Industry & Business Development Professionals

David Valle, VP of Marketing & Business Development, Smart Water Summit

David Valle is the Director of Marketing & Business Development for the Smart Water Summit. Prior to his work with the Summits, David was a Sr. Research Analyst and the Director of Business Development with ZPRYME Market Research & Consulting.  With over 12 years of Management, Marketing and Business Development experience, David brings a young perspective to an ever changing Industry.

David received his Bachelor of Science in Geography, with a Minor in Business Administration, from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.  David is a Native Texan living in Alpharetta, GA and enjoys playing golf during his time off.

David Stair, Senior Director of North American Energy, Sensus

David is a Senior Director for the North American Energy group at Sensus.   He has held numerous sales roles while at Sensus including the Director of Public Power for the U.S. and Caribbean markets.  He now manages sales efforts in the gas,  IOU, cooperative & municipalpublic power sectors and distribution.

He is a utility professional with 28 years of industry experience.  Stops along the way include 17 years at a large combination municipal utility, where he actually started as a meter reader and eventually was in charge of managing 60 employees in the field service department.  He then moved to a small technology start-up company as a national product manager and eventually joining Sensus.  David has leaned on his prior utility experience and background  to help him gain key industry knowledge in the areas of electric metering,  AMI, demand response, project management, product management, marketing, contract negotiations and key sales.  He holds a degree in education and attended Calhoun College and Faulkner University. He is an avid football and basketball fan, spending 15 years coaching AAU basketball and youth football.

Bob King, President / Owner, RBK Utility Solutions Ltd.

Bob King manages his own Professional Services & Consulting Company, since his retiring from Toronto Hydro Electric Systems Limited as Chief Operating Officer. During his 34 years working in the Utility Sector, he demonstrated a very unique insight in developing and leading tactical initiatives with clear positive results.

Prior to his appointment as Chief Operating Officer at Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited in October 2006, he was Senior Vice-President of Distribution Services, a position that he held since September 2002.

Mr. King has been riding a wave of change since first coming into the energy business. He started as a power line-person for the former Ontario Hydro while attending night school to obtain his professional engineering (P. Eng.) degree. He then continued to work in variety of positions in both Transmission and Distribution Organizations.

In 1999, after the amalgamation of Metro Toronto's six municipal electric utilities, Mr. King was asked to lead as Vice-President, Business Transformation, a program that involved new technology and change processes for a simpler, more efficient and effective approach to execution of work, transforming every aspect of Toronto Hydro Electric Systems Ltd.

Roger Smith, Chief Business Development Officer, Central Service Association (CSA)

Roger joined the CSA staff in 1994 as a communications specialist. Since that time he has held several roles within, and now directs, the CSA business development department. Holding a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Mississippi State University, he has also participated in many continuing education opportunities and earned both the CPSv and CPE certifications from the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association.

In 2010, Roger was promoted to chief business development officer where he oversees the image and promotion of CSA, coordinates many of the relationships between CSA and third-party companies that provide valuable services to both CSA and its member utilities, coordinates all marketing and sales efforts including trade show and conference participation, oversees all corporate communications including the LINES magazine, corporate Web site, printed collateral, member communications, the content of the Annual User Education Conference and more. As chief business development officer, Roger is also a member of the executive committee that provides direction for future growth and development of the association.

Roger is married with one daughter and enjoys golf, college football and assorted other hobbies.

Jason Rodriguez, CEO & Director of Research, ZPRYME

Jason S. Rodriguez consults with clients in the in the manufacturing, clean technology, energy and the Smart Grid industries. Jason has recently led industry studies on distributed generation, energy storage, EVs, smart cities, and microgrids.

Jason has held prior research roles for Verizon Wireless, AAA, the Institute for Business & Home Safety, and the Center for Economic Development Research at the University of South Florida. Last, he served two years as an Economic Research Associate with ERS Group, a major economic litigation consulting firm in Tallahassee, Florida. Jason received his BBA from McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, his MBA from Texas-State University in San Marcos, Texas. He also completed two years of Graduate-level Economics at the University of South Florida.

Frank Brown III, Senior Civil Engineer, Newport News Waterworks

 Frank Brown III is the Chief of Design Services for Newport News Waterworks in Newport News, Virginia. He is responsible for all Water Pipeline Designs & Hydraulic Analyses that serve five jurisdictions (Newport News, Hampton, Poquoson, York County, James City County). Frank has more than 30 years of project management, design, and operations experience in public utilities for some of the major cities on the east coast (ATL, DC, Richmond, and Hampton Roads). Throughout his career, he has managed major projects with responsibility for design and construction along with financial and resource management. Frank offers extensive knowledge and experience in public utilities and policy standards (federal, state, and local). 

Frank received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Old Dominion University, Norfolk VA and his B.S. Mathematics in Applied Physics & Engineering from Christopher Newport University.

Patty Durand, President & CEO, Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC)

Patty Durand joined the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) in January 2011 as its first Executive Director. In this role, she is responsible for advancing a consumer-friendly, consumer-safe smart grid through research and education. Under her leadership SECC has grown 85% in four years to over 120 members and produced eight pieces of foundational consumer focused research.

Before joining SECC, Durand worked for the Georgia Institute of Technology where she assisted in smart grid research projects. While there she helped to submit $10 million in three grant proposals to the Department of Energy and ARPA-E.

Prior to her time at Georgia Tech Durand served as the Executive Director for the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club where she focused on energy policy and climate change programs as well as citizen advocacy. Durand also served on the Board of the Smart Grid Society for the Technology Association of Georgia for two years and was named one of 2012’s “Fierce 15” Women in Energy by FierceEnergy for her dedication to driving consumer awareness and understanding of the smart grid.

Andres Carvallo, CEO & Founder, CMG Consulting LLC

Andres Carvallo, also known as the Smart Grid Godfather, who is now the CEO of CMG, a strategy and advisory consulting firm focus on Smart Energy, Smart Utilities, Smart Cities, and Smart Buildings. Andres was hired out of college by Microsoft to be the Windows Product Manager, he also built businesses for SCO (UNIX), Borland (Databases, Languages), Digital Equipment Corporation ($2 billion in computers) and Philips Electronics ($2.5 billion in cellular & wireless phones, and pagers) afterwards, and then did four startups in telecom and Internet from 2000 to 2002. He then joined Austin Energy and built the first smart grid in the world from 2003 to 2010, which he followed with two IoT platform companies that he built and finally deciding to create CMG in 2014.
 
Mr. Carvallo is an award winning engineer, speaker, author, and executive with 30 years of experience in the Energy, Telecommunications, Computers and Software industries. Mr. Carvallo is globally recognized by the IEEE as one of the early developers of the smart grid concept and technology. Mr. Carvallo defined the term Smart Grid on March 5, 2004. Mr. Carvallo co-authored the best-selling book “The Advanced Smart Grid”, has published 33 books in power engineering, telecommunications and IoT, and building technologies, and has received 35 industry awards since 2005.