Grid Forward Board of Directors

The Grid Forward Board of Directors represents the diversity of stakeholders: utility, industry solution providers, professional services, education, government and non-profits.

Experience that guides our mission to promote and accelerate grid innovation

Our Board of Directors manages the business and financial affairs and strategic direction of the organization as outlined in the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws. Members of the Board have relevant leadership experience in the energy and utility industry, so their contributions will help support the organization’s mission of promoting and accelerating grid innovation. Board Members serve three-year terms.

Nominations from among members in good standing are considered by the Nominating Committee when notice is provided to the Executive Director, Secretary, or other members of the Nominating Committee in writing. Candidates are voted on by the Board of Directors. The slate of renewing and incoming members elected by the Board is then voted on by the membership in the Annual Meeting. Board meetings are generally scheduled quarterly. The Board may fill vacancies from resignation or other changes. Typically 2-4 members are elected each year.

Lora Anguay

SMUD (2025-28)

With over 20 years of experience in the electric utility industry, Lora is currently serving as SMUD’s first Chief Zero Carbon Officer, responsible for the transition of SMUD’s power supply to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2030. Lora provides leadership for SMUD’s energy supply, which includes resource, settlements and market planning; design, construction, maintenance and transition of SMUD’s power generation assets; and customer program strategy, design and development pertaining to distributed energy resources. She’s also responsible for research and development activities, grant application and administration, and establishing new zero-carbon business partnerships.

Emeka Anyanwu

Lincoln Electric System (2020-26)

Emeka Anyanwu became CEO of Lincoln Electric System (LES) – the municipal public utility serving Lincoln, Nebraska and surrounding communities – in January 2024. Prior to LES, he served as Energy Innovation & Resources officer at Seattle City Light, one of the nation’s largest community-owned, not-for-profit utilities. In that role, he was responsible for leading strategic functions that included utility technology (IT/OT), information security, electrification, grid modernization, and current and future power resource strategy. Earlier in his career, Emeka spent 16 years at Kansas City Power & Light (now Evergy) in various roles, starting out as a Distribution Engineer, moving into progressive leadership roles in T&D operations. He has served on industry Boards including the Public Power Council, the Public Generating Pool, and Energy Northwest. Recent awards for him include the SEPA’s Individual 2021 Power Player of the Year and the Energy Thought Summit’s 2023 Thought Leader of the Year.

Luis D’Acosta

Uplight (2023-27)

Luis is the CEO of Uplight, the technology partner of energy providers transitioning to a decarbonized future. A recognized leader across the energy ecosystem, he joined the organization in September 2022 to help scale Uplight’s market leading grid edge customer engagement, enrollment, and load flexibility platform. Prior to joining Uplight, Luis was the global head of Schneider Electric’s Digital Energy business, where he worked to accelerate the digitization of power networks by building and implementing new technology solutions. Having worked on all sides of the utility industry, Luis has vast global experience running software businesses, scaling startups, and leading growth and customer engagement initiatives.

Julie Desimone

Treasurer

Moss & Adams (2019-28)

Julie leads the Power & Utilities National Practice for Moss Adams LLP, and has been providing auditing, accounting, and consulting services since 2000. Some of her specific areas of focus include: advanced utility accounting, regulatory assets and liabilities, technical auditing (including single audits), contracting, business feasibility studies, internal control evaluation, litigation support, and relationship management. Julie currently serves on the Moss Adams’s Executive Council, training and development committee, audit task force, and recruiting program. In addition, she serves as an AICPA peer reviewer and is a regular speaker on technical and operational issues related to the energy and utility industry.

