys, crunches, and visualizes power generation data and trends from around the world for POWER’s web and print infographics and other multimedia. She is a graduate of the University of Houston.

Jason Pring is currently an Executive at GE Digital, a leading Digital Industrial solution provider in the Internet of Things on the “Edge” and in the “Cloud”. Jason has been with GE for 25+ years solving customer generation business issues across Thermal, Nuclear, and Renewable technologies in the global energy industry. His career includes leadership roles in Power Plant and Services Sales, Marketing, Commercial Deal Structuring, Risk Management and Regional P&L General Management.
In his current role, Jason works with global Investor Owned and Public Utilities, Independent Power Producers, and Industrial cogens in both Regulated and Deregulated markets to better understand and address business critical issues in the evolving energy market. He brings market thought leadership coupled with a deep power domain expertise to structure Business Cases that quantify fleet or plant Value around lowering production costs, increasing revenues linked to improving plant utilization and capabilities and optimizing reliability & availability. Using these insights, Jason works to structure SW/HW/Services solutions that once deployed, enable customers to make better business decisions linked to operational readiness.
Jason is based in Atlanta, Georgia and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Sepideh (“Sep”) Rajaeirad is a Senior Analytics Engineer with Seeq. Sep has around 10 years of experience in chemical manufacturing and oil & gas industry at different roles. In her last role with Enbridge Inc. as Process and Analytics Engineer, Sep applied her knowledge of advanced data analytics and machine learning to solve engineering challenges. Her passion in tech made her to propose and successfully apply the application of advanced analytics, Machine Learning and AI in manufacturing and process industries in order to enhance efficiency and drive business values using their rich source of data.
Sep holds B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnique) and M.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Alberta in Canada focused on advanced data analytics.

Sharul graduated with a Bachelor of Science from University of Miami, Coral Gables Florida in 1988 and then graduated in Master Engineering from University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida in 1990. He has been serving with PETRONAS, Malaysia for over 29 years in various Oil & Gas facilities – Pipeline Gas Transmission Operations Division, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plant , Refinery and Aromatics Plant. He is now Custodian/Chief Engineer - Instrument & Control, leading an Instrumentation group for PETRONAS Malaysia in the area of OT cybersecurity. Sharul is certified ISA/IEC 62443 Fundamental Cybersecurity Specialist for Industrial Control System.

The vision for Duke Energy’s Fossil Hydro Operations digital transformation is to identify, prioritize, plan, schedule and effectively execute the right work at the right time.

As Digital Transformation Lead, Michael leads execution of the vision which includes developing and deploying a number of technology solutions that are focused on work optimization and employee engagement and enablement.

Michael has bachelor and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering from the Queens University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is a registered professional engineer in the United Kingdom and Europe and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Ramiro Rivera has over 14 years of experience in power generation, and 4 years of research experience working for the aerospace industry. He currently serves as the Global Asset Performance Sr. Manager for all generation assets and has held various progressive leadership roles in his career with AES. Since late 2015, Ramiro has been leading the Global Implementation of the EtaPRO Performance Monitoring System in accordance with AES Asset Management strategy. Ramiro has also completed the Machine Learning Bootcamp at Google's Advanced Solutions Lab in 2017.

Ramiro holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Ana G. Mendez University in Gurabo, PR and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering specializing in Heat Transfer, Combustion and Energy Systems from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. During his studies, Ramiro has been a NASA Harriett G. Jenkins Fellow, a Georgia Institute of Technology Presidential Fellow and a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program Fellow. Ramiro is a member of the College of Engineers and Land Surveyors of Puerto Rico and holds professional membership in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Prior to joining AES, he worked as a Research Engineer for the Georgia Institute of Technology and NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC).

Brian Ruppert is an E&I manager specializing in automation and process control with 25 years’ experience in the power industry. In his current position with Wheelabrator technologies, Brian focuses on process improvement, system upgrades and systems integration. Wheelabrator Technologies is an industry leader in the safe and environmentally sound conversion of everyday residential and business waste – and other renewable waste fuels – into clean energy.

Martha is responsible for leading digital product management delivering customer outcomes of optimization, safety, quality, and O&M Cost in the Power Generation Edge and Remote Operations space.

Prior to her present role, Martha led multiple product lines in different areas of the Energy chain, introducing products and services that optimize performance, operations and/or maintenance.

Martha held several other roles over her 22 year tenure at GE, Her GE career began at GE Industrial’s Turbine Controls Business in Salem, VA, where she started as a Controls Engineer, programing Control Systems for Gas Turbine Applications. Within a 6 year timeline, she quickly moved through roles of increasing responsibility such as; Automation, Field Technical Support, New Product Development and DFSS Black Belt. In 2004 Martha was promoted to her first Product Management Role, managing multiple Energy related products since.

Martha earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University, is a Six Sigma Black Belt and Lean certified

Steven Seachman is a Principal Technical Leader in the Instrumentation, Controls, and Automation Program (P68) at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). P68 is part of the Emerging Technologies group within the Generation Sector at EPRI. His interests include Advanced and Adaptive Controls, Instrumentation, and Data Analytics.
Steve graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University. Following his education, he worked the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, West Virginia. There, he performed research, managed projects, and eventually became the Technology Manager for the Crosscutting Research Division. Steve’s 12+ years of experience has led to several publications in the areas of instrumentation, controls, automation, and data analytics as well as numerous projects at industry conferences. Steve is also a Project Management Professional and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

Bhanu Srilla is the Director of Technical Product Marketing at Grace Engineered Products, Inc. He led diverse programs in electrical power distribution and control system projects in IEC and ANSI applications for low and medium voltage systems. Bhanu is an IEEE member, and a member of Standards Technical Panel (STP) for UL 1436, UL 61010, UL 508, and 508A Standards. Bhanu is also a certified electrical safety compliance professional (CESCP) by NFPA, certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and holds advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Systems, and Technology Management.

