Amperion Management
Nachum Sadan, President and CEO
Nachum Sadan is responsible for the vision and strategic direction of the company, and the execution of its business operations. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in power engineering, computer networking and data communications.
At Amperion, he has turned around the company by developing a completely new communications platform based on innovative and patent protected technology, selling that concept to one of the largest utility companies in the US, and bringing it to commercialization. All on an extremely tight budget.
Prior to his position at Amperion, from 2003 to 2005 Nachum was Chief Operating Officer of Mintera Optical Networks, a pioneer in the development of 40Gbps optical transport products to large telecommunications carriers. Prior to Mintera, Nachum served as Executive Vice President of Technical Operations at Sitara Networks, delivering Quality of Service (QoS) products to large enterprise and service provider customers. During his period from 1998 to 2003 the company grew from a technology start-up into a high gross margin, revenue-producing business, serving major enterprise and telecommunications carriers worldwide.
Prior to Sitara Networks, Nachum was co-founder and Vice President Engineering of CommHome Systems and Bus-Tech Inc. (BTI) two networking startups that successfully sold. As a founding member of Bus-Tech, Nachum helped grow the company from 6 to 35 employees and increase product revenue from $1M to over $25M in 5 years until it was sold to Network Systems Corp in 1993. He delivered the first SNA to IP gateway to market and helped establishing strategic partnerships with IBM, Novell and Microsoft.
Nachum holds a number of patents in powerline communications and is a frequent speaker at IEEE, smart grid and clean energy conferences. He is a member of the MIT Enterprise Forum, MassNetComms, American Technion Society, Northeastern University Alumni Association and the IEEE Power Engineering Society, Communications Society and Computer Society.
He received a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston Massachusetts and a Bachelor of Science cum laude in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.
Darrell Furlong, Vice President Engineering
Darrell Furlong has over 20 years of engineering management experience in telecommunications and data networking industries. Darrell is co-founder of ElectricRoute, a power engineering startup that was awarded a GE Ecomagination Innovation Award for its work in electric utility substation networking. Prior to forming ElectricRoute and joining Amperion Darrell was the President, CTO and co-founder of Sagamore Systems from 2003 to 2009 where he oversaw all product development activities and business development of an automated copper cross connect switch for the telecom carrier market.
Prior to Sagamore, Darrell was vice president of research and development and chief technology officer for VINA Technologies from 2001 to 2003, providing networking infrastructure equipment to leading telecommunications service suppliers. From 1997 to 2001 he was at Metrobility Optical Systems as senior vice president of research and development and chief technology officer where he led the initiative for the Ethernet optical access products. Prior to that Darrell was at Bay Networks/Wellfleet where he served as director of router platform development incorporating and integrating the networking technology of many companies into various system solutions for the emerging internet industry.
Darrell holds several patents and participates in various standard bodies and multiple technology forums. He received his Bachelor of Science summa cum laude in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston Massachusetts.
Andres Carvallo, Senior Advisor Smart Grid and Utility Industry
Andres is Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Proximetry, a leading global wireless networking and performance management software provider for the energy, public safety, telecommunications, and transportation industries.
Andres has global responsibilities for the company strategy, marketing, products, business development, partnerships, commercialization, consulting and solutions. Outside of Proximetry, Andres is a board member of the UTC Smart Networks Council and an energy and technology advisor to The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Kansas, and The University of California, Los Angeles.
Andres has more than 25 years of experience in the energy, telecommunications, computer, and software industries. Having held executive management positions since 1992, he has been responsible for the successful development and commercialization of over 40 products, in companies ranging from start-ups to market leaders.
Andres was for seven years the chief information officer at Austin Energy, where he was responsible for technology vision, planning, development and operations. While at Austin Energy, Andres defined and started promoting the term Smart Grid. He was the chief architect of the first Smart Grid system that fully deployed in the U.S. known as the Pecan Street Project. Andres quickly became a premier Smart Grid industry thought leader, and led a comprehensive and well known technology transformation company-wide.
As the chief architect of the first successfully deployed smart grid in the US, he has a unique prospective on the strategies, business cases, project management focus, architectures, best practices, technologies, and products that work.
His successes have been recognized with 22 industry awards, including 2005 IT Executive of the Year by AITP; 2006 Premier 100 IT Leader and Best in Class of Premier 100 by Computerworld; 2006 CIO 100 Award by CIO Magazine; 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 InformationWeek 500; 2008, 2009 Top 12 Green IT Company by Computerworld; 2009 Computerworld Honors Laureate, Finalist, and 21st Century Achievement Award; 2009 CIO Hall of Fame Finalist by CIO Magazine; 2009 CIO of the Year by Energy Central; and 2009, 2010 UtiliQ #2 Company by Intelligent Utility Magazine and IDC.
Andres has made many industry-wide contributions: he was a contributor to the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act Title XIII Smart Grid: Sections 1301-1309; he served as a key advisor and contributor to NIST and EPRI in the creation of the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards; and he has advised the DOE, FCC, EPA, and NERC in their Smart Grid policy initiatives.
Andres is also the co-author of three books: The Advanced Smart Grid, Information Technology Leadership, and CTO Best Practices.
Andres is a requested speaker on Smart Grid, CleanTech, Green IT, SOA, Wireless, and Running IT as a Business, having delivered over 200 public speeches.
