For the last two years, Will has served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Savant Systems, Inc. – a global leader in smart home, intelligent lighting and energy solutions for consumers, businesses, and more. He leads the prototyping and R&D with new technologies, protocols, and platforms to develop and enhance the award-winning software and solution architecture for the Savant Power System. A pioneer in the field of energy automation, Will owns three patents in flexible load management, intelligent circuit breakers and a smart light switch/thermostat for energy management and control and was part of the founding cohort and the former CTO of Racepoint Energy, the start-up that created the power management technology used in the Savant Power System. Racepoint was launched in 2016 and was acquired by Savant in 2021. In total, Will has more than 17 years of experience researching, developing, and bringing emergent computer science techniques and theories to domains that have traditionally struggled to adopt them. This includes time spent in academia while earning his Ph.D. in computer science with a specialization in Digital Signal Processing (DSP), energy management and high-performance computing from Oregon State University. While there, Will worked for four years to expand his expertise to new applications in vehicle autonomy, while continuing his work with the U.S. Navy as a principal investigator. In the context of vehicle autonomy, he developed a model for automatic, power aware, task scheduling within these vehicles. Will was an early adopter of the Swift programming language, and within a month of the release of its source code as open source, he had ported it to run on, and compile for, ARM systems running Linux. Prior to that, Will was funded for six years by the U.S. Navy to develop novel tools and techniques that allow the use of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and other accelerators in high-performance acoustic and Digital Signals Processing (DSP) applications. The result was Distributed OpenCL, a platform for end users to scale their applications over many systems comprised of several GPUs.

Jeff Gleeson, Chief Product Officer, Renew Home

Currently Head of strategy at SWTCH, in charge of Proptech partnership, demand response programs, utility partnerships and new revenue streams - Previously worked at BCG for 6 years covering the clean energy and utility sector - Past experience as engineer at EDF in charge of new grid connections

Barry has been in the Energy & Utility space for more than 15-years, having worked for Itron, Landis&Gyr and an Australian utility called Ausgrid (formerly Energy Australia) before joining the SmartThings team a little under 2-years ago. He leads a team of Product Management and Business Development professionals, who are responsible for the SmartThings Energy application in the U.S. market. The SmartThings Services team is focused on consumer engagement, home energy management and net zero homes via both the Utility and Builder channels.

Tray Leslie serves as the Electric Transportation Manager for Georgia Power Company. In this role, Tray leads the team responsible for Georgia Power’s electric transportation strategy and execution to deploy infrastructure across Georgia. This includes a portfolio of customer offerings that focus on reducing obstacles for Georgia Power customers ready to integrate electric transportation technologies into their daily lives and business operations. In the community, Tray serves on the Because One Matters Board of Directors. He is a graduate of Leadership Rockdale, Leadership Toombs-Montgomery, Leadership Barrow, Leadership Gwinnett, Glance Gwinnet Leadership Program, the Georgia Academy for Economic Development, and McKinsey Leadership Academy. A native of Stone Mountain, GA, Tray received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Alabama A&M University, a Master of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech, as well as his MBA from Mercer University. Tray currently resides in Lawrenceville, GA.

Mr. Oberholzer’s primary responsibility at Resideo is to manage the utility and business aspects of the Resideo Grid Services business and the two-dozen utility load management programs it supports. As one of the platform’s inventers, he has been instrumental in driving it from inception in 2010 to an industry leading DERMS for residential energy products by focusing on data, analytics, and automated intelligence. Mr. Oberholzer is responsible for all aspects of service delivery to our utility customers and the profit and loss of the business overall. Before founding this business in 2010, Mr. Oberholzer spent the previous decade + in technical and business management in the telecommunications industry – primarily at Verizon Wireless. Prior to that, Mr. Oberholzer was a Naval Flight Officer in the U.S. Navy making several overseas deployments to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa flying the S-3B Viking off the USS America and deploying airborne national security sensors worldwide for the National Security Agency. Mr. Oberholzer was also honored to be a White House Social Aide.

