Speaker Biographies Restructuring Roundtable2.28.08

Commissioner Kurt Adams

Kurt Adams was appointed to serve as Chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission in June of 2005. From 2003 until his appointment, Chairman Adams served as Chief Legal Counsel to Governor John E. Baldacci. He was a lawyer in the law firm of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson from 1997 to 2003. Chairman Adams received his Juris Doctor from the University of Maine School of Law in 1997. He also received an M.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University in 1990 and a B.A. in Government from Skidmore College in 1988. Chairman Adams’ term expires in March 2011.

Jim Anderson

Jim Anderson is Director of Product Marketing with Philips Solid Sate Lighting Solutions (former Color Kinetics) in Burlington, MA. He has worked in the Lighting industry for more than 20 years, both at Philips Lighting and LED start-ups. Jim has had various responsibilities in technology management, operations management and Marketing, with the past 5 years focused on solid state lighting.

Commissioner Clifton Below

Clifton Below has served as a Commissioner of the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission since December 2005. He is a member of the Energy Resources and Environment Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC), the Northeast International Committee on Energy (NICE) of the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers, and NH’s Climate Change Policy Task Force. He also serves as an agency head representative for NH in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and as Secretary of the Board of Directors of RGGI, Inc.

Commissioner Below served 12 years in the NH State Legislature starting in 1992 as a Representative and ending with 6 years in the State Senate. He was active in energy and environmental issues throughout that time. He has a background in commercial real estate development and management. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1980 and earned an M.S. in Community Economic Development from Southern NH University.

Peter Fuller

Peter D. Fuller is Director, Regulatory & Market Affairs – New England for NRG Energy Inc. In this position, he is responsible for NRG's state, regional and federal regulatory and policy activities in New England. Prior to joining NRG, Mr. Fuller was Director of Market Affairs for Mirant Energy Trading from 2000-2007.

Mr. Fuller is immediate past Chair of the NEPOOL Participants Committee and is the Vice Chair of the Participants Committee representing the Generation Sector. Mr. Fuller has also served in NEPOOL as the Co-Chair of the Governance Working Group, the Installed Capacity Requirements Working Group and as a representative on the NEPOOL Markets Committee, among others. Mr. Fuller is also Chairman of the New England Power Generators Association, the largest trade association representing independent power producers in New England. Prior to joining Mirant in 2000, Mr. Fuller held a number of positions in power supply, planning and engineering with Eastern Utilities Associates.

Ric Fulop

Ric Fulop co-founded A123Systems in 2001 to commercialize novel technology developed at the material sciences department at MIT and is Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for the company. One of Ric's greater goals for A123Systems is to help improve the world's carbon cycle by providing superior price performance solutions to the HEV, transportation, and energy storage markets. His experience in entrepreneurship includes founding six technology companies that have raised over $254M in industries as varied as energy storage, software, semi-conductors and wireless communications. Ric has an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was a Sloan Fellow.

Chairman Paul Hibbard

Paul Hibbard is the Chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, appointed by Governor Deval Patrick in April 2007. Chairman Hibbard has a deep and diverse background in energy and environmental policy as a state official and as a consultant to government agencies, foundations, and participants in the electric and natural gas industries. Prior to being appointed Chairman, Mr. Hibbard was Vice President at Analysis Group, Inc. managing cases related to national energy infrastructure, carbon control policy options, and electricity and natural gas market structure and regulatory policy. Previous to his work as a consultant, Chairman Hibbard worked for the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities and Department of Environmental Protection. Chairman Hibbard holds an M.S. in Energy and Resources from the University of California at Berkeley, and a B.S. in Physics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Harvey Michaels

Harvey Michaels is co-founder and former CEO of Nexus Energy Software,and continues to serve as a strategic consultant. Nexus is now part of ESCO Technologies (NYSE:ESE), whichunder the brand Aclara provides meter data managementand customer portal software to over 85 utility companies. Harvey is a frequent writer and speaker on a more efficient and customer-centric energy marketplace, and recently served on the Board of the Demand Response and Advanced Meter Coalition (DRAM), and the California Committee on Strategies to Reduce Energy Consumption in Existing Buildings. Previously, he was President of XENERGY, Inc.

Jim Robb

Jim Robb is Senior Vice President of Enterprise Planning and Development at Northeast Utilities (Public Service New Hampshire, Western Massachusetts Electric Company, and Connecticut Power and Light as well as Yankee Gas).

Jim joined NU after 4 years with Reliant Energy (where he was the head of Reliant’s unregulated retail business, which was the largest marketer of retail power to industrial, commercial, and residential customers in restructured markets) and 14 years as one the Energy Practice leaders at consulting firm McKinsey & Company. He also spent several months consulting with one of the major west coast venture capital firms on solar and renewable energy technologies. In his role at NU, Jim is responsible for developing the company's strategy for dealing with the challenges and opportunities created by New England’s environmental policies and economic priorities.

Gordon van Welie

Gordon van Welie has over twenty years of experience in the electricity industry in a variety of positions. He is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of ISO New England Inc., a not-for-profit organization which oversees the region’s bulk power grid and wholesale electricity markets. Mr. van Welie previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for ISO New England from September 2000 to May 2001.

Mr. van Welie joined ISO New England from Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution LLC, where he held the position of Vice President and General Manager of the Power Systems Control (PSC) Division.Mr. van Welie also has held several positions at Johannesburg, South Africa-based ESKOM.

Mr. van Welie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.