Marco Island, Florida, May 5 to 7, 2008
International Stationary Battery Conference   
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Speakers and Committees

Here are some of the people without whom Battcon would not be possible. These people have contributed much time and effort towards writing papers, creating presentations or participating on Battcon committees.

Battcon Hall of Fame

2003: Glenn Albér, John Devitt
2004: Dr. David O. Feder, Tom Ruhlmann
2005: Robert Blohm, Frank J. Vaccaro
2006: Garth P. Corey
2007: Jim McDowall

Battcon Battery Person of the Year

2003: Jim McDowall
2004: Robert Blohm
2005: J. Allen Byrne
2006: Curtis Ashton
2007: Rick Tressler

Bob Blohm (left), Field Training Manager for EnerSys, Inc., is awarded the Battcon Hall of Fame plaque from Glenn Albér in May 2005 at Miami Beach. Bob has been training field personnel for 20 of his 41 years at EnerSys. Recipients are inducted into the Hall of Fame based on their contributions to the battery industry. Glenn, who was instrumental in the creation of Battcon in 1997 and the founder of Albércorp, was inducted in 2003.


 

Speakers and Panel Members

Curtis Ashton
Sr. Staff Power Tech Support Engineer
Qwest Communications

Mr. Ashton has a BSEE Summa Cum Laude from Arizona State University. He has four years as an Engineering Technician, SRP, Coronado Generating Station, and 14 years as a Power Engineer for USWEST/Qwest, the youngest Sr. Staff Engineer in Qwest. He served 11 years as subcommittee Vice-Chair and Chair for several IEEE stationary battery standards and served a term on IEEE RevCom. NFPA member. Former BNES member (RBOC Broadband Reliability Committee). Battcon Technical Committee member. He has been published in Intelec (5), Telephony magazine (3), Power Quality magazine, IEC 1997 Communications Engineering Review, Lorain Power Conference, and Battcon (6).

J. Allen Byrne
Engineering, Training, and Technical Support Manager
Interstate PowerCare

Allen is a 35 year veteran of the battery-backed power industry. He has worked in all aspects of the field, including DC (telecom) power systems, UPS, and batteries. Allen is one of the initiators and founders of Battcon and has acted as co-chair and moderator of the conference for the past 11 years. He has contributed to IEEE, ATIS, BICSI and other code and standards setting organizations. Allen has had over fifty articles and technical papers published in trade and industry magazines and journals and has presented numerous times at national and international industry conferences. He has chaired the battery portion of the Power Systems World conference for 15 years and is the author of the Power Distribution chapter of the Telecommunications Distribution Methods Manual published by McGraw-Hill. Allen was elected Battcon Battery Person of the Year by his peers in 2005.

Dale Campbell
Senior Electrical Engineer
Intel Corporation

Dale is in Intel’s Logic Facilities Technology Development group. He is an Oregon Registered Professional Engineer and owns all Electrical Master Design Standards for Intel’s next generation logic fabs. Dale is a member of Intel’s Electrical Corporate Engineering Team and is responsible for the selection of all UPS's, batteries, and battery monitoring equipment. He has led numerous task forces to improve UPS/CPS reliability and has over 15 years experience with UPS and battery systems.

John Davis
Director of Business Development
VRB Power Systems, Inc.

Mr. Davis has over 19 years executive level experience in sales and business development heavily focused on emerging technology solutions for the telecommunications and utilities industries. John has been a pioneer in selling fuel cells and alternative energy technologies into the telecoms and utilities market space, both nationally and internationally. Currently, John is the Director of Business Development for VRB Systems, Inc. in Vancouver, Canada. Before VRB Power, John held the position of Director of International Business Development for ReliOn, Inc.

Pete DeMar
Founder
Battery Research and Testing, Inc.

