Meet the Voices Powering the Future of Energy

Jesse Jenkins is one of the world’s foremost experts on the energy transition. A professor of energy systems engineering and policy at Princeton University, Jesse leads cutting-edge research on pathways to net-zero emissions, emerging energy technologies, electricity markets, energy policy, and clean energy infrastructure deployment. He’s a trusted voice for corporate leaders, investors, and policymakers navigating the rapidly evolving clean energy landscape.

Jesse is co-founder & CTO of Firma Power, LLC, where he leads development of the Firma OS optimization and decision support software suite.

He is also the co-host of Shift Key, a widely followed podcast examining the forces transforming the global energy system. His work has shaped national policy, informed major investment strategies, and helped organizations around the world think more clearly—and act more decisively—about their energy future.

Jesse earned a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked previously as a postdoctoral environmental fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, and spent six years as an energy and climate policy analyst prior to embarking on his academic career. He served on the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine expert committee on Accelerating Decarbonization of the U.S. Energy System, was a principal investigator and lead author of Princeton's landmark Net-Zero America study, and leads the REPEAT Project (repeatproject.org), which provides timely, independent evaluation of federal energy and climate policies as they’re proposed and enacted. He has published over 45 peer-reviewed papers to date in high-impact journals including Science, Nature Energy, Joule and Applied Energy. Dr. Jenkins has delivered invited testimony to multiple Congressional committees and his research is frequently featured in major media outlets. His work guiding, shaping and evaluating American efforts to transition to clean energy was profiled in the Wall Street Journal, recognized with inclusion on the 2024 TIME100 Next list of the next 100 leaders shaping the future and TIME100 Climate list of most influential climate leaders, Vox.com's 2023 Future Perfect 50 list of leaders working on solutions to today’s (and tomorrow’s) biggest problems, and Environmental News Record's 2022 Top 25 Newsmakers list.

Dr. Jenkins serves on the advisory boards of Eavor Technologies, Rondo Energy, Dig Energy and Karman Industries and is a technical advisor to Energy Impact Partners and MUUS Climate Partners.

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Elliot Mainzer is President and CEO of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) in Folsom, California. For the last 25 years, he has been a leader in helping to achieve a reliable and affordable clean energy transition by working to support innovation and creativity in renewable energy development, transmission planning, market design and regional collaboration.

Mainzer joined the CAISO on September 30, 2020 after an 18-year career at the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), including seven years as Administrator and CEO. At BPA, he led efforts to unlock the wind-energy potential of the Pacific Northwest, managed the development of BPA’s open-season model for transmission subscription and queue management, and worked to balance the needs of the Federal Columbia River Power System with the welfare of tribal nations and salmon protection.

Under Mainzer’s leadership at the CAISO, the organization has strengthened coordinated power and transmission planning with California’s regulatory agencies, integrated record-setting amounts of new power generation and the nation’s largest fleet of lithium-ion batteries, helped preserve overall system reliability during the record-setting Western heat wave of September 2022 and provided strategic leadership and direction for the CAISO’s new extended day-ahead market proposal.

Mainzer’s strong background and personal commitment to regional collaboration as an essential element of a reliable and affordable clean-energy transition have been a hallmark of his leadership at the CAISO, where he has also brought renewed focus on control center modernization, stakeholder engagement and program management in support of the organization’s new 2022-2026 strategic plan. A native of San Francisco, Mainzer has an undergraduate degree in geography from U.C. Berkeley and master’s degrees in Business Administration and Environmental Management from Yale University. He is a senior fellow of the Oregon Chapter of the American Leadership Forum, has served on the boards of the Electric Power Research Institute and the Energy Systems Integration Group, and currently serves as co-chair of the Western Electric Industry Leaders Group.

He and his wife Margaret have twin boys. Among his non-professional pursuits, Mainzer is an amateur jazz saxophonist and dedicated student of jazz theory and history.

Lanny Nickell is President and Chief Executive Officer for Southwest Power Pool. Lanny joined SPP in 1997 and previously served as Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of Engineering, and Vice President of Operations.  

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Lanny received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tulsa and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. He has participated and continues to participate in numerous industry and philanthropic boards and organizations. Lanny and his wife have four children, and they reside in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

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John Wellinghoff is the Chief Regulatory Officer at Voltus and a nationally recognized leader in energy policy. He served two Presidential appointments as a Commissioner at FERC, including five years as Chairman, where he advanced grid modernization and clean energy integration.

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Iris Ethier is a Data Engineer on the Data Collections team at Yes Energy. She values developing clean, efficient solutions to deliver timely, high-quality data to clients. When she’s not coding, you can find her biking, ski touring, or playing card games.