Chris Rauscher, JD, is the Head of Grid Services & Virtual Power Plants at Sunrun. He leads the business unit responsible for originating and operating distributed power plant programs and contracts across the country. He and his team aggregate tens of thousands of customers and hundreds of Megawatts to provide peak reduction, capacity, and demand response, among other utility services. Chris joined Sunrun in 2015 and was previously Senior Director of Market Development & Policy, where he led new business policy and regulatory work with a focus on market entry and development of Sunrun’s EV and electrification business as well as storage, virtual power plants, and wholesale markets. Prior to joining Sunrun, Chris was an energy policy advisor in the US Senate where he worked on a diverse issue set, with a particular focus on DERs. Chris has been on various political campaigns and involved in a number of startup businesses. Chris serves on various boards, including the Efficiency Maine Trust, and was the founding board president of the Puerto Rico Solar and Energy Storage Association.

Paul has nearly 20 years of experience in the technology and utility sectors. Since joining Powerley as its first employee in 2015, Paul has been pivotal in the company's growth, establishing himself as a subject matter expert in the energy space. He has successfully launched multiple products that drive energy efficiency and consumer engagement and has been a thought leader in the industry, contributing to SEPA, Energy STAR, and the Institute for Electric Innovation (IEI). He also serves on the board of the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC). Before Powerley, he led marketing intelligence at Organic, Inc., where he developed advanced analytics solutions and drove performance across multiple verticals, including hospitality, CPG, and automotive. He has a strong track record of building strategic partnerships with utility companies and operationalizing businesses for growth. Paul holds both a BA in Economics and an MBA in Strategy and Marketing from the University of Michigan.

Vera has been leading partnerships for a decade in the technology industry with companies like Lyft and Facebook. Most recently, she led business development and operations for Andy Rubin at Simple Things. After her experience building smart home devices at Simple Things, she joined Leap to focus on climate and energy. Vera currently leads all partnership efforts for Leap in their Smart Buildings and Devices vertical.

Beth Crouchet, Director Energy Markets & Resource Planning, Budderfly, Inc.

Shri Joshi is currently vice president of the Industrial and Infrastructure segment at Infineon Technologies. Shri is responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution. Previously, he was senior director of marketing for the division. Shri has over two decades of product marketing and management experience in Energy, Power, and Wireless communications. In his free time, he enjoys spending time motorcycling. He is trained as an Engineer with management education

Lindsey joined Austin Energy in 2013 and is currently the Demand Response and Technical Services Manager. She leads a team of demand response professionals and engineers to meet Austin Energy's Resource Generation Goal of 270 MW in demand response by 2035. She oversees commercial and residential demand response programs and the Resiliency as a Service offering. Over the years she has also overseen and helped deploy Austin Energy’s suite of customer facing EV programs including Power Partners EV, a managed charging program for residential and City of Austin fleet charging stations, EV360, a residential subscription rate for off-peak EV charging, and a fast-growing growing public charging network now at over 1,500 ports. Prior to joining Austin Energy, Lindsey was an Associate Environmental Planner at the City of Austin's Watershed Protection Department and a teacher based in Shanghai, China. Lindsey is an early EV adopter, white-paper author, and a frequently requested industry speaker.

Daniel Richmond is the Senior Manager of EV and Solar Product Development for Green Mountain Energy. He is passionate (nay, evangelical!) about helping customers get solar panels on their roofs and EVs in their driveways, and has been working with EVs, renewables, and solar since 2011 (which is when he drove his first electric car). Originally from the Washington, DC area, he moved to Houston in 2004 to go to Rice, where he initially got into renewable energy and energy efficiency by writing a business plan for an Energy Services Company. Since then, he’s gotten his MBA from Tulane University (which he paid for partially by selling LED light bulbs) and now lives in Katy with his wife and two daughters (ages 8 and 6).