Pete has over 30 years in the stationary battery industry. He is one of the founders of Battery Research and Testing, the first independent stationary battery service company in the U.S., as well as the company that discovered the benefits of coupling lost water replacement with the installation of a catalyst in VRLA cells to result in long term capacity recovery. He presently is the longest continuously serving member on the IEEE battery working group; he has remained active since 1982 as the first person to join who was from a service organization and not a manufacturer or a utility company.

John Gagge
Director, Reserve Power Engineering and Quality Assurance
EnerSys

John has been with EnerSys for 13 years in various roles, including motive power engineering, QA, plant engineering / quality, and currently as head of Reserve Power Engineering and Quality Assurance. He is based in the EnerSys global headquarters in Reading, PA and oversees product and process development, new product introductions, applications engineering, and quality assurance activities. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and actively involved in many areas of the industry, including the IEEE standards committee, BCI technical committee, and IEC TC21 working group.

Takefumi Inoue
Manager, Engineering Dept.
GS Yuasa Technology, Ltd.

Mr. Inoue received his Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Kyoto Institute of Technology in Kyoto, Japan in 1993. He began his career at GS Yuasa. (The name was Japan Storage Battery at that time.) Since 1994, he has been part of GS Yuasa’s large lithium-ion team, developing deep sea and aerospace batteries. Mr. Inoue is currently a manager on large, lithium-ion batteries for aerospace applications at GS Yuasa.

John Kim
Sr. Technical Account Manager
C&D Technologies, Inc.

In his position at C&D, John is responsible for utility product sales and marketing and for the corporate wide battery training program. For 16 years previously, he was an R&D Project Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Product Manager, and Manager of Technical Support with C&D. Mr. Kim has a BS Materials Engineering and an MS Engineering Management from Drexel University and has co-authored papers presented at Battcon 2004 and 2008 and EuroBat 2006.

Bob Malley
Director, Product Development
C&D Technologies, Inc.
Bob has been involved in lead acid battery development and manufacturing since 1984, starting with Power Battery and then with C&D Technologies since 1999. He is currently Director of Product Development at C&D, where he is responsible for the development and launch of lead acid products for the standby market.

Ron Marts
Program Manager
Telcordia Technologies

Mr. Marts is a registered architect and certified facilities manager who specializes in building standards, building codes, and fire protection strategies for the telecommunications industry. He is a member of NFPA, SFPE, FDI, ICC, IEEE, NCSBCS, IAPMO, and UFCA, as well as a principal member on the NFPA technical committees for both telecommunications and power systems. Ron has over 27 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, and provides several professional services to his clients, including representation in codes and standards development, development of building codes and NFPA standards, and telecommunications standards writing.

Steve McCluer
Senior Applications Engineer
APC, Critical Power and Cooling Services Division

Steve McCluer is a Senior Applications Engineer at APC, the Critical Power and Cooling Services Division of Schneider Electric. He serves on several code and standard technical committees and chairs the IEEE stationary battery glossary committee. Steve has over 25 years of experience in the battery industry. He has authored several technical papers, white papers, and articles and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. He holds a Master's degree in International Management.

Jim McDowall
Business Development Manager
Saft America, Inc.

Jim McDowall has worked in the battery industry since 1977 and is currently with Saft in the position of Business Development Manager. He is very active in standards work and is currently the Standards Coordinator of the IEEE Stationary Battery Committee and chair of three of its working groups, as well as being a former chair of the parent committee. Jim is also a current member and former chairman of the board of directors of the Electricity Storage Association. He is a member of the Battcon conference technical committee and has written or co-written numerous technical papers.

Dan McMenamin
President and CEO
Dan McMenamin and Associates, Inc.

Dan McMenamin consults, following 36 years with Verizon Communications. He is a member of the Lightning Protection Institute, United Lightning Protection Association, Power Sources Manufacturer's Association, National Fire Protection Association, and the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers. Author of numerous technical papers and articles, Dan served on the Technical Program Committees of nine International Telecommunications Energy Conferences (INTELEC) and as General Chair for INTELEC 2006.

