Kevin Monte de Ramos

Senior Innovation Principal

Utilities & Resource, Accenture

PANEL LEADER

Kevin Monte de Ramos is an Innovation Senior Principal at Accenture Utilities.  He has over two-decades of experience developing new offerings and deploying new technologies across North America.  He has also developed a market transformational framework that has been leveraged in Quebec and Ontario when constructing and evaluating their $1B DSM/CDM portfolio. Most recently, Kevin Monte de Ramos has led utility leadership workshops on the future of the utility industry and how technology will impact business operations.  Kevin will leverage this experience to conduct an engaging discussion with our panelists around their vision of the Digital Utility of the Future with a particular focus on the customer experience.

Ian Roberts

Vice President, and Chief Information Officer

Ontario Power Generation

SPEAKER

Ian Roberts, Vice President, and Chief Information Officer at Ontario Power Generation. With a focus on business transformation and value growth, he has a passion for driving change through cultural transformation, innovation, and technology. Ian and his team are currently leading a digital transformation at Ontario Power Generation to reimagine operational processes and emerge as a digital utility positioned for the future, while at the same time strengthening cyber security capabilities across Information and Operating Technologies (IT/OT).

Ian has over 30 years of progressive experience in Information and Operating Technology specializing in the electricity industry. Previous to the Chief Information Officer role, he held various Director level positions accountable for Service Delivery, Project Delivery, and Cyber Security within IT. Prior to joining IT, Ian held various positions in Operating Computer Engineering functions that are responsible for the computer control and safety systems at our nuclear facilities.

Ian has a proven experience delivering results by empowering people and maximizing technological innovation.

Ontario Power Generation produces almost half of the electricity that Ontario homes, schools, hospitals and businesses rely on each day. The power we produce is 99 per cent free of greenhouse gas and smog causing emissions.

Atul Mahajan

President & CEO

Forum Vostro Energy Services Inc.

SPEAKER

In a career spanning more than two decades, Atul has used his entrepreneurial spirit and extensive operational experience to lead successfully in diverse industries in Canadian and International markets (Europe, Africa and Asia). He has managed strategic growth and change management initiatives in diverse corporate cultures, including of a start-up venture and a regulated utility.

Currently, Atul is leading Forum Vostro Energy Services Inc. (FVES) an on-site energy asset owner and manager, building a portfolio of Distributed Energy Resources at customers sites to provide them access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy. FVES’s parent company Forum Equity Partners, an alternative asset manager with $ 1.3 Billion assets under management is backing FVES with multi-million dollar financial commitment.

Previously Atul led an Ontario based electric Utility (Oshawa Power) as their CEO and played a pivotal role in developing and implementing their strategic plan. For more than a decade, he was responsible for appropriate resource allocation to grow the Utility’s business in energy distribution/generation, district energy and wholesale telecom services. He has extensive experience in successfully identifying, negotiating and structuring strategic partnerships and alliances.

Atul has keen interest, knowledge and experience, in developing, building, financing, constructing and commissioning distributed energy infrastructure projects. He is a frequent speaker at local and international conferences on emerging energy delivery solutions, such as distributed generation, district energy, solar plus storage and microGrids.

Atul qualified as a CA in India and as a CPA-CMA in Canada. He completed Directors Education Program at Rotman School of Management and is a qualified member (ICD.D) of the Institute of Corporate Directors, Canada.

Atul is also very involved in the community. He has served on the Board of Toronto East General Hospital and is active in fundraising efforts for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Johanne Duhaime

Vice President & CIO

Hydro-Québec

SPEAKER

Johanne Duhaime was appointed Vice President – Information and Communications Technologies at Hydro-Québec in September 2016.

In this role, she is responsible for all activities related to information and telecommunications systems, including system performance and stability, enterprise architecture, governance, maintenance, as well as project portfolio management.

Ms. Duhaime has more than 30 years of experience in information technology and operations in large organizations. She was previously Vice-President, IT Delivery Management for the Personal, Business, Marketing and Operations Group at National Bank, and has also held several senior positions at Cognicase and Hydro-Québec.

A seasoned leader known for creating dynamic work teams, Ms. Duhaime has driven several transformation initiatives designed to improve process efficiency and streamline work methods in order to add value to organizations. She has also headed several major technological projects, and has contributed to the restructuring of complex transactional systems.

Johanne Duhaime holds an Executive MBA from UQAM and a certificate in business administration from McGill University.

Ms. Duhaime’s interests reach into the community. She sits on the board of Special Olympics Québec, is a mentor in Hydro-Québec’s professional mentorship program geared to new immigrants, and has led the Hydro-Québec employees and pensioners’ Centraide campaign since 2017.

