Ann Rendahl was appointed to serve as a commissioner of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission by Gov. Inslee in December 2014 for a term ending Jan. 1, 2021.

Ann currently serves as chair of the Electricity Committee and a member of the Critical Infrastructure Committee for the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC), and serves on the NARUC Board of Directors.

Ann serves as a member of the Body of State Regulators for the California ISO’s Energy Imbalance Market and as the chair of the Western Electric Coordinating Council’s Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System Committee. Ann has been appointed to serve as a member of the Electric Power Research Institute’s Advisory Council through August 2022. Ann has also been appointed to serve on the Advisory Council of the Center for Public Utilities at New Mexico State University.

Ann previously served as the Director of Policy and Legislation for the UTC. Prior to leading the UTC’s Policy and Legislative Affairs Section, she served as the Director of the Administrative Law Division, as an administrative law judge for the UTC, and as an assistant attorney general representing the Utilities and Transportation Division.

Ann is a graduate of Wellesley College and received a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. She received her law degree from Hastings College of the Law, University of California, San Francisco.

Charles P. “Chuck” Kosak is Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Transmission Permitting & Technical Assistance Division in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE). Mr. Kosak is responsible for leading the Department’s technical assistance efforts for state, local, territorial, and tribal jurisdictions to facilitate the development of resilient and reliable electricity infrastructure. He has 30 years of experience as a strategist, policy maker, planner, and risk manager. Prior to joining DOE, Mr. Kosak was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Defense Continuity & Mission Assurance, where he worked to develop plans to ensure that the Department of Defense can continue to execute core functions, even in the face of military and natural hazard threats to installations and infrastructure.

Previously, Mr. Kosak served in several roles in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy; serving as Principal Director of the Office of Partnership Strategy, Principal Director of the Office of African Affairs, and Deputy Director of the Office of NATO Policy. Mr. Kosak has won numerous DoD awards for his service, including twice winning the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service. He holds a master’s degree from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland (International Politics and Economics), a Master of Science from the National War College in Washington DC (National Security Studies), and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Economics and Political Science).

Richard Mroz is one of the leading advocates in securing the grid from both cyber and physical attacks. He is the immediate past President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and was nominated by former Gov. Chris Christie in 2014. The nomination was unanimously approved by the New Jersey Senate.  Mr. Mroz was also a member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and served as chairman of the NARUC Committee on Critical Infrastructure, which was established on a temporary basis after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the now-permanent Critical Infrastructure Committee provides State regulators a forum to analyze solutions to utility infrastructure security and delivery concerns.  Mr. Mroz is a thought leader on issues the Committee regularly addresses including cyber security, workforce development, and infrastructure improvements in all industries.

From 1991-1993, Mr. Mroz served as the County Counsel for Camden County New Jersey.  In 1993 then Governor Christine Todd Whitman appointed him to the first of several senior positions in her administration. He served as Director of Authorities, Governor’s counsel, and liaison to New Jersey’s largest independent agencies.  In 1998 Governor Whitman appointed him as Special Counsel.  In 1999, Governor Whitman recognized Mr. Mroz’s thought leading abilities and appointed him to Chief Counsel.  Mr. Mroz served as the Governor’s primary advisor for legislative affairs, judicial and prosecutorial appointments, as well as, legal, policy and management issues of the State government.  He is a graduate of the University of Delaware and holds a J.D. from the Villanova School of Law.

In her role, Stephanie oversees OED’s partnerships to support Seattle’s cleantech sector, and works across departments and organizations to facilitate entrepreneurs, business owners and their staff that need assistance to green their operations.  Through this work, Stephanie seeks to better understand business barriers to implement climate initiatives and works to develop solutions to overcome them. Stephanie has over 10 years of experience working in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors helping businesses implement green practices. She has a B.A from Western Washington in Environmental Planning/Policy, a Masters of Environmental Studies from Evergreen State College, and is a LEED Accredited Professional.

As Executive Director of Maxwood Solutions, James brings more than 16 years of experience working with a large Electric Utility, and over 20 years deploying hardware in ICS environments and industries.  James has been attending WSU’s energy automation conference since 2001, and has been a PEAC/ESIC committee member since 2010.  Since James formed Maxwood Solutions in 2018 with a vision dedicated to the cause of protecting our nation’s critical utility infrastructure through resilience planning, he has taken on an active supporting role by assisting in the planning and sponsoring of the ESIC Summit.  James’ diverse ICS background as a Principal Engineer included working as a Program Technical Engineering Lead with expertise in Program Transition Strategies, Program and Project Development and Architecture, Cybersecurity and Physical Security, including experience with Edge Data Hardware and Software Integration, Electrical Design, Hardware Testing and Multi-Site Deployment, Manufacturing, as well as SCADA, DCS, Relay Teleprotection, PLCs and Military Communications.  James graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering degree, in the areas of Power Systems, Power Devices, and Building Electrical Systems.

Jay previously served as senior budget assistant to the governor in the Office of Financial Management working in the General Government Section, Transportation Section and as lead analyst on revenue issues. Before that, Jay worked for the Washington House of Representatives in a variety of roles, including senior fiscal analyst, assistant director of policy and policy analyst on transportation and finance issues. He also worked for the Washington Department of Transportation.

Jay currently serves as the chair of the Subcommittee on Pipeline Safety, co-vice chair of the Committee on Critical Infrastructure, and as a member of the Committee on Gas for the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC). He also serves as a member of the Gas Technology Institute Public Interest Advisory Committee, and on the Washington Action Program which monitors federal activities related to the Commission’s work.

Jay has a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a Master of Science in finance from Seattle University.

PEAC 2020, “Advancing the Grid: Data to Automation to Resiliency,” will be the 22nd in the series that was formerly known as the Western Power Delivery Automation Conference (WPDAC). With a strong industry presence in power and energy automation, PEAC has established itself as a leading forum that attracts practicing engineers, technical staff, R&D personnel, managers, and manufacturers, as well as university faculty and students, to share their experience and ideas. About 200 U.S. and international participants usually attend PEAC annually. This is our first time in Seattle and we expect a record crowd.  For PEAC 2020, we expect papers that discuss case studies and pilot projects in smart grid, power grid automation, intelligent control, security, SCADA, networks and communications, and project management.

In addition, the Fundamentals Track provides tutorial sessions on essential topics in power grid automation. The fundamental track sessions at PEAC have proved to be a great success – well attended, with excellent interaction between instructors and attendees. As the industry develops the strategy for the future power engineering workforce, the fundamentals track is a valuable resource for training and development.

Exhibits from vendors allow attendees to see the state-of-the-art equipment with the opportunity to engage in specific discussions with vendor experts.The ESIC Summit that started in 2015 as part of PEAC brings government, industry, and university leaders together to discuss energy issues of national and global importance.