Hanna Grene

Microsoft (2022-2028)

Hanna Grene, Gobal Power and Utilities Leader at Microsoft, is an energy and technology executive with over 14 years of leadership experience in strategic planning, operations, marketing, policy, and business development. She has worked closely with federal agencies, governments, utilities, and C&I clients worldwide to fund and execute renewable energy and grid resilience projects. At Microsoft, Hanna leads strategy and partnerships across the Power and Utilities market in the Americas and works closely with Fortune 500 executives and policymakers to accelerate investment and innovation in a decarbonized, secure, resilient, and affordable energy system. Prior to joining the Microsoft team in 2021, Hanna was the Chief of Commercial Development for PXiSE Energy Solutions, where she helped the organization complete 800MW of renewable energy and microgrid projects across three continents and seven countries. As the Director of Policy at the Center for Sustainable Energy, Grene led corporate strategy and advanced critical legislation to secure $1B in funding for solar, battery storage, and EVs in CA and OR with an emphasis on equity-focused programs. She has advised public utilities commissions, government agencies, and lawmakers on market barriers, technology, and data-based incentive structures to accelerate renewable energy and electric vehicle adoption. Hanna has an MBA from the Rady School of Management at UCSD and a BA in International Relations from American University. She has been published as a subject matter expert on energy and climate issues with local and national press and has authored original research on corporate governance and culture. In 2021, Hanna was recognized as a San Diego 40 Under 40 Top Business Leader.

Elliot Hinds

Sheppard Mullin (2025-28)

Elliot Hinds is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group at Sheppard Mullin with a focus on corporate and energy matters. While he is deeply engaged in energy transactions, he also works with clients in a variety of other capital-intensive industries, including manufacturing, health care, and technology. Elliot works extensively on mergers and acquisitions, debt financings, project development and finance, and joint ventures. The projects he has worked on include renewable energy (including wind, geothermal, solar, and biomass), natural gas, cogeneration and coal-fired electric power, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and bioethanol facilities. He has handled many billions of dollars of energy project finance transactions and worked on some of the first merchant facilities to be developed and/or owned in a fully deregulated environment. He represents several wind and solar energy project developers, technology companies and other companies.

Marissa Hummon

Chairman

Utilidata (2019-2028)

Marissa joined Utilidata in 2018 as Chief Technology Officer, responsible for the company’s technology research, product development, deployment, and engineering teams. She brings more than fifteen years of expertise in energy systems and grid optimization, having previously overseen product development for Tendril and managed grid modernization research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Marissa is a graduate of Colorado College and holds a PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard University.

Matt Piper

ESRI (2023-2026)

Matt Piper is Esri’s Global Industry Solutions Infrastructure Director. He focuses on technology telecommunications, utilities, water, and architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) and leads Esri Digital Twin Initiatives. As a professional senior leader working for the largest GIS company in the world, he focuses on exploring new opportunities for how location intelligence is applied to utilities and how GIS aligns to future strategies to enable organizations to evolve to meet the changing demands of the industry. As an industry thought leader Matt represents GIS capability and value to improve upon efficiency and decision making.

Jennifer Potter

Hawaii Natural Research Institute (2023-2028)

Jennifer Potter is a resident of the Maui, Hawaii with over 18 years of experience in the US energy industry. She works as a Faculty Energy Specialist at the Hawaii Natural Research Institute at the University of Hawaii, where her research focuses on microgrids and energy policy. She leads a US Department of Energy project on community microgrids in the Hawaiian Islands, emphasizing resilient energy infrastructure.

Previously, Jennie served as Senior Director of Regulatory Innovation at Strategen Consulting and as a Commissioner with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission for five years, where she implemented innovative regulatory frameworks, including performance-based regulations and performance incentives for energy providers. At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Jennie led the nationally recognized California Demand Response Potential Study, and authored numerous papers on demand response, energy efficiency, advanced electricity rates, and resiliency, and has presented her research nationally and internationally.

Jenny received the Grid Innovator of the Year award from Grid Forward in 2022 and the Thought Leadership award from the Peak Load Management Alliance in 2018. She holds a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Economics.

Marie Steele

NV Energy (2023-2026)

Marie Steele is the Vice President of Integrated Energy Services at NV Energy where she leads a diverse team responsible for the company’s clean energy customer programs and services including energy efficiency, demand response, electric vehicles, battery storage and renewable energy. The team is also responsible for integrated grid planning and the distributed resource plan, which ensures NV Energy customers and Nevadans benefit from distributed energy resource deployment. Her experience at NV Energy spans across transmission and distribution projects, financial planning and analysis, and renewable energy strategy.

