Staff

Mike Smith, Vice president

Mike Smith is a 22-year veteran of the utility smart grid, IT, automation, information services and media business. He has served in a variety of leadership, research, sales and marketing positions throughout his career. In his two most recent positions, he was vice president & general manager, North America for Spintelligent, a global leader in delivering events and media to the utility industry; and was senior vice president of Sierra Energy Group, the research and analysis division of Energy Central. Immediately prior to joining Energy Central, Mike was a principal at InfoNetrix, a market research and consulting firm he co-founded. Mike has also been involved in many of the leading information and media initiatives in the market, including developing and launching the industry's first dedicated publication, Utility Automation, now known as Power Grid International, intimate involvement in many of the industry's leading events, running the industry's leading market research firm, and holding key marketing and sales management positions with leading solution providers. Mike has a bachelor of arts in economics from San Jose State University and is a former U.S. Army Officer (Captain, Infantry).

 

H. Christine Richards, Director of knowledge services

 

Christine is a director with the Utility Analytics Institute. Christine is a researcher and writer whose areas of expertise include the utility industry, smart grid, utility analytics, renewable energy, economic development, regional planning and landscape architecture. Christine previously worked at Energy Central, as vice president of the company's Intelligent Utility division and editor-in-chief of Intelligent Utility magazine. 
 
Prior to her roles at Energy Central, Christine served as the lead analyst for the intelligent grid practice at IDC Energy Insights-a top market research firm for the energy industry. Her clients included some of the largest investor-owned utilities and public power producers in North America along with the largest IT vendors in the world. In this position, she conducted rigorous research and wrote about critical issues facing smart grid efforts. Christine's ability to bring unique and valuable insights to the smart grid space earned her prestigious research and quality awards from IDC.
 
Christine received her master's degree from Cornell University and graduated Summa cum Laude with a bachelor of science from Colorado State University.
 

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Analytics Speak

Analytics business infrastructure

The hardware, software, professional services, business processes and people needed to successfully support and implement analytics initiatives across the enterprise that are not specific to either customer analytics or grid analytics. Examples within this area include.

  • Analytics hardware, such as analytics-specific servers
  • Software and middleware that support analytics applications or offer enterprise-wide analytics capabilities
  • Communications networks
  • Professional services, such as data management and integration
 
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