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Lynnette Hughes is a seasoned Customer Success executive with 23+ years of experience leading and scaling customer success teams in B2B SaaS. She is known for building data-driven CS organizations that drive adoption, retention, and long-term customer success.

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Joyce Jenq joined Power Settlements in 2020 bringing 18 years of expertise in wholesale trading operations, environmental products and compliance from Shell Energy to Yes Energy. Today she oversees the strategic vision for PowerCore Bid-to-Bill product platform along with her product team. Like the founding leaders, she takes a hands-on approach to customer relationships, implementations and software innovation to help organizations solve complex problems in rapidly evolving energy markets.

Outside of work, Joyce enjoys the beach and hikes with her two energetic kids, husband Tom and playful labradoodle in Carlsbad, CA.

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Amber Armentrout is the Vice President of Operations for Live Power, Yes Energy’s premium grid monitoring service. She is an enthusiastic leader focused on delivering the most accurate real-time generation, transmission, and load data to energy traders. When she’s not thinking about grid stuff, Amber is at home in Lafayette, Colorado with her two boys.

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KC Hallett has been a part of Yes Energy for 10+ years, partnering with both sales and finance teams as the company has grown from 100 customers to more than 1,000 customers. As Director of Revenue Operations KC and her team support a variety of functions at Yes Energy ranging from quote and order creation to contracting and license provisioning.

Mike Perry has been involved in supporting the North American power markets with software and data for 30 years and has been with Yes Energy for the last ten.  He feels lucky to be a part of such a dynamic industry and has the privilege to support Yes Energy customers who are incredibly talented at what they do.  When not managing the Account Executive team at Yes, he is busy with his family that includes keeping up with his wife and three boys on the ski slopes.

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Eli DeQuiroz is vice president of operations and data at Yes Energy, where he leads the end-to-end data engineering and operational functions that power the company’s data-intensive energy market solutions. With nearly 15 years of experience building, scaling, and modernizing large-scale data collection, data quality, and data delivery platforms, his work focuses on ensuring data is highly available, fresh, complete, and trusted by market participants. Eli is passionate about building durable teams, operational excellence, and helping organizations translate complex market data into reliable insights that drive better decisions.

Daniel Cullen is a Product Manager for Modeling focused on short-term solutions at Yes Energy. He previously served as a Product Manager for Submission Services and Position Management. Previously, he worked in trading and risk management for agricultural commodities and currencies with international experience in China, India, Mexico, and South Africa. In his free time, he enjoys building circuits, reading financial news, trading stocks, and going for hikes with his dogs.

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Katie Mallinson is an energy markets professional with over 15 years of experience across U.S. wholesale power and gas markets. She brings deep expertise in real-time and day-ahead trading, market operations, and asset optimization, with hands-on experience in CAISO, WECC, PJM, MISO, and SPP. She has managed a wide range of physical assets—including natural gas, hydro, renewable, and hybrid resources such as wind, solar, and battery storage—applying market fundamentals, regulatory compliance, and operational execution to drive value and manage risk. She now leverages this market experience in her role as a Senior Product Manager, developing bid-to-bill software solutions that support complex transactions, trading, and analytic workflows for utilities, IPPs, and power trading organizations.

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Robert is Deputy Editor/Enterprise for RTO Insider, where he leads a team of correspondents covering electricity policy and markets in Western North America and frequently contributes his own reporting. He was previously an editor at Argus Media, where he oversaw coverage of the U.S. electricity sector, compiled daily power price assessments and followed developments in the West as a reporter. Robert holds an B.A. in English from Tulane University and an M.S. in economics from University College Dublin, where his coursework focused on European integration. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, Christina, and son, Henry.

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Garrett has been working in power market data and advanced analytics since 2003. He currently holds the position of Director of Product at Yes Energy, where he leverages his experience to build cutting-edge data and technology solutions for clients. Prior to Yes Energy, he solved complex business problems as a data and analytics consultant at KPMG and Alteryx and prior to that he managed product strategy for an energy information analytics platform provider. Garrett's education in geospatial analytics and lifelong interest in maps originally drew him to the energy industry.

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Rich began covering the electric industry for The Philadelphia Inquirer at the beginning of retail competition, winning the National Press Foundation’s 1998 award for energy reporting. He later headed a Houston-based startup that produced hourly power indexes and worked as an energy analyst for Bloomberg Government and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Enforcement. He cofounded RTO Insider in 2013 after realizing that no media were covering the RTO/ISO stakeholder processes. RTO Insider now covers all seven RTO/ISOs in the U.S. plus IESO in Ontario.

