David E. Baker is President, Fremont St. Associates, Executive Director, America's Urban Campus, Managing Director, Smart Grid Cluster. Through his consulting firm, Mr. Baker oversees the operations of a consortium of over 20 of Chicago's universities and colleges, whose mission is to promote Chicago as a global destination for higher education. He also manages one of 11 U.S. Small Business Administration regional innovation clusters, focused on supporting start-ups in the grid modernization space.

Mr. Baker served as Vice President for External Affairs, Illinois Institute of Technology from 1995 to 2016.  He was responsible for the University’s governmental relations, marketing and communications, and trustee relations. He managed all university strategic plans from 1993 through 2009. He helped to create the Perspectives Charter Schools/IIT Math & Science Academy.

Since 2001 he worked to create the University Technology Park at IIT (UTP) of which he served as founding Executive Director from 2006 to 2016. UTP received the Emerging Technology Park of the Year Award in 2014, from the Association of University Research Parks. Mr. Baker received the 2016 Career Achievement Award from AURP for his leadership in the technology park field. He conducted workshops, seminars and consultancies on tech ecosystem development in Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Croatia, Trinidad and China.

Prior to joining the University, Mr. Baker served as President of The Illinois Coalition, whose mission is to strengthen the Illinois economy through science and technology.  From 1980 to 1989, Mr. Baker served as the Executive Vice President of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, the state’s largest business advocacy organization.  Mr. Baker served as the 2012-2013 President of the Association of University Research Parks. He served as Chair of the Heidelberg Club International of Chicago from 2008 to 2015. He is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago. Mr. Baker holds an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and an A.B. in History with a minor in Economics from Stanford University. He is married, has two children and lives in Chicago.

Robert Owen, Director of Essaimage Associates Ltd,  graduated from the University of Hertfordshire, UK (then called “The Hatfield Polytechnic”) in 1978, with a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He became a Chartered Engineer and full member of the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET, formerly the IEE) in 1985.

His first employment was in the military electronics field, working for Raytheon. After a short period designing power supplies for London Transport, he joined the Technical Sales Department of Texas Instruments (TI)’s UK Semiconductor Division. Across the next 15 years, he held Sales and Marketing positions for Automotive, Consumer, Computer and Industrial markets. He built TI’s first pan-European support organization and in 1994 he accepted TI’s invitation to build a new programme – The European University Programme – and ran this for TI until 2011. Across this period he became known to more than 3,000 Lecturers and Researchers across the region. The model he built for this program became TI's template worldwide, and it now spans the globe. In Europe today there are 1,000+ TI-based DSP labs, used by circa 34,000 students every year, and he led the expansion of the programme to encompass Analog, RF, and Microcontroller technologies. He has personally visited more than 650 Universities around the world.
 
Robert now has two major clients:

• RS Components, the world's largest distributor of electronics and maintenance products, through his development of "RS University" - a global programme that enables Lecturers to harness RS's design tools and component support.
• Imagination Technologies, the IP company famous for its PowerVR GPUs and MIPS CPUs. He has established the "Imagination University Programme," which offers access to a current MIPS processor core for the teaching of Computer Architecture and SoC: System on Chip Design.

Robert is also actively involved in student recruitment and training for companies including Imagination, EnOcean, Caterva and Conrad. He has developed a one-year model for Internships that enables smaller and start-up companies to develop a pipeline of talent.

Kate Barnard, former University Research Program Manager of Rolls-Royce, is Founder & Director of two successful start-ups, WhatBox Consulting Ltd and Enjoy The Air Limited, along with Non-Executive Director for Eye Dream and on the Strategy Board of the IMechE, one of the largest Global Professional Engineering Institutions.

Kate is a Professional Chartered Engineer, with a degree in Mechanical engineering, bringing together technical and entrepreneurship skills. Built on a foundation of over two decades as a manager in the engineering and technology group within Rolls-Royce Plc, she led one of the largest global industry-academic research networks, and drove multi-million pound, multi-national research programs. Her international experience included leading development & test programs for UK and US power plants.

Kate recognizes the linkage between new research, social progress and the sustainability of our planet and has become a key person of influence. She combines a strong commercial engineering background, with entrepreneurship, an extensive knowledge and network in the research system from academics to government agencies and influential leaders.

Kate is a Fellow of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Women's Engineering Society and Association of Project Managers, an active Honorary Fellow in the Faculty of Engineering at The University of Nottingham, a published author and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Engineers.