Andres Mand, P Eng

Manager Industry Policy & Compliance

Ontario Energy Board

SPEAKER

Andres Mand is a professional engineer who has worked in the power sector for over 40 years.  Over his career, he has had opportunities to work on many of its aspects.  A significant portion of his career was in the field, where he managed the installation and refurbishment of nuclear reactors, as well as construction and upgrading of transmission facilities.  Andres also was the Director of Engineering for over 8 years, managing a major utility’s engineering work force comprised of internal staff and engineering consultants.  His accountabilities included cyber security focused on achieving NERC CIP compliance.

Andres joined the Ontario Energy Board in 2012 as the Manager of policy, and has continued to work with stakeholders and industry to improve sector regulations.  One of Andres’ current policy consultations includes the collaborative development of the electricity sector wide Cyber Security Framework.

Daria Babaie, P. Eng.

CPA, Former Manager Audit & Performance Assessment

Ontario Energy Board

PANELIST

Daria Babaie is a senior manager with 25 years of leadership experience and expertise in regulatory affairs, audit and compliance, performance assessment, corporate governance, business planning & budgeting, utility management and engineering operations, and operational excellence consulting services with full P&L responsibilities.

Daria is a professional engineer (P. Eng.) with a CPA designation.

Prior to forming his own consulting services Ryezan Inc. in early 2017, which is based in Toronto, Daria worked for the last 10 years at the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) at the senior roles of Manager – Audit and Performance Assessment, Manager – Audit and Regulatory Accounting, and Manager – Rate Applications.

Prior to the OEB, Daria held senior management positions at the Professional Engineers Ontario, Nima Business Engineering, DTE/Probyn Energy Solutions (a subsidiary of Detroit Edison), Toronto Hydro ($2 billion in assets), and Scarborough Utilities ($400 million in assets). Daria’s areas of expertise include:

• Corporate Governance
• Strategic Planning & Budgeting, Business Plans & Scorecards
• Regulated Utility Industry including Utility Management and Engineering Operations
• OEB Regulatory, Rate Applications and OEB Hearings
• Energy Projects
• Audit & Regulatory Compliance
• Accounting & Finance
• Strategic Alliance & Partnerships
• Organizational Design and Teams Development and Leadership
• Project management and project development

 

Daria can be reached on daria.babaie@ryezan.com

Syed Mir

Vice President Corporate Services & CIO

London Hydro

SPEAKER

Syed Mir is the Vice-President Corporate Services & CIO at London Hydro. He is responsible for Customer Services, Meter Services,Corporate Communications and Information Technology. As an Executive Committee member he is responsible for “meter to cash” strategy and innovation to deliver customer value.

Syed Mir started his career at Ontario Hydro after graduating from the University of Western Ontario with a BSc (Honours) in Computer Science. He joined London Hydro in 2010 from Ontario Power Generation where he held various Vice-President positions. He served on the Sheridan College Board of Governors from 200-2015. He is the current Chairman of the Board of Directors for Green Button Alliance.

Neetika Sathe

Vice President, Advanced Planning

Alectra Inc.

SPEAKER

Neetika Sathe is Vice President, Advanced Planning at Alectra Inc.  Her role in the organization is to identify, analyze and develop leading-edge, green, innovative technologies and disruptive business models. Prior to joining Alectra, Neetika was the Chief Marketing Manager at Nissan Canada responsible for the launch of the all-electric Nissan LEAF in Canada.

She serves on the board of several industry associations such as SmartGrid Canada and Electric Mobility Canada, including serving as Chair on the Board of NSERC Energy Storage Technology (NEST) Network and Vice Chair of National Electricity Roundtable.

Neetika has a Masters degree in Physics from Panjab University, followed by an MBA from McMaster University.

Prashant Kumar

Founder & CEO

TechBlocks

SPEAKER

While helping the TechBlocks family grow from two people to more than 150; Prashant has been on the forefront of innovation, technology, strategy and the digital experience for over 19 years. He has helped CIOs, CTOs and CEOs in the US & Canada from Fortune 100 organizations; mid-market companies, SMBs and start-ups successfully realize some of their most ambitious technology initiatives through TechBlocks.

Prashant has built TechBlocks into one of the the very select companies in Canada that provide end to end services including devising digital strategy and user experiences powered by an eco-system of applications while helping them continue to innovate.

Prashant’s core focus is on his clients, their clients and stakeholders. Prashant has instituted a digital incubator and accelerator @TechBlocks that is building products for it’s prized clients in Energy Utilities, Retail and Logistics as we speak. He is also an investor who has taken up some ambitious digital products like Kozy; a challenger to Nest and Ecobee. Make sure when you meet him to talk about his passion for building new products.