Zbigniew Noworolski
Polytronics Engineering, Ltd.
Dr. Zbigniev Novorolski was born and educated in Poland. He received his Masters degree in 1966 and earned his PhD in 1970, both in the field of electronics control and measurements. After a brief academic career, he emigrated to Canada, where he led the Canadian R&D division of a major UPS manufacturer. In 1979, Zbig opened Polytronics Engineering, which was the first company to use fiber optics and a new float current technique for battery monitoring. Zbig publishes frequently, holds a few patents, and is active in the engineering community. He is a member of OPE, a senior member of IEEE, vice chair of the IEEE PES Battery Monitoring Guide, a Member of the Intelec Program Committee, and Chair of Infobatt, a Canadian version of Battcon.

E. Carey O'Donnell Jr.
Vice-President, Business Development
Mesa Technical Associates, Inc.

Carey has been in the DC power systems and battery industry for 27 years. He has held a number of sales and senior management positions with industry leaders like Emerson, Liebert Corp., and C&D Technologies, and was a co-founder of The Cactus Integration Group. Today, Carey is a co-owner of Mesa, a DC power product, engineering, and deployment services integrator based in Cobleskill, NY. Carey is a 1978 graduate of Colgate University, Hamilton, NY. He is also an IT Fellow at Temple University, Phila. PA., and is an adjunct, teaching technology courses at both the undergraduate and graduate schools. He resides in Haddonfield, NJ, and his primary hobbies are aviation and motorcycles.

Thomas D. O'Sullivan
Power Systems Specialist, Senior Consultant
Power Battery Co.

Tom O'Sullivan has a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Fordham University and a B.S. in Chemistry from Manhattan College. He is responsible for the large, embedded base of flooded lead-acid batteries used in telephone central offices. Tom contributed to the development of the flooded and valve regulated lead acid, nickel-cadmium, and secondary lithium battery technologies. He has prepared many of the generic requirements documents for batteries that are the basis for improvement of these battery technologies (TR-766 and TR-1200 and GR-3020).

George Pedersen
Business Development Manager
BTECH, Inc.

George has had a long career in the design, installation, and operation of both communications and secure power systems. Since moving to the USA in 1987, except for a period in 1998 when he returned to England for two years to be the Director of Engineering at Advance Power, he has worked exclusively in the world of batteries, secure power systems, and services. George is currently the Business Development Manager at BTECH, Inc.

Roger N. Pocock
National Sales Manager
Alcad Standby Batteries

Roger Pocock received his chemistry degree at Nottingham University, UK and has over 30 years experience with Texas Instruments, Weston Instruments, and Alcad. He has worked in the engineering, sales, and marketing of semiconductors, instruments, control products, and batteries. He has been with Saft America for 14 years and recently was appointed National Sales Manager for Alcad. Roger is a member of IEEE and EGSA, and is a past board member of the Electrical Generating Systems Association, where he rewrote Chapter 27, Batteries and Chargers, for their handbook, On-Site Power: A Reference Book. He presented a paper titled, "Batteries: Always expected to perform, but why don't they?" to the 2006 IEEE-PCIC conference in Philadelphia.

David Putnam
Applications Engineer
Northstar Battery

David has worked in the sales department as an applications engineer with Northstar Battery since October of 2000. He was originally hired as a control engineer for manufacturing to help integrate production equipment. He moved to the sales department to develop a battery rack program. Mr. Putnam has also worked at Northstar's international facility to implement plant process and operations.

Ed Rafter
Principal
Tier IV Consulting Group

Mr. Rafter is a Principal Engineer with Tier IV Consulting Group, a provider of data center consulting services. Ed is a Licensed Professional Engineer, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and a Certified Commissioning Process Authority Professional. He has over 25 years experience in critical power systems, including design, installation, commissioning, and maintenance and testing. His expertise includes data center and other 24x7, high reliability, and mission critical business applications from 5,000 to 80,000 square feet.

