Robert Schulte
An executive management consultant with very diverse skills and experience in energy industry organizational management, corporate strategy, project management, energy supply resource planning, customer energy conservation/demand response program development, marketing and sales, energy storage, rate regulatory affairs, regulatory permitting for large energy facilities, electric distribution engineering, construction, and customer service.
Vibhu Sharma
Dr. Vibhu Sharma has joined as Chief Technology Officer of L&T Semiconductor Technologies focusing on Digitalization, Decarbonatization and Cybersecurity Applications. Dr. Vibhu Sharma played a pivotal role as Scientist, Product Innovator and Business Leader at various international corporations (Philips, Siemens, NXP, imec, ST Microelectronics). Dr. Sharma’s technology evangelism efforts have been recognized as contributions made to EU-ENISA, EU Cyber Act, and International Investment Committee Member of FITR 2020 (World Bank Sponsored Innovation Infrastructure Fund). Dr. Sharma holds a Ph.D. from imec/KU Leuven, and MBA (MCR Downing College) from University of Cambridge UK.
Arushi Sharma Frank
Arushi Sharma Frank is a regulated and deregulated power & gas industry veteran. She engages in tactical policy, grid engineering & market design, growth strategy and comms advisory services for a wide swath of energy and technology companies. She also provides complex portfolio acquisition advice to private equity funds in the US and abroad. Ms. Sharma Frank advises student energy groups at Harvard, UT Austin, and sits on the Kay Bailey Hutchison Executive Council. She has led market entry, state/federal policy, and ISO/RTO programs to success at American Gas Ass’n, Electric Power Supply Ass’n, Exelon, and Tesla, including the launch of Tesla Electric and Tesla’s Texas battery business.
Samuel Siegel
Columbia University Law Doctorate in Law | 2008 The University of Texas at Austin Bachelors Degree in Liberal Arts | 2005.
Ramteen Sioshansi
Ramteen is a professor with Carnegie Mellon University and an adjunct professor with The Ohio State University. His research focuses on the techno-economics of decarbonizing energy systems. He works also in energy policy and electricity-market design, especially as they pertain to energy decarbonization. He is an IEEE Fellow and served three two-year terms on Electricity Advisory Committee, a federal advisory committee to the U.S. energy secretary, and chaired its Energy Storage (Technologies) Subcommittee.
Agee Springer
Agee Springer is Sr. Manager of Grid Interconnections at ERCOT and vice-chair of the NERC Large Load Task Force (LLTF). His department is responsible for the reliable integration of all generation and large load interconnection requests into the ERCOT system. Agee’s past experience includes providing engineering support for ERCOT’s real-time operations and market analysis teams, developing situational awareness displays for the ERCOT control room, and leading ERCOT’s Engineer Development Program. He also served as Manager of Market Operations for RWE Renewables Americas from 2020 to 2022. Agee holds a BS in Physics from Duke University and a MSEE from The University of Texas at Austin.
Dave Tuttle
Dr. Tuttle is a Lecturer and Research Associate in the Energy Institute at University of Texas at Austin. He is a former IBM and Sun Microsystems microprocessor designer and executive. His lifelong passion in the automotive space intersects with many years of experience in information technology and interest in the diffusion of innovation in the research areas of EV adoption, integration of EVs with the grid, alternative fuel and advanced powertrain vehicles, the associated market and technical factors that affect the electric grid and DERs, and renewable energy systems. He is presently the Chair of the Electric Utility Commission overseeing Austin Energy.
Jeremy Twitchell
Jeremy Twitchell is a senior energy analyst at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he leads PNNL’s work on energy storage policy and regulation funded by the Department of Energy – Office of Electricity. His research focuses on identifying the regulatory barriers that impede the deployment of energy storage technologies and best practices for reducing or eliminating those barriers, as well as providing technical assistance to states on energy storage-related topics. He also supports other efforts at the lab in areas related to grid planning and energy policy and regulation. Jeremy previously worked at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.
Andrew Waxman
Andrew Waxman is an applied microeconomist examining the relationship between environmental outcomes, urban policies and inequality. Much of his work consists in trying to think about how household location decisions of place of work and residence have implications for levels of emissions from home electricity usage as well as from commuting using personal vehicles. The link between these sectors has important implications for the design of cities and for understanding the full effects of policies targeting housing or transportation.
Michael Webber
Dr. Michael E. Webber is the Sid Richardson Chair in the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to his role as a faculty member, from August 2021 to September 2024, Webber served as CTO of Energy Impact Partners, a $5 billion venture fund focused on investments in cleantech and climate tech startups with the potential for deep decarbonization at speed and scale. Furthermore, from September 2018 to August 2021, Webber was based in Paris, France where he served as the Chief Science and Technology Officer at ENGIE, one of the world’s largest energy companies.
Frank Wolak
Frank A. Wolak is the Holbrook Working Professor of Commodity Price Studies in the Economics Department, Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) and Co-Director of the Natural Gas Initiative (NGI) at Stanford University. His research and teaching focuses on design, performance, and monitoring of retail and wholesale energy and environmental markets. From April 1998 to April 2011, he was Chair of the Market Surveillance Committee (MSC) of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO).
Tiffany Wu
Tiffany Wu is a Consultant at McAdams Energy Group. Previously, she served as a DOE Fellow and Advisor to Commissioner McAdams at the Public Utility Commission of Texas, shaping policies on distributed energy resources (DER) and grid resiliency and reliability. Most recently, she was a Sr. Project Manager at TEPRI, leading virtual power plant program development in low-income communities. With a decade of experience in carbon capture as a process engineer and business development manager, Tiffany brings a strong technical background to her work. Tiffany holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, a Master of Public Affairs, and an M.S. in Energy and Earth Resources from UT.
Madeline Yozwiak
Doctoral student in public affairs at Indiana University, with fields in policy analysis and economics. I am funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. My research studies how electricity markets are affected by and can adapt to climate change. Prior to graduate school, I worked in utility regulation and clean energy at Vote Solar, Sunrun, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Jay Zarnikau
Jay Zarnikau teaches graduate-level courses in applied statistics, research methods, and energy economics at The University of Texas. Formerly, Jay was the president of Frontier Associates LLC, a consulting firm, which was later acquired by The Gas Technology Institute. He also served as the Director of Electric Utility Regulation at the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Jay has authored or co-authored over 120 articles appearing in academic and trade journals.
Hao Zhu
Hao Zhu is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research focus is on developing algorithmic solutions for learning and optimization problems in future energy systems. Her current interests include machine learning for power system operations and resilience enhancements, and the design of energy management systems under cyber constraints. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the faculty advisor for four Best Student Papers awarded at the North American Power Symposium. She is currently an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems.
