David Shepheard is a partner at Structure and oversees the firm’s strategy practice.  He joined Structure from Accenture as a founding partner in 1998 and has delivered a wide range of services across Structure’s largest energy and utility clients.  David has over 20 years of experience working in global markets across the entire energy value chain including generation/production, trading, system and market operations, transmission, distribution, and retail.  David’s current areas of strategic focus include realizing value from Smart Grid investments, developing asset-centric trading businesses, enabling the integration of utility scale and distributed renewable resources, monetizing the optionality of demand response initiatives, and evolving the efficiency and transparency of wholesale energy markets.

David graduated from Duke University in 1991 with a BSE in Electrical Engineering and a program concentration in Economics.

Erich Gunther is the Chairman and Chief Technology Officer at EnerNex, an electric power research, engineering, and consulting firm, where he helps clients define their strategic direction in R&D, technology and product development. With over 25 years of experience, Erich’s expertise includes utilizing communications networks and technology to improve the efficiency, operating practices and security of the electric power system. Erich is the Chairman of the Utility Communication Architecture International Users Group, a member and Chairman Emeritus of the DoE Grid Wise Architecture Council, and serves on the IEEE Power and Energy Society Governing Board.

John J. Easton, Jr. joined the Edison Electric Institute on April 1, 1994, and serves as Vice President of International Programs. He oversees international member development and programs to benefit domestic members in international business.

From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Easton served in three Presidential appointed positions at the U.S. Department of Energy:

• Assistant Secretary for Domestic and International Energy Policy
• General Counsel
• Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Energy Emergencies

Before coming to Washington, Mr. Easton was in private law practice with the Burlington, Vermont, law firm of Miller, Eggleston and Rosenberg, Ltd., and also was Vice President of Syn Cronamics, Inc., a New Jersey-based international consulting firm.

Mr. Easton was twice elected Attorney General of Vermont and served in that position from 1981 to 1985. In 1984 he was the Republican nominee for Governor.

Prior to his election as Attorney General, Mr. Easton held positions as Director of the Division of Rate Setting for the Agency of Human Services and Assistant Attorney General and Chief of Consumer Protection. He also was in private law practice in Stowe and Montpelier, Vermont.

He attended the University of Colorado (B.S., Accounting), and Georgetown University Law Center (J.D). Mr. Easton served in the U.S. Air Force, resigning with the rank of Captain.

Mr. Easton and his wife Donna currently reside in Timonium, Maryland.

John Grosh is a Deputy Associate Director in the Computation Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), where he oversees the development of new programs in advanced computing for national and economic security. His focus is developing innovative solutions for government and industrial clients using high performance computing, modeling and simulation, and data analytics. Current program areas include the electric grid, carbon capture, building energy efficiency, oil and gas, and cyber security.

Previous assignments at LLNL included serving as the department head for software development / computational science and as the Director for the Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC). Prior to joining LLNL, Mr. Grosh worked in the Department of Defense for twenty year in various roles in Defense Science and Technology. During this time, he initiated and oversaw R&D programs in high performance computing, cyber security, and applications software development. He led the 2003-2004 White House High End Computing Revitalization Task Force, chaired the High-End Computing Interagency Working Group under the OSTP Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program, and developed export control policy for computers and microprocessors.

Linda Jackman is the Group Vice President of Industry Strategy for the Utilities Global Business Unit at Oracle.

An Australian, Linda studied Accounting and Information Systems at Curtin University in Perth, Australia and is undertaking MBA studies at University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia.  She has over 20 years experience in information systems, specializing in capital intensive industries.  After 10 years working in Europe with one of the big six accounting firms, a two year break working for the United Nations in Central America and two years back in Australia leading systems implementations at some of the major mining and utilities companies, she moved to North America in 2001.  In 2005 she joined SPL WorldGroup as Vice President of Product Management for Customer Care & Billing.  She was promoted at the acquisition of SPL by Oracle and today she directs a team of product managers in the mission critical applications for utilities for Oracle.

If you have been active in the North American utility IT/automation markets over the last two decades, chances are that you have subscribed to a publication, read a research report, or attended an industry event that was developed, launched, or managed by Mike Smith. Mike is a 23-year veteran of the utility ‘smart grid’/IT/automation, information services and media business, and is currently Vice President, Utility Analytics Institute where he has been responsible for product development, business development, and growth of the division. Prior to his assignment at The Institute, Mike was Vice President of Sierra Energy Group, the research and analysis division of Energy Central. Previously he has led initiatives that he been at the forefront of utility technology developments, including founding the industry’s first publication and leading numerous research and forum initiatives. Mike is a graduate of San Jose State University (BA, Economics) and is a veteran of the US Army (Captain, Infantry).