Jan Reber
Director of Engineering, RP Flooded Products
EnerSys

Chris Sedor
Vice President, Strategic Sourcing
C&D Technologies, Inc.
Chris has been with C&D for fours years and is presently the Vice President of Strategic Sourcing. Prior to that, he worked 18 years in Operations and Program Management in the aerospace industry. Mr. Sedor has a BS Industrial Engineering and a BS Operations Management from Penn State and an MBA from Villanova. He is a member of ISM, and spent considerable time investigating hedging strategies with banks, brokers, and industry contacts, including a course at the London Metals exchange.

Matthew Theriault
Designer
HindlePower Inc.

Matt Theriault (pron: Terrio) has created a stellar career providing unique ideas within the DC power industry. Beginning in 1979, Matt joined the Hindle family enterprise as a member of the product design team. His original design capability, coupled with a unique talent for problem solving, has earned Matt extensive notoriety as a DC power systems expert. Matt continues to foster his forward looking concepts and ideas at the HindlePower manufacturing plant in Easton, PA.

Pierre Turpin
E&A Project Manager
LEM Geneva

Pierre Turpin was born in France in 1958. He received the Dipl. Eng. degree in electricity from the French engineering university (INSA de LYON) in 1982. After 18 years as electronic R&D manager of a small company providing, among other things, specific battery chargers and UPS equipment, he joined LEM in 2003 as Macrocomponents Project Manager, which, in 2005, became the Energy and Automation segment. Battery monitoring systems are now part of this new E&A segment.

Steve Vechy
Marketing Director, UPS and Utility
EnerSys

Steve has been in the battery business for 20 years and has held various positions of responsibility, from Application Engineering through his current responsibilities as Marketing Director. Steve is an IEEE member and has been active in the IEEE Stationary Battery Committee and SCC-21 (fuel cells, photovoltaics, dispersed generation, and energy storage) and has participated in the development of several standards. He has published several technical papers at conferences, including Battcon and Intelec. Steve is the Chairman of the Battery Council International Industrial Battery and Charger Committee and a member of the Intelec Management Committee. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and his MBA in Management from Lewis University.


Battcon Technical Committee

Glenn Albér
Founder
Albércorp
Glenn Albér, the founder of Albércorp, is a graduate electrical engineer from North Carolina State. Glenn pioneered much of the battery test and monitoring equipment in use today and holds several patents. For over 20 years, he has been a member of the Albércorp Battery Seminar team, which has taught battery basics to thousands of users. In 1997, Glenn conceived of the idea of the first Battcon conference and was instrumental in its realization. He has published numerous technical papers and is a member of IEEE SCC29 on batteries.

Curtis Ashton
Sr. Staff Power Tech Support Engineer
Qwest Communications

Mr. Ashton has a BSEE Summa Cum Laude from Arizona State University. He has four years as an Engineering Technician, SRP, Coronado Generating Station, and 14 years as a Power Engineer for USWEST/Qwest, the youngest Sr. Staff Engineer in Qwest. He served 11 years as subcommittee Vice-Chair and Chair for several IEEE stationary battery standards and served a term on IEEE RevCom. NFPA member. Former BNES member (RBOC Broadband Reliability Committee). Battcon Technical Committee member. He has been published in Intelec (5), Telephony magazine (3), Power Quality magazine, IEC 1997 Communications Engineering Review, Lorain Power Conference, and Battcon (6).

J. Allen Byrne
Engineering, Training, and Technical Support Manager
Interstate PowerCare
Allen is a 35 year veteran of the battery-backed power industry. He has worked in all aspects of the field, including DC (telecom) power systems, UPS, and batteries. Allen is one of the initiators and founders of Battcon and has acted as co-chair and moderator of the conference for the past 11 years. He has contributed to IEEE, ATIS, BICSI and other code and standards setting organizations. Allen has had over fifty articles and technical papers published in trade and industry magazines and journals and has presented numerous times at national and international industry conferences. He has chaired the battery portion of the Power Systems World conference for 15 years and is the author of the Power Distribution chapter of the Telecommunications Distribution Methods Manual published by McGraw-Hill. Allen was elected Battcon