Scott Quin recently joined Yes Energy as Senior Director – Professional Services. Scott has focused on managing the Professional Services Department responsible for project deployments.  

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Scott has over 36 years’ experience in the electric utility industry and over 30 years of practical, operations and software deployment experience in the wholesale electricity marketplace.  His experience varies broadly:

• Working at power generating stations
• Managing a 7000+ MW portfolio of assets and load in Florida
• Managing state-of-the-art asset optimization and bid to bill software systems with multiple vendors
• Providing subject matter expertise and consulting to the wholesale electricity marketplace
• Managing numerous deployment projects for customers within the CAISO, ERCOT, ISONE, NYISO, PJM, MISO, and SPP markets.

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Scott earned a Master of Science degree in engineering management from the University of South Florida.  He also earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Mississippi State University.

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Jason’s journey through the energy industry started in 1995 encompassing roles in gas trading, power trading and combined-cycle asset management to software solution selling. He currently leads the sales effort for Yes Energy’s PowerCore and EnCompass platform, working with existing and prospective clients to help them automate and streamline their operations in areas such as asset optimization, scheduling, settlements, contract management, E-Tagging, trade capture, and risk management.

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Jason has previously worked for Valero Power, Pacific Gas & Electric, Equitable, AEP, and InterGen/Shell He has a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (with honors) from Washington University, and is also a licensed system operator in both ERCOT and SPP.

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Denice Purdum brings over 25 years of experience providing SAAS solutions in the electricity industry including deal capture, risk management, load forecasting, ISO bidding and schedule, wholesale settlement and retail pricing and billing.

As Senior Product Manager with Yes Energy, she plays a critical role in building solutions to automate complex contract workflows for transmission, PPAs, tolling agreements, demand response and ad-hoc billing projects.

Prior to Yes Energy, Denice held senior roles at ArcTrade, MCG Energy Solutions and APX. She is a subject matter expert in CAISO, SPP, ERCOT, PJM, ISO-NE and NYISO.

Denice enjoys boating, hiking and taking long walks, often deep in thought about the next big enhancement.

Deepa is an accomplished energy industry professional with over 19 years of experience, specializing in ETRM contract billing, ISO settlements, and bid-to-bill software solutions. She has a strong track record of leading end-to-end product design, implementation, and delivery across major ISOs including SPP, MISO, CAISO, and ERCOT. She is skilled in translating complex contracts, market and regulatory requirements into scalable, customer-focused solutions.

Jesse Carver is an Account Executive on our new accounts team. He has been with Yes Energy for over 10 years, helping connect the needs of market participants with Yes Energy’s solutions. He enjoys hiking, travelling, and a good black manhattan.

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jesse@yesenergy.com

Crystal Fimbres is a Customer Success Manager at Yes Energy who’s all about making sure customers feel heard, supported, and comfortable using the system. She takes the time to understand what each customer needs, speaks up for their priorities, and works to get their questions and issues resolved as quickly as possible. 

When she’s not helping customers, Crystal loves being outdoors—fishing, camping, or checking out car shows.

crystal.fimbres@yesenergy.com

Quinn Gray is a Product Manager at Yes Energy, leading the Market Data Platform and PowerSignals Product. He has over 10 years of experience in the energy industry, including five years at Yes Energy working in nodal power markets. Today, Quinn is focused on enhancing Yes Energy’s congestion analysis capabilities.

quinn@yesenergy.com

www.linkedin.com/in/jquinngray/

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Norm Richardson is the Vice President of Modeling at Yes Energy, and has more than three decades of experience in market price forecasting, integrated resource planning, risk evaluation, and economic transmission analysis. His experience includes developing the EnCompass software model, collecting and analyzing market data, consulting projects, and expert witness testimony. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Furman University and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Melissa Neske is a Customer Success Manager at Yes Energy, working with customers to ensure they’re confident, successful, and getting real value from their tools. She has a passion for making complicated processes feel approachable and practical. When she’s not working, Melissa can be found hanging out with her three poodles, who completely run her life.

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melissa.neske@yesenergy.com

Link to schedule time with me

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Alex Robertson is the Customer Success Team Lead. He is passionate about helping Yes Energy customers solve complex problems using Yes Energy solutions so that they can focus their time and attention on what matters the most. Outside of work, he is a regular at the gym, enjoys reading, and is doing his best to figure out how to be a better cook.

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alex.robertson@yesenergy.com

Rob Strange is a Senior Power Market Analyst with over a decade of experience in power industry data analytics and product solutions. He now supports Yes Energy clients and internal teams by conducting market research and analysis to ensure data quality and product solutions enable clients to participate effectively in power markets.