Nick Akins is president and chief executive officer of American Electric Power (AEP) and a member of AEP’s board of directors. Akins began his 30-year tenure with the company in 1982 as an electrical engineer at Central and South West Corp., which merged with AEP in 2000. Prior to being elected president of AEP in December 2010, he served as executive vice president of Generation from 2006-2010, responsible for all of AEP’s approximately 38,000 megawatts of generation resources. Akins has also served as president and chief operating officer for Southwestern Electric Power Company, as vice president of Energy Marketing Services, and as vice president of Industry Restructuring for AEP. He is chairman of the Board of the Electric Power Research Institute, and a member of the boards of the National Association of Manufacturers, the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, The Columbus Partnership, the Greater Columbus Arts Council and the Wexner Center for the Arts. He also serves on several AEP subsidiary boards. A Louisiana native, Akins holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Louisiana Tech University.

Appointed by Governor Gregoire in March 2005, re-appointed in January, 2011 and confirmed unanimously by the State Senate. Commissioner Jones is currently President of NARUC, and serves as chair of its Board of Directors and its Executive Committee. He previously served on the Board of NRRI (National Regulatory Research Institute) and its chair, and co-chaired the Washington Action Program. Commissioner Jones is a member of the International Relations and Telecommunications Committees of NARUC.  Prior to his commission appointment, he served as managing director of Cutter & Buck (Europe), BV in Amsterdam, the Netherlands for five years.

From 1983 – 1988 he served as senior legislative assistant to Senator Daniel J. Evans, the former U.S. Senator from Washington State, and staffed him on energy policy issues before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as well as international trade policy. He was responsible for a broad range of energy issues, including hydroelectric re-licensing, nuclear waste management, energy conservation and renewables, and the Bonneville Power Administration.

Jones is a native of Spokane, Washington. He graduated from Harvard College with honors with a degree in East Asian Studies in 1977.

Philip Mezey was appointed president and chief executive officer and named to Itron’s board of directors on January 1, 2013. Mezey has served the company in several capacities during his career at Itron, most recently as chief operating officer for Itron’s global Energy segment, with responsibility for the operations of Itron’s electricity and gas businesses around the world. He also previously served as senior vice president and chief operating officer – Itron North America, group vice president and general manager, as well as senior vice president for Software Solutions. Upon Itron’s acquisition of Silicon Energy in 2003, Mezey joined the company as managing director of Software Development for Itron’s Energy Management Solutions group.

Prior to joining Silicon Energy in 2000 as vice president, Software Development, Mezey was a founding member and served 12 years with Indus, a provider of integrated asset and customer management software. Mezey earned his BA degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley.

RICHARD J. RUDDEN is the Managing Partner of Target Rock Advisors, a firm specializing in utility industry sustainability analytics, including assessment, benchmarking, stock market indexing and thought leadership.

Richard has over 35 years of experience in the utility, financial and energy industries ranging from his role as a manager within the rates and regulatory department at Consolidated Edison to senior executive roles at two multi-billion dollar global consulting and engineering firms. Rudden’s utility sector leadership responsibilities, included directing the strategy and climate change services and broader sustainability initiatives. He was founder and CEO of R.J. Rudden Associates, a regulatory, strategy and financial consulting firm that was acquired in 2005 by Black & Veatch, after 23 years of continuous operations. Richard has served as an expert technical and policy witness on behalf of utility companies and other industry stakeholders before the FERC, state regulatory commissions, Canadian Provincial regulatory authorities, and U.S. Bankruptcy and civil courts. He is also an author and frequent speaker on natural gas and electric economic, financial and policy issues. Richard has served on the Boards of Directors at the North American Energy Standards Board, the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Suffolk County, N.Y. and a start-up retail energy marketing firm.

Rodger E. Smith joined Oracle Corporation in 2011 as Senior Vice President and General Manager for Oracle’s Utilities Global Business Unit.  He is responsible for leading a worldwide team in the sales, services, product development, R&D, industry strategy and marketing for mission-critical applications designed specifically for the utilities industry.

Prior to joining Oracle, Smith was President of the Enterprise Management Solutions division of Black & Veatch, which included B&V Management Consulting and the infraManagement Group, an Operations and Management provider for utility assets. In this position, he was responsible for developing the strategy, services and overseeing the daily execution of both business units. In addition to leading these businesses, Smith served as a member of the Executive Committee of Black & Veatch.

Smith was also President of Black & Veatch’s Global Marketing & Communications division, which focuses on media relations, reputation management, internal and external communications, and company-wide brand and marketing efforts. He also oversaw the company’s Government Affairs unit, which was proactively involved in legislation and policies affecting the infrastructure industry.

Prior to taking the position with Black & Veatch, Smith served as a Director for PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world’s largest management consulting and professional services firm. As a Director, Smith was responsible for the creation, marketing and delivery of management consulting products and services to the utilities industry.

Prior to his experience with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Smith was employed in various capacities by Southern Company, Inc., one of the nation’s largest electric utility companies.