Yves Gorat Stommel is currently working as the head of the Cognitive Solutions team, with a strong focus on setting-up and implementing a comprehensive, company-wide Artificial Intelligence and data analysis strategy.
In his current function, Yves’ motivation stems from bringing together people, technology and positive change. By continuously questioning, improving and re-imagining operational and business processes – amongst others by looking at the company through the new “lens” of enabling and disruptive Artificial Intelligence – value is created for both the company and its employees. This does not only require identifying, benchmarking and implementing best practices, but more importantly targeted communication, linking knowledge and an emphasis on global instead of local mindsets and approaches.

Misbah has worked on applications of Advanced Process Controls and Machine Learning based predictive models in the chemical manufacturing industry. With background in Chemical Engineering, he augments theoretical process engineering with modern data driven approaches to optimize production processes.

David received his Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida, concentrating in thermal sciences and fluid dynamics. He did his graduate research in the Energy and Gas Dynamics Systems Laboratory; focusing on novel gas turbine based cycles. Following grad school he worked in the Power Diagnostics Center® (PDC) at Siemens Energy. Initially working as an operations engineer; remotely monitoring utility scale simple and combined cycle power plants. He then transitioned into an R&D position focusing on various projects to improve the monitoring capability of the PDC. For the past year he has worked at the Tennessee Valley Authority in to the Performance Monitoring and Diagnostic group; focusing on the natural gas fleet. His areas of interest include gas turbine thermal performance, data analysis and machine learning.

Jon Towslee is the Advanced Services Leader, Americas for ABB Inc. based in Cleveland, OH. Jon has 29+ years of energy industry experience. He has spent the last 19+ years leading, growing, and managing energy related businesses. Throughout his career, Jon has worked on both sides of the electrical industry from utility transmission, distribution, and generation on the supply side to commercial and industrial energy management, power distribution, and advanced energy analytics on the demand side. In his current capacity, Jon is responsible for leading ABB’s advanced services and digital sales for its Industrial Automation Energy Industries business unit.

Jon joined ABB in 2016. Throughout his career, Jon has held numerous business development, management, and leadership positions. Prior to joining ABB, Jon was the Sr. Vice President, Industrial Segment for an energy analytics company, starting in 2011. He was also the Vice President, Strategic Accounts for a commercial energy management company which he joined in 2006. Prior to that, Jon was the Business Manager for an industrial / utility energy system integration business, which he joined in 1994 and held positions of increasing responsibility including: system engineer, project engineer, project manager, program manager, and business manager. Prior to that, Jon was the Engineering Manager and Supervisor of Electrical Engineering for an electrical equipment manufacturer, responsible for the design and application of metal-clad switchgear, capacitor banks, and harmonic filters.

Jon earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from The University of Akron and his MBA from John Carroll University. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio.

Anne-Marie Walters joined Bentley in 2004 as a global marketing director. In this capacity she is responsible for the marketing and positioning of Bentley’s solutions and products that address the needs of the industrial sector including oil & gas, process & discrete manufacturing, and mining industries.
Ms. Walters, who is a chartered chemical engineer, has represented Bentley on the board of the Construction Industry Institute and is also heavily engaged in the activities of FIATECH. She sat on the board of the Engineering Contractors and Constructors Association between 2005 and 2010 and was the Chair in 2009. In addition, she is a founding member of the Process Industries STEP Consortium (PISTEP) committee and has served on the boards of CIMsteel and the United Kingdom’s chapter of the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI). She is frequently a guest speaker at industry events sponsored by these and other organizations.

I’ve been involved in some fantastic projects over the years. They tend to be bleeding edge technologies, which is a blast! Wired networks, wireless networks, servers, and everything in between are my modus operandi. My goals in life include solving problems with new technologies, and using technology to make a difference in the lives of those around me.

Specialties: My specialties include engineering solutions, and translating between those who speak technology and those who need it. I love to build strong/passionate teams that can reach the moon and beyond. Come to us with your problems, and we will solve them.

Recent Projects: Industrial sensors (IIoT), non-ip based wireless communications, machine learning, AI, robotics, hybrid manufacturing, and changing the world bits at a time.

Putting the techy stuff aside for a bit, my other passion is developing leadership and making connections between amazing people. Taking advantage of my experiences from a broad range of fields, I have been able to leverage my time around some very different thinkers. I like to share those thinking styles to others over discussions and sessions while we develop ideas and solutions. I cannot think of anything that is more fun than that at work.

Slavek is the CTO for Predictive Maintenance solutions at SparkCognition where he is leveraging his 20+ years of experience in the area of power generation and utilities. Before joining SparkCognition he worked for 8 years at FPL and NextEra Energy Resources, where he was responsible for driving new technology and daily operations of NextEra’s remote monitoring and operations teams spanning all of the company's generation equipment (including combined-cycle, fossil, hydro, nuclear, wind, solar, and battery storage, over 120 sites, 40GW). Before that he worked for 12 years at GE Energy with the focus on predictive analytics, remote monitoring & diagnostics, and implementation of AI technologies to power generation and smart grid operations.