A persistent advocate for equitable sustainable solutions, Marie has been a prominent voice in the transportation electrification space in Nevada, co-authoring the Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy report, Electrifying Nevada’s 21^st Century Transportation System as Principal and Co-Founder at e-Centricity, LLP, a woman-owned Nevada based business.

Marie received her MBA from the ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and has Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Iowa with an International Business Exchange at the University of New South Wales.

Dr. Emma Stewart

Idaho National Laboratory (2025-2028)

Dr. Emma M. Stewart is a leading expert in power systems and critical infrastructure security, specializing in electric distribution, grid resilience, modeling and simulation, and operational cybersecurity. She is the Chief Power Grid Scientist at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and serves as the Director of the Center for Securing the Digital Energy Transition. In these roles, Dr. Stewart leads cutting-edge initiatives to strengthen the security and resilience of the power grid, addressing the critical challenges facing modern energy systems. Dr. Stewart has worked with international utilities, U.S. national laboratories, and organizations across the globe. Before joining INL, she served as Chief Scientist at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), where she oversaw a multimillion-dollar R&D portfolio and led programs focused on workforce education, information sharing, and incident response for electric cooperatives.

Vidya Vankayala

BCIT (2023-2027)

Dr. Vidya Vankayala is currently the Director of Smart Microgrid Applied Research Team (SMART) at the center for applied research and innovation, BC Institute of Technology (BCIT). In this role, Vidya is responsible to define and direct applied research programs that advance the state of the art in grid modernization and resilient systems. His goal is to define and implement a new innovation roadmap for BCIT and province of BC to support resilient energy systems. Dr. Vankayala brings more than 30 years of experience in the utility and hi-tech sectors.

Dr. Vankayala led innovation at various utilities as a Chief Architect, Solution Director and Industry Specialist. Dr. Vankayala is a member of IEEE and a contributor to several smart grid and smart city standards. He has over 30 publications in operations, planning, cyber security and technology enablement of smart infrastructures for industry, community and home.

Previously at Powertech Labs Inc., Vidya was responsible for the world-class High Power Lab which offers unique grid-connected testing and validation services to the utility industry. His team developed several new services at Powertech including NERC CIP assessment and audit support, Distribution Automation, Distribution System Reliability Assessment to incorporate Climate Change Impacts, Wildfire Risk Assessment and Mitigation and Microgrid Design and Planning.

Michelle Vargo

Puget Sound Energy (2025-2028)

Michelle Vargo is senior vice president of Energy Operations for Puget Sound Energy, responsible for gas and electric operations, engineering, customer and system projects, wildfire mitigation and response, and corporate shared services. She joined PSE in July 2023 from Seattle City Light, where she served as Chief Operating Officer responsible for all utility transmission, distribution and system operations functions. Prior to that, she held a number of leadership roles, including Deputy Chief Operating Officer, and as a director in both Transmission and Distribution and Generation Operations and Engineering. Before joining Seattle City Light in 2013, Michelle worked in business development for the LNG and industrial gases industry and spent five years as an engineering officer in the United States Army.

Piper Wilder

Founder and CEO, 60Hertz Energy (2024-2027)

Piper Wilder is founder and CEO of 60Hertz Energy, a company developing software to maintain fleets of distributed energy resources — from village infrastructure, to remote industrial sites, to solar arrays. The company has won more than 10 national and international awards for their work. Piper was inducted into the Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame in 2022, is a 2020 Tory Burch Foundation Fellow, and former German Chancellor Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The company serves customers from Nigeria to the Canadian Arctic, including the US Navy. She lives in Anchorage with her husband and 4 yr old daughter.

Bryce Yonker

Grid Forward Executive Director & CEO (2010-2028)

Bryce Yonker serves as the first executive director & CEO for Grid Forward. He heads up strategic development, programs and operations for the organization. Bryce was a founder and original board member and the initial executive director of Grid Forward. He is also the founder & principal of EnerTec Development, an energy advisory and consulting firm based in Portland Oregon. He is an advisor to multiple industry companies and previously served as the senior director of business development & strategy for Clean Edge, a leading clean tech market research firm. He holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University and an International MBA from IE in Spain.