Dr. Rick Huijbregts

Vice-President Strategy & Innovation

George Brown College

FEATURED KEYNOTE

As Vice-President, Strategy & Innovation, Dr. Rick Huijbregts oversees strategic planning and partnership development to ensure George Brown College remains well positioned to evolve and adapt for the digital and rapidly changing future. He strives to advance community and industry innovation while providing students with relevant and hands-on learning opportunities through applied research and entrepreneurship.

Rick is responsible for shaping George Brown’s vision for 2030 and developing the corresponding business strategy. He leads the Registrar’s Office, Marketing and Recruitment, Publishing, and the International Center. Rick is also responsible for Alumni Relations, Strategic Partnerships, Applied Research, Institutional Research, and Entrepreneurship.

Among his many career accomplishments so far, Rick spent 12 years with Cisco, most recently as Vice-President of Digital Transformation and Innovation at Cisco Canada. He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 for his transformational work in municipal innovation in Canada. Rick is still also a frequent speaker and thought leader in matters of innovation, digital transformation, and Smart Cities and serves on various Smart City advisory boards such as Toronto, Markham, and Vaughan. Rick is a faculty at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design Executive Education where he focuses on Smart Cities, Smart Buildings, and Digital Transformation.

Before moving into his current role, Rick was an Executive-in-Residence at George Brown and Chair of the Building Automation Program Advisory Committee. In honour of his many contributions to the college, in 2017 he was granted an honorary Honours Bachelor of Technology (Construction Management).

Ravi Seethapathy

Executive Chairman

P.Eng., MBA, FCAE, Biosirus Inc.

SPEAKER

After a 35+ year career in Canadian Electric Utilities and Power Systems area, Ravi Seethapathy is now an Advisor to the Utility/Industry. He sits on the Boards of Smart Grid Canada, India Smart Grid Forum, and Biosirus Inc. His current international technical activities include (1) Cigre Convener WGC6.28-Remote Islanded Grids; (2) IEA PVPS Taskforce 14 – Large Scale Solar Integration; (3) IEC TC 120 – Energy Storage; (4) IEC SysC-LVDC; and (5) India Smart Grid Forum- Chair WG5 (Renewables and Microgrids).

He is an invited speaker in the international Smart Grid area having co-authored over 50 technical papers. He is also mentors/Chairs a small technology company Biosirus Inc. (engaged in Energy Efficiency, Pico/Nano/Microgrid and other select leading technologies globally). Retired in 2014 after 31-year career in a leading Utility in Canada where he managed leading portfolios in R&D, Innovation, Smart Grid Projects, Energy Storage, Renewable Energy Integration, and Asset Management. His Past Corporate Directorships include Toronto Atmospheric Fund, Ryerson University, TV Ontario, Scarborough Hospital, Nevaro Capital Corp, Engineers without Borders (Chair), Canadian Club of Toronto (President), Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (President).

He has received numerous honors and citations including Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), Fellow Canadian Academy of Engineering (2012), Hydro One President’s Award (2008), Honor Roll of the Shastri Institute (2008), Honorary Fellow, Centennial College (2005), Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (1996) to name a few. His education includes a B. Tech (Hons) in Electrical Power from IIT, Kharagpur, India; an M. Eng. in Electrical

Stephen Koch

Director of Emerging Issues

Canadian Electricity Association

SPEAKER

Mr. Koch works with senior CEA members and industry experts to identify, predict, and prepare for technological innovations and potentially disruptive market changes across the energy sector. An accomplished MBA Executive, he provides an excellent success rate through the generation and delivery of program strategy, based on a “customer” focus. By offering a combination of management skills that incorporate the analysis and interpretation of plans, with the creation of measurable tactical programs, he is able to bring “thousand foot thinking to the feet on the street”. He also has a strong background in the North American environmental/climate change market, consumer product and building materials industries.

Carolyn Martin

President & CEO

Sponsor Energy

SPEAKER

With 2 decades of leadership and management experience in Alberta’s energy and technology sectors, Carolyn has had much success in bringing innovation to industries such as renewable energy technologies, emergency preparedness, and disaster notification. Prior to founding Sponsor Energy, she served as President of one of the largest member organizations for Renewable Energy professionals in North America and has previously excelled as VP Business Development in a number of energy technology companies. She is a graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (Executive Program in Social Entrepreneurship) and committed to advancing socially conscious and profitable businesses.

Vikram Singh

Manager Emerging Technology

ALECTRA UTILITIES

SPEAKER

Vikram Singh is currently the Manager of Emerging Technologies at Alectra Utilities.  Prior to joining Alectra, Vikram held a variety of Senior Management roles within the energy sector.  Most recently, he served as the Director of Business Development at a US technology fund where he led the development of the technical and commercial offering for a revolutionary new fuel injector design to be applied within the distributed generation sector.  He also served as a senior member of the management team assigned to finance and implement the commercialization strategy of one of the world’s first utility scale dish-Stirling CSP technologies.  Vikram’s current role focuses on identifying ground-breaking new energy solutions that can be piloted within Alectra’s territory and eventually transitioned into full-scale commercial offerings that benefit both the customer and the grid network.  Vikram holds a Bachelor of Engineering and an MBA from INSEAD in Singapore/France.

Douglas Thomas

Former Vice-President, Information & Technology Services & CIO, IESO

Thought Leader

SPEAKER

Mr. Thomas has almost 20 years of experience in the electricity industry and prior to his departure, held a variety of positions with the Independent Electricity System Operator, with his last position being that of Vice-President, Information & Technology Services & CIO.

During his tenure as CIO Mr. Thomas led a multi-year, multi-million dollar program to upgrade the IESO’s cyber and physical security capabilities to meet the more stringent North American Electric Reliability Corporation CIPv5 standards. Also during that time Mr. Thomas was on the Member Executive Committee of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Centre, which is part of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation as well as being a member of the inaugural advisory board for the Energy Sector Security Consortium Inc. He has presented at a FERC Technical Conference on proposed standards related to Supply Chain Risk Management.

Doug graduated from the Richard Ivey School of Business, is a Certified Public accountant and is a member of the CIO Association of Canada and the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Gaétan Houle P

Eng., MBA , Principal Security Architect – CIP

SNC-Lavalin Télécom Inc.

SPEAKER

As part of his 30 years of experience in all aspects of security, Gaétan has held several senior positions in the Canadian Federal Government, including Chief Engineer Communications Security with the Department of National Defense, Director Corporate Security with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Consul at the Canadian Embassy in Peru, following the 1996-97 terrorist crisis in Lima.

In the private sector, he has worked as Chief Security Officer for several multinational corporations such as Bombardier Aerospace, Airbus Group (Paris, France) and Bell Canada, where he personally wrote the security plan to protect the telecom infrastructure for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In 2016, after having worked for four years as the National Cybersecurity Practice Leader for Ernst & Young Canada, Gaétan joined SNC Lavalin as the Principal Security Architect where he and his team help clients in the energy industry protect their critical infrastructure.

Ontario and a member of the US National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), where he contributes to the writing of cyber security standards for critical infrastructure.

Renato Cunha

IT GRC

Nexen Energy

SPEAKER

Renato Cunha (MSc., GSec, GWAPT, CISSP) has over 20 years of experience in IT and the last 10 years dedicated to implement and manage IT Security processes in the energy sector for Oil and Gas and Utility companies. He is currently working at Nexen Energy managing Risk and Compliance processes for the IT GRC area. Renato also has over 3 years of experience as a part-time instructor for the IT Security program at SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology). He is specialized in Network Security, Governance, Risk Management, Compliance, Cloud Security, Process automation and ServiceNow GRC. His main goal is to find and automate manual processes and to make Information Security fun and exciting!

Namir Anani

President & CIO

Information & Communication Technology Council (ICTC)

SPEAKER

Namir Anani, President and CEO of the Information and Communications Technology Council (ictc-ctic.ca), is the chief strategist and driving force in bringing ICTC’s world-class centre of expertise and services to industry, education and government; enabling Canada’s advancement as a leader in innovation, productivity in the global economy. Before joining ICTC, Namir previously led Policy Development & Research at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

He has also held several executive leadership roles in both the private and public sectors including the Department of Canadian Heritage (Director General & CEO), CGI consulting, Nortel, and Novartis (Switzerland). Mr. Anani’s experience extends to; strategic policy development and implementation, learning and capacity building, business transformation, national/international strategic alliances, economic and market research, and technology innovation.

Namir holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Salford (UK) and holds Professional Engineer designation in Ontario (P. Eng.). He is also a board member of the Women in Communications and Technology.

Janet McColgan

Manager Solution Design & Delivery

Alberta Energy Regulator

SPEAKER

Janet McColgan began her career with the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) in September 2006. Janet has played many key roles in her 12 years with the AER, from developer to practice lead to manager and chief architect of OneStop. She is responsible for ensuring products and solutions are designed and implemented with a high level of quality and are in line with business expectations and outcomes. Janet was a key leader of the design and implementation of AER’s OneStop which won an ICMG Global Architectural Award of Excellence in September 2017.

