Rich Barone is an experienced executive in the Renewable Energy, Distributed Energy Resources and Grid Modernization industries with demonstrated success in startups, new business models, market establishment and transformation, product launches, growth strategy, M&A and channel development with an uncommon blend of business and technology acumen. Rich is currently leading a team at Oracle to gather and interpret market requirements to cultivate the product vision for Oracle's Enterprise DERMS product development. Previously Rich was a director of customer relations and markets at Hawaiian Electric Company.

Obadiah Bartholomy is the Manager of Distributed Energy Strategy at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. His team is responsible for developing Enterprise Strategy for distributed solar PV, battery storage, load flexibility, transportation and building electrification. This involves collaboration across grid, business, and customer functions to ensure customer offerings balance customer benefit with grid benefits and create positive community outcomes. Obadiah has worked for more than 20 years at SMUD in strategy and research functions. Obadiah is on the Board of the Energy Systems Integration Group and chairs their DER Working Group.  

Jon Hilowitz serves as Section Manager for Customer Energy Services at Orange and Rockland Utilities (ORU), a Consolidated Edison of New York subsidary company. Jon oversees the company’s energy efficiency and demand response portfolios in both its New York and New Jersey service areas. Under his leadership, Jon increased ORU’s demand response portfolio by more than 400% by leveraging existing relationships and dramatically increasing customer outreach and marketing. He also designed and implemented innovative clean energy programs in targeted regions that reduced immediate capital costs by deferring the need for new substation construction.

Ben Lee is the Director of Distribution Planning & Grid Modernization for Electric Power Engineers, a global advisory and engineering firm advancing grid reliability, resilience, flexibility, and affordability. EPE provides full-spectrum consulting, grid modeling, and innovative software solutions to support new generation interconnection (including renewables integration), energy storage, transmission and distribution planning, and digital transformation. Previously Ben was a senior manager at Southern California Edison where he Led a team to perform long-term (10 year) strategic scenario analysis to highlight opportunities while balancing long-term strategy with capital expenditure, regulatory constraints, resource availability and operational feasibility and presented to executive leadership.

Matthew McDonnnell is the Managing Partner for Current Energy Group, a boutique energy economics and policy advisory firm focused on providing solutions that balance sustainability, affordability, and reliability. Matthew is a national expert in new utility business models and innovative regulatory frameworks to address emergent needs of the energy transition. He has experience in a variety of energy issues, including distributed energy resources (DER) integration, power system planning, rate design, grid modernization, and electric vehicles (EVs). Previously Matthew served as Commission Counsel at the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (HPUC) where he supported the Commission’s thought leadership, organization, and execution for critical projects from advanced DER program design, to establishing a statewide community solar framework, to articulating guidance for innovative grid modernization.