Prior to Proximetry and Austin Energy, Andres was CEO, EVP, and VP at five software and telecommunications start-ups, President & General Manager at Philips Consumer Communications, General Manager at Digital Equipment Corporation, General Manager at Borland, and Product Manager at SCO. Andres started his career as a Product Manager for Windows at Microsoft in Redmond, WA.
Andres received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas with a concentration in Robotics and Control Systems. Andres has also completed executive management programs at the University of Idaho, Stanford University, and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Bic Stevens, Senior Financial Advisor Fundraising and Strategic Investments
Bic Stevens has more than 30 years of investment banking, venture capital, and business development experience, primarily with early-stage, high technology companies. For the past eight years, he has worked exclusively in the renewable energy and clean technology sector as a venture capitalist, investment banker, and business development executive. Over his career, Bic has served as a director of 28 high-technology companies and raised hundreds of millions in equity capital for his clients and portfolio companies.
Most recently, Bic was Senior Vice President at Premium Power Corporation, a leading manufacturer of grid-scale flow batteries. At Premium Power, Bic led the firm's sales and marketing activities, raised capital, worked with strategic partners, and developed relationships with a number of the nation's leading utility customers.
Bic was previously a Managing Partner at Ardour Capital Investments, a research and investment banking firm focused exclusively on clean and renewable technologies. At Ardour, Bic led the firm's participation as an underwriter in the successful Metabolix $50 million IPO and raised over $40 million in venture capital for a number of clean technology companies.
Prior to joining Ardour, Bic was a Managing Director at Zero Stage Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm. At Zero Stage, Bic led the firm's clean technology practice, and worked with a number of clean technology companies.
Bic was previously the founder and CEO of Eastech, an early-stage venture capital firm; and a Vice President at Paine Webber, where he worked in its investment banking and venture capital operations.
Bic received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech University, and a Master in Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School.
Bruce Renz, Senior Advisor Utility Markets and Strategic Alliances
Bruce Renz is providing guidance regarding Smart Grid concepts, opportunities and issues. He is also providing engineering advice on a variety of communications design topics. He has over 40 years experience working in the electric utility industry in a variety of leadership positions.
In September 2000, Bruce retired from American Electric Power Company, following a 36-year career, and formed Renz Consulting, LLC. Prior to retirement, Renz was AEP vice president - Energy Delivery Support. He was responsible for electrical research, electrical laboratories, telecommunications, technology delivery, information technology, application development, measurements and customer support systems.
Since retirement from AEP, he has been involved in a number of technology-related programs. As principal consultant to the DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory, he has helped develop its Modern Grid Strategy, providing a detailed definition of many Smart Grid concepts enacted into law.
Bruce began his career with the AEP Service Corporation as an assistant engineer in 1963. He held a variety of technical and managerial positions (including assistant to the CEO) over the next several decades, becoming chief electrical engineer in 1990 and vice president in 1992.
He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, respectively. He also earned 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.
He has been a vice president of the U. S. National Committee of CIGRE, the international conference of large, high-voltage electric systems, headquartered in Paris. He was also 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.
A registered professional engineer in New York and Ohio, Renz has been recognized as the Columbus Technical Council's Person of the Year - 1992. He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and a Life Fellow of IEEE.
Gene Zimon, Senior Advisor Utility Markets and Business Development
Gene Zimon retired from NSTAR in July 2009 after a career of 35 years in information technology. He was SVP and CIO of NSTAR since 2001. Prior to NSTAR Gene was VP of IT at Boston Gas, VP of business development at Oracle, and held senior IT positions at Wang Laboratories, and the US Department of Labor.
He established a national reputation for his innovative uses of technology and IT management practices receiving several prestigious awards for his contributions including the ULTRA award from Public Utilities Fortnightly and the McGraw-Hill award for IT excellence. He is a frequent contributor to IT publications, advisory board member of IT associations and speaker and panelist at industry conferences.
Gene is also a limited partner in several private equity funds and an angel investor focusing on early stage companies engaged in the fields of IT, green technology, and medical technology.
He is the founder and president of Edge Advisors, a consultancy that assists startup companies and entrepreneurs market and introduce their products.
Gene has a BA in Economics from Tufts University and an MA in Economics from Boston University.
Paul Feldman, Senior Advisor Transmission Utility Markets and Smart Grid
Paul J. Feldman is Chairman of the Midwest ISO (Independent Transmission System Operator), which manages energy in 15 Midwestern states and a portion of Canada. He is also Chairman of TrendIQ, a business intelligence firm that utilizes its proprietary software to provide information from the text available via the Internet, as well as CEO of China Energy Partners, a special purpose acquisition corporation focused on energy in China.
He has been appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Energy to the National Coal Council. Paul also sits on several advisory boards of firms involved in energy and technology and is an active angel investor and entrepreneur in the Northern Virginia technology community.
Paul Feldman began his career with AT&T, where he worked for 20 years in positions of increasing responsibility in marketing, sales, R&D and manufacturing, and finally, as Vice President of Consumer Products. After leaving AT&T, he served as CEO of two large energy companies, founded and sold three new ventures in the energy and technology sector, and assisted Novell in a business turnaround assignment as Vice President and General Manager.
His educational background includes a B.A. in mathematics and an M.A. in economics, with advanced work towards a Ph.D. in econometrics. Additionally, he taught at Cleveland State University as an Associate Professor.