Janet has a passion for solution delivery and is part of a transformational program at the AER to rebuild technology capabilities, including business intelligence, dynamic case management, spatial, and integration services to support an agile regulatory environment. Janet is committed to innovative technology solutions that will enable the AER to achieve its mandate and vision of being an excellent regulator.

Janet is an avid skier and enjoys spending her free time in the Rocky Mountains with her husband and two sons.

Michael H. Schwartz

Chief Executive Officer

New Wave Energy Capital Partners, LLC

PANELIST

Michael Schwartz is Chief Executive Officer of New Wave Energy Capital Partners, a firm providing strategic and investment advisory services to energy industry executive management.

He is presently a senior advisor to a major North American electric utility, several private equity investors/other industry stakeholders and serves on the board of advisors of McKinsey & Co.He focuses on energy sector growth initiatives including “Utility of the Future,” wholesale electric generation including renewables, transportation electrification and M&A.

Since 2011 he has acted as senior advisor to electric utilities and major energy industry companies as well as the Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Professor in Energy and the Environment and Visiting Research Scholar at Princeton University, where he focused on federal energy and environmental policy initiatives.

From 2006 to 2011 he served in several senior management positions at Duke Energy Corp, including Senior Vice President- Policy, Strategy and Strategic Initiatives. Dr. Schwartz came to Duke in 2006 with over two decades of experience in the US energy industry, including oil/gas, coal, power generation, electric transmission and alternative energy.

He earned his MS and PhD from Princeton University in Chemical Engineering. He also holds BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from what is now the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University

David Enns

Managing Director

Manitoba Hydro International

SPEAKER

David Enns is an award-winning Canadian entrepreneur and founder of two acquired companies and currently Managing Director of Manitoba Hydro International (MHI), Transmission & Distribution Solutions Division. He is responsible for the commercialization of an innovative product line that includes High Voltage Padmount Transformers “Substations-in-a-Box”, EnergyEdge IoT monitoring and VisualSpection – Augmented Reality for Asset Inspections/Maintenance, while also delivering best in class T&D Engineering design/modelling and High Voltage Testing Services through North America’s newest HV Test Facility.

Iuliana Calin

Co-Founder

Smart Grid Canada

SPEAKER

Iuliana Calin is an entrepreneurial leader passionate about how industries adopt technology and innovation. She has 20 years experience in the connected home, smart grid and global marketing & technology. As Head, Energy for Google Hardware Partnerships in Canada, Iuliana works with partners to develop customer-focused energy programs that leverage Google Hardware and Nest products. In 2010 Iuliana co-founded SmartGrid Canada, national industry association, overseeing international partnerships. She negotiated R&D projects between leading global utilities and Canadian universities. She was designated national Champion Speaker and Smart Grid expert by the Government of Canada (Europe, 2014/2016). Prior to this, she led digital media and marketing teams and products for large media and technology companies in Canada and Silicon Valley, USA. Iuliana started her career in advertising at BBDO, Europe. She speaks Romanian, English and French. She holds a M.S. in Communications from Ithaca College & Cornell University, USA. She currently lives in Toronto with her lovely girls and husband.

Ron Dizy

Managing Director

Advanced Energy Centre at the MaRS Discovery District

SPEAKER

Ron is the Managing Director of the Advanced Energy Centre at the MaRS Discovery District. The Advanced Energy Centre (AEC) collaborates with a diverse set of partners to foster the adoption of innovative energy technologies in Ontario and Canada, and leverage those successes and experiences into international markets. Under Ron’s leadership, the Centre is convening energy players in a unique way. At the AEC, Ron and his team provide a forum in which energy players can speak openly, think deeply, ask the hard questions and co-create innovative solutions to complex, system-wide challenges. In doing so, the Centre is helping energy systems become more cost effective, reliable and resilient to change and opportunity.

Ron was previously the President and CEO of ENBALA Power Networks, a smart grid technology company that offers grid optimization services to utilities and system operators to increase the overall efficiency and reliability of the power system.

Ron is viewed as a thought-leader on innovation opportunities that lie within the evolution of the modern power system. Based on his well-respected perspective on the smart grid, he was recruited to the executive committee of the board for the Ontario Energy Association and the Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid. He was also elected chair of the Corporate Partners Committee of the Ontario Smart Grid Forum.

Ron’s entire career has been focused on bringing new technologies to evolving markets, including spending nearly ten years as a venture capitalist (both as a direct investor and as a pension fund manager), co-founding a company specializing in artificial intelligence and gathering experience in major consulting firms. Ron holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto.