Ruth Scotti is a seasoned leader in energy innovation with over 15 years of experience driving transformative change at the intersection of energy, technology, and policy. As an Energy Innovation Advisor to multiple energy software companies, Ruth leverages her utility background to help software providers target the most pressing pain points faced by utilities and their customers. Her strategic guidance focuses on deploying AI and advanced analytics to enhance grid visibility, optimize distributed energy resources (DERs), and deliver sustainable, customer-centric energy solutions.

Previously, Ruth served as Director of Innovation Strategy at Consumers Energy, where she led transformative initiatives such as AI-enabled grid management, pilot projects for emerging energy technologies, and strategic partnerships with industry leaders. Her expertise lies in translating complex, cutting-edge innovations into practical, scalable solutions that drive measurable value for utilities and their customers.

Junhui Zhao is the Manager of Engineering Data Innovation with Eversource Energy, where he leads efforts to explore and demonstrate the applications of data science and AI technologies in transmission, substation, and distribution engineering. Junhui was a recipient of UAI’s 2023 Top 25 Thought Leader and 2023 IEEE PES Connecticut Chapter Outstanding Engineer Award. Prior to his current role at Eversource, he was a Quantitative Principal Engineer at ComEd in 2022 and a tenured Associate Professor at the University of New Haven from 2014 to 2021. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Chongqing University, China, and Wayne State University, USA, in 2009 and 2014, respectively.

Raghu is Director, Investments at National Grid Partners. Raghu focuses on investing in early stage companies in the broad enterprise and energy infrastructure SW vertical. Raghu has 20+ years of experience with technology, capital markets, and IP/innovation. During his time at National Grid Partners, he has invested in founder-centric, technology differentiated startups like AccuKnox, Sync Computing, Leap.energy, Baffle.io, and AptEdge.

Before working at National Grid Partners, Raghu worked at SRI Ventures and GE Ventures investing in deep tech and industrial infrastructure (SW, HW, and telecom). He also brings extensive experience in the hardware and software design space having worked in various roles including, semiconductor fabrication, chip design, systems architecture, strategy, and marketing (Texas Instruments, Intel, Cadence Design Systems).

Raghu received an MBA in Finance and Investments from Southern Methodist University and an MS in Computer Engineering from Iowa State University, and currently serves as a Kauffman Fellow. You can often catch him honing his mean backhand at a badminton court, with fellow investors and founders.

Erin Hardick is a producer for Latitude Media, working primarily on the With Great Power and Columbia Energy Exchange podcasts. She wears a number of other Latitude Media hats in addition to her production work — she conducts research for Latitude Intelligence, writes pieces of reported analysis and commentary for the news site, and occasionally contributes writing to Latitude Studios as well.

Erin has almost a decade of experience researching the electric utility industry and energy transition, having held senior analyst positions at the Utility Analytics Institute and Zpryme. She is a former fellow of the Clean Energy Leadership Institute and Climatebase.

Lisa Martine Jenkins is Latitude Media’s editor. She was previously a reporter for Protocol and Morning Consult, and her work has appeared in Heatmap, The Guardian, and Civil Eats, among others. In 2017, she was the Overseas Press Club Foundation’s Stan Swinton Fellow, placed at The Associated Press in Mexico City. Earlier in her career, she worked in production for both the Marketplace Morning Report radio program and San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club.

Lisa has an M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she studied energy and environmental policy. While there, she conducted research on both rural electrification in Myanmar and the impact of sea level rise on nuclear spent fuel storage; the latter was published in Energy Policy.

She lives in Brooklyn, and is originally from the Bay Area. You can find more of her work  at lisamartinejenkins.com.

Josh Wong is the Founder and CEO of ThinkLabs AI, a specialized AI company empowering critical industries and infrastructure with trustworthy AI towards global energy sustainability. Josh brings over 20 years of experience in cleantech, including utility grid modernization, solar, storage, microgrids, hydrogen, and DERMS. Josh was formerly founder and CEO of Opus One Solutions, rated #1 Grid DERMS by Guidehouse, and General Manager of Grid Orchestration at General Electric.

Mark Waclawiak is the Senior Manager of Operational Performance for Electric Operations inAvangrid Networks, consisting of the Data Science and Analytics, Reliability Engineering, andKPI/Dashboard Reporting departments. He has a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the Universityof Texas at San Antonio and a BA in English from the University of Texas at Austin.