Emily Merchant is a Director of Product at Yes Energy in charge of setting the vision and strategy for Yes Energy's PowerSignals, QuickSignals, and Trading Regions (public data) products. Emily has over 13 years of experience working in the energy industry. Prior to Yes Energy Emily worked at Navigant Consulting (now Guidehouse) for seven years where she helped utilities assess the impact of their energy efficiency programs. She has also worked at E Source, Energy Trust of Oregon, and GDS Associates. A career highlight was being on the team that brought on S&P Global as a new partner to Yes Energy in 2022. Outside of work Emily loves traveling (London is her favorite city), biking, reading, and spending time with friends & family.

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Portia Gilman manages the Market Monitoring team, a group that stays abreast of the ISO energy markets. Market Monitoring serves internal and external clients with regulatory market knowledge and subject matter expertise on impacts to Yes Energy’s clients, data, and the energy industry as a whole. Before coming to Yes, Portia was an analyst for ISO New England’s internal market monitoring group for over 6 six years, specializing in compliance, price formation, SCED dispatch, and capacity market economics.

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portia.gilman@yesenergy.com

Mark Todoroff is the APAC Sales Manager at Yes Energy. He joined Yes Energy through the acquisition of TESLA in early 2024, where he held both forecast analysis and business development roles in North America and APAC since 2011. Mark is active in the energy industry having served as the Co-chair of New Zealand’s Young Energy Professionals Networks and was one of the World Energy Council’s FEL-100 Future Energy Leaders. Outside of work, Mark enjoys travelling, cycling, and family time.

Asterios is a senior energy professional and economist with over 11 years of experience in power and gas demand forecasting across the EMEA region.

He is currently the Commercial Director for Forecasting Data & Analysis at Yes Energy in London, where he brings together the analysis, product and sales teams.

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asterios.moschopoulos@yesenergy.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/asterios-moschopoulos-am/

Sam Lockshin is the product manager of the data products at Yes Energy. He has a passion for programmatically delivering Yes Energy’s high-quality power market data catalog reliably to customers so they can achieve their business goals. You can catch him at karaoke, playing piano, or checking out the latest horror flick.

Michael is the president of Yes Energy and one of its founders. Michael named the company based upon its commitment to be a positive force in the power industry, and a helpful partner for its customers. Michael often warns new employees “be careful what you become good at, because that’s what people in business will want from you!” And what people want from him and his friends at Yes Energy is hard work solving data problems in the niche that is nodal power markets. Equally important to Michael is providing a company culture where employees can take risks, learn to become leaders, and be themselves. In addition to his Yes Energy “passion project,” Michael enjoys snowboarding, pretending he knows how to surf while on vacation, trail running (which he actually does know how to do), spending time with his lovely wife and their dogs... oh and music - all kinds!

michael@yesenergy.com

Isaac Velander is a co-founder and the Chief Product Officer at Yes Energy. His two decades in the power markets have focused on delivering products that reduce the friction to market participation and increase the transparency into the mountains of data that the markets produce. When he's not in front of his laptop, he's out in the mountains of Colorado with his wife and son.

isaac@yesenergy.com

Cliff Rose leads Yes Energy's efforts to build products that help our customers leverage power market data to make better asset siting decisions. He has ten years of experience helping companies navigate power markets in both consulting and Saas businesses. Outside of work you can find Cliff engaging in stereotypical Colorado activities such as skiing, running, and biking.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliff-rose-87155514/

cliff.rose@yesenergy.com

Laura Fletcher is the Associate Product Manager for the Infrastructure Insights product at Yes Energy. She joined Yes through the acquisition of The C Three Group in 2023 where she spent 4 years working in the physical infrastructure side of the energy industry. Outside of work, Laura likes to spend her time traveling, reading, and hiking.

laura.fletcher@yesenergy.com

Ben Perry is the Product Manager for Forecasting products at Yes Energy. He came to Yes at the beginning of 2024 after 10 years as a Demand Forecasting Analyst at TESLA, Inc.

ben.perry@yesenergy.com

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Alex Bennitt is the Product Manager for Live Power and partner content integration at Yes Energy, where he utilizes a background in market fundamentals and Live Power operations to help steer product direction. Over the past 7 years, Alex rotated through many roles within Live Power operations, from deploying sensors in the field, to calibrating raw sensor data, and most recently running a market fundamentals team. In his free time, Alex is an avid skier that chases snow almost year-round.

alex.bennitt@yesenergy.com