Dr. Zhen(yu) Yu is currently Systems Engineering manager for the C2000 MCU business at Texas Instruments, Inc. (TI). Zhen joined TI in 1995 as an Applications Engineer on the Industrial and Automotive team in Automotive MCU, the team that evolved into today's C2000 MCU business overtime. Zhen contributed significantly to the definition, development and support of the first and later C2000 MCU products. Zhen is also instrumental to C2000's worldwide successes, especially the successes in China and Asia. He took an expat assignment in Shanghai from 2003 to 2006 and contributed significantly to C2000 business wins and strategy then and later. Zhen also contributed significantly to C2000's application technology development and strategy. He developed some of the earliest C2000 application reports, software and demos. He provided critical technical and business support to C2000's earliest and later customers. In his role as digital power systems team manager, digital power and motor control systems team manager and systems engineering manager for C2000, he led the development of a long list of reference designs and EVMs, and was critical in the formation and implementation of C2000's application strategy. Zhen was also C2000 Business Development Manager for China, Asia and worldwide and C2000 Worldwide End-Equipment marketing manager, contributing significantly to C2000's business development and EE successes.

Zhen was elected Member Group of Technical Staff (MGTS) and Senior Member Technical Staff (SMTS) in the early years at TI and is now Emeritus SMTS.

Zhen received his Doctor of Science Degree in Systems Science and Mathematics in 1995 from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Behang University in Beijing. Zhen worked at Beihang's Third Research Group as a Research Engineer from 1985 to 1989.

Jim MacInnes is CEO & Co-owner of Crystal Mountain, a 1500-acre four-season resort near Traverse City, Michigan. Crystal was named the #1 Resort in the Midwest in 2005 by the readers of SKI magazine and the resort's golf school is rated as a Top 25 golf school in the nation by the readers of Golf Magazine.

During his tenure at Crystal Mountain, Mr. MacInnes and his wife, Chris, have developed nearly $100 million of resort and recreational real estate projects. He was also involved in creating and managing Michigan Assurance Limited, a Bermuda-based captive insurance company that provided risk management and insurance services for a dozen hotels and resorts. His project development/engineering consulting company Renewable Power Solutions provided project development services for a proposed $175 Million Mancelona Renewable Resources biomass plant designed to power 31,500 homes.

Prior to joining the resort, Mr. MacInnes was Director of Venture Management for Irvine, California based Ultrapower Incorporated where he was involved in investor relations and financing of renewable energy power generation projects developed, co-owned and operated by the Company. He also served as Project Development Manager and Lead Control Systems Engineer on commercial power plant projects.

Jim served as a vice chair of the IEEE USA Energy Policy Committee in 2014 and is the vice chair of the West Michigan IEEE PES/PELS chapter. He is a Life Senior Member of IEEE and a member of IEEE PES and PELS societies. 

He was appointed by Governors Snyder and Whitmer as Chair of the Michigan Utility Consumer Participation Board. He is a board member of Fifth Third Bank - West Michigan and a past board member of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. He was appointed by Governor Engler to serve on the Michigan Ski Area Safety Board and was appointed by Governor Granholm to serve on Great Lakes Offshore Wind Council. He and his wife, Chris, were recipients of the 1998 Governor's Award for Arts and Culture. As a result of his clean energy advocacy work, Mr. MacInnes was also named as one of 16 Green Leaders in Michigan in 2010 by the Detroit Free Press; Energy Innovator of the Year in 2015 by the Michigan Agency for Energy; and to the Energy Innovators Hall of Fame in 2019 by the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council.

Tony started his career in 1970 as a Development Engineer for Marconi Space & Defence Systems (Stanmore). In 1971-1979, he led the Control & Instrumentation Group of Power Plant Division & Advanced Technology Division for NEI Clarke Chapman. In 1979-1998, he was the Managing Director of Micro Tech Ltd, part of the Nada Consulting Group. He became the Managing Director of the Nada Consulting Group in 1998 and led a Buy In Management Buy Out (BIMBO) of the Nada Consulting Group with venture capital help from Nat West Venture Capital and Gartmore. The Nada Consulting Group changed its name to I-Power Ltd in 2000, which was then purchased by Turbo Genset PLC in 2001 with him as the R & D Director. In 2002, I-Power acquired the IPR and service contracts from Rolls Royce Industrial Controls. In 2006 Turbo Genset changed the operating name to Turbo Power Systems Ltd (TPS) and changed it’s listing onto the AIM market. In 2010, TPS was acquired by the Brazilian engineering company VSE, a subsidiary of Vale Engineering, the major Brazilian mining company. In 2013, Mr Lakin retired as an executive director and gave up the R & D Director of TPS.

In nearly 5 decades of his career, Tony has been responsible for numerous projects, e.g., data logging systems for IBM, film lighting systems used in films including Shakespeare In Love, James Bond, Harry Potter and The Saint with an Oscar for technical innovation, one of the first DFIG wind turbine controllers, the first UK G59 approved PV grid-linked inverter systems, and four inverter drive systems for Boeing (Dreamliner) 787 aircraft.

Tony is the UK expert on IEC Technical Committee TC82/WG6. He is a representative on the BSI committees for Photovoltaic Energy Systems, GEL/82 and Electrical Energy Storage ESL/120, and was one of the experts originally involved in writing G77, the first low power generation grid connection standard. Furthermore, Tony is a member of the UK G59 frequency response technical sub-group, looking at the potential future problems with grid frequency response and connection standards.

Aris Karcanias is a Senior Managing Director and Co-leader of the Global Clean Energy practice at FTI Consulting. He has over 15 years of consulting experience in the clean energy sector with a focus on renewables, energy storage, and electric vehicle industries, having been recognized by ALM's Consulting Magazine as one of 2018's Global Leaders in Consulting.

Aris has a strong technical engineering background with extensive experiences on corporate strategy formulation, renewable energy technology, strategic market entry and exit, mergers and acquisitions, dispute resolution, due diligence reviews, and energy policy development and impact assessments. Aris has managed a number of large, cross-country projects and has worked with clients across the world and throughout the energy value chain including emerging technology companies, manufacturers, environmental organizations, utilities, developers, energy companies, investors, and government agencies.

Additionally, Aris resides on the Investment Committee at SUSI Partners, a Zurich based clean energy infrastructure fund. Aris is regarded as a leading industry figure and has authored several widely cited publications. He is often quoted in prominent media outlets on energy issues and frequently speaks at, or chairs energy conferences.

He holds an MPhil, Engineering for Sustainable Development, from the University of Cambridge and an M.Eng., Electrical and Control Systems, University of Warwick.

Gene Frantz is widely regarded as the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) visionary or The Father of DSP. Along with a group of engineers, they delivered the TMS5100, TI's first speech synthesis chip, which was the centerpiece of the Speak & Spell, a wildly successful educational consumer electronics product that was years ahead of its time. In the mid-1970s few believed it was possible to implement real-time digital processing technology in an integrated circuit. Now the technology is found in every device that accesses the Internet and plays media - not to mention many others.

He holds 45 patents in the area of memories, speech, consumer products and DSP. He has written more than 50 Papers and articles and continually presents at Universities and conferences worldwide. He is also among industry experts widely quoted in the media due to his tremendous knowledge and visionary view of DSP solutions. He spent 39 years at Texas Instruments and rose to the role of Principal Fellow - the top rung of the technical ladder and an honor that only 4 people before him enjoyed during the history of the company.

He is a recipient of the IEEE Millennium Medal and a Fellow of IEEE.

He received his BSEE from University of Central Florida in 1971, MSEE from Southern Methodist University in 1977, and MBA from Texas Tech University - Rawls College of Business in 1982.

Dr. Phill Cartwright was NED/Chairman at The Center for Modelling and Simulation, NED at The Manufacturing Technology Center, and the former CTO of The High Value Manufacturing Catapult UK. The Catapult combines the strengths of seven existing centers across key manufacturing processes, with over 140 million pounds of government investment and investment matched by private industry to revitalize the UK manufacturing industry. Before that, he was Director of Engineering Excellence Group, Laing O’Rourke, the renowned international engineering and construction company, responsible for the company’s Electrical Power, Control and Data Systems Research, Development and Delivery.

He had an impressive track record of senior roles in advanced engineering and manufacturing, including six years as Head of Electrical Power and Control Systems at Rolls-Royce. He had successfully managed PNL accounts >650m pounds and attracted government gearing for manufacturing, research and technology programmes >350m pounds. He developed, captured and delivered significant and successful power systems, nuclear and/or aerospace projects in Europe, India, China, Uruguay and Brazil.

Phill combined a strong commercial engineering background, with sustainable supply chain development experience and a clear strategic vision.

He was the founding chair of the Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) Power Sector Executive and has previously been an active member and adviser to the UK Government’s Nuclear Industry Council. He was a Fellow of The IET, an active visiting Professor in Energy Systems at The University of Manchester and The University of Strathclyde, the author of numerous technical journal papers, co-author of two books and several patents in mathematical modelling, control and integration of energy systems.

Phill passed away in September 2021. Read Tributes to Professor Phill Cartwright.