Ralph Linsalata – Corporate Strategy

Ralph is currently the CEO of Weston Corporate Development, Inc., a strategic and management consulting company that has performed a wide range of consulting projects.

He was formerly, the Senior VP of Investments and Corporate Planning for Novell, Inc. a billion dollar public software company. Before Novell, he was the Executive Vice President responsible for Cambridge Technology Capital Fund I L. P. and NEWCO Investments.

Ralph’s prior experience includes operating positions as: Sr. VP of Hill, Holliday; Managing Director of Hill, Holliday Interactive Group; CEO of three companies - Lexidata Corporation, Silc Technologies, Inc., and Envoy Systems Corporation; CFO of Applicon Incorporated, and sales and finance positions with IBM. He was also a General Partner of Weiss, Peck and Greer Venture Partners, L.P.; VP of General Electric's venture capital subsidiary; and an investment banker with Laird, Inc.

Ralph has a BSEE from Case Institute of Technology, an MBA from Harvard University, and did post-graduate work at New York University

Bruce Renz – Smart Grid and Powerline Communications Strategy

Bruce Renz is president of Renz Consulting LLC and a senior technical advisor to Amperion in smart grid applications and electrical utility relations. Bruce had a long and very successful career at American Electric Power Company (AEP) spanning 36 years. He held several important positions in AEP, including assistant to the CEO and Vice President of Energy Delivery Support at AEP. 

As principal consultant to the DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, Renz has helped develop its Modern Grid Strategy, providing a detailed definition of many Smart Grid concepts enacted into law in 2007. Renz has also played a key role in the development of Broadband over Powerline (BPL) communications systems.

Renz holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, respectively, a master’s degree in industrial management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Sloan Fellow, and completed the General Electric Power Systems Engineering Course and the AEP System Management Development Program at the University of Michigan.

Renz has been a vice president of the U. S. National Committee of CIGRE, Chairman of the Power Engineering Society’s Industry Advisory Council. He has served on the Ohio State University Electrical Engineering Department Advisory Council, the EPRI Research Advisory Committee and he chaired the EPRI Power Delivery Group Council.  He was founder and chairman of the AEIC Committee on Electric System Reliability, as well as Executive Committee Chairman of the Industry-wide Power Delivery Reliability Initiative.