Raiford Smith is the principal consultant for Avalon Energy Consulting, advising companies on data center infrastructure, analytics, energy efficiency, and transmission/distribution. Raiford began his career as a unionized call center clerk at Savannah Electric and Power Company and has spent over three decades since then in the electric, natural gas, and high-tech industries. Prior to his role at AES, Raiford led Google’s global energy, water and wastewater, economic and community development, and supply planning teams, managing over $1.2Bn OpEx and $15Bn CapEx budgets to help Google transition from 100% renewable energy to 24x7 carbon free energy. Additionally, he led the product and UX functions at Tapestry, Google X’s moonshot for the electric grid. Prior to his work at Google, Raiford held a wide variety of roles at other energy companies, including AES, CPS Energy, Duke Energy, Entergy, and the Southern Company. He has led initiatives that contributed hundreds of millions of dollars of recurring EBITDA, grew customer engagement, and improved service reliability through new customer products and services, analytics, smart grid, and distributed energy resources. His career has spanned a very diverse set of roles in legal, mergers and acquisitions, energy trading, transmission & distribution, product management, regulatory, information technology, and customer support. Raiford graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, earned an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia, earned a JD from the Charlotte School of Law, and received a business analytics certificate from Harvard University’s Business Analytics Program. Raiford is a licensed attorney (North Carolina), holds multiple patents for distributed computing at the grid edge, and has published numerous papers on the future of the electric industry, energy regulatory economics, and energy-related technology.

Ashton joined Parks Associates with over 15 years experience in sales, business development, account management and sponsorship sales within the hotel and sports industries. She is now part of the business development team managing event sponsorships and custom marketing services. Ashton graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a BA in Business Administration and concentration in Marketing. After working for Four Seasons Resorts for nearly 10 years, Ashton spent the next seven years working with PGA TOUR pro golfers and their corporate sponsors/partners before joining Parks Associates.

INDUSTRY EXPERTISE: Consumer electronics, mobility services and devices, connected health and wellness. Kristen Hanich heads Parks Associates' consumer electronics and mobility research, with expertise in other verticals including connected cars, mobile networking, healthcare, wellness, and independent living. She leads a mix of custom and syndicated research projects throughout the year, with a focus on major players and emerging trends. Kristen specializes in bridging the gap between data-driven and narrative approaches to understanding the consumer markets via a mix of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Kristen has dual master's degrees in applied anthropology and public health from the Universities of North Texas in Denton and Fort Worth. She earned her BSc in health at the University of Texas at San Antonio and has a graduate certificate in Geographic Information Systems.

Daniel is responsible for smart home research involving market trend analysis, competitor and positioning assessments, technology evaluations, and forecasts of relevant industry metrics. Daniel is a market research industry veteran with 13 years of experience across multiple research types such as shopper insights, brand equity and brand health tracking, and customer experience. Daniel has also conducted research across multiple sectors such as consumer packaged goods, consumer electronics, specialty retail, and transportation, travel, and hospitality. Daniel has a BA in Sociology from the University of Texas at Arlington, with specializations in Research and Evaluation, Diversity, and Family and Gender Studies.

INDUSTRY EXPERTISE: Connected Health, Connected Home Technologies and Services, Connected Entertainment Products and Services. Jennifer manages the research department and Parks Associates' process for producing high-quality, relevant, and meaningful research. Jennifer also leads and advises on syndicated and custom research projects across all connected consumer verticals and guides questionnaire development for Parks Associates’ extensive consumer analytics survey program. Jennifer is a certified focus group moderator, with training from the Burke Institute. Jennifer earned her PhD in religion, politics, and society and an MA in church-state studies from Baylor University. She earned her BA in politics from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

Jason Paris joined Parks Associates as an analyst studying international telephone, cable, and satellite providers and is now a member of the business development team. Jason graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BA in psychology and government. After working for the Texas House of Representatives, Jason spent the previous seven years in New York City working with portable and enterprise healthcare technologies.

Parks Associates mission is to help companies navigate the changing consumer technology landscapes through data-driven market insights, extensive consumer and industry intelligence, and executive conferences. With over two decades of dedication to the company, Elizabeth Parks, President and Chief Marketing Officer, has been instrumental in shaping its growth and success, along with the continued focus of delivering timely and quality industry and consumer insights on the broadband, entertainment, connected home and SMB industries. Elizabeth's commitment to Parks Associates' overarching mission is unwavering. Parks Associates provides clients with the most comprehensive consumer and industry research and analysis to empower businesses to make informed decisions in an ever-evolving landscape. Elizabeth's journey with Parks Associates began after graduating with a BA in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Plano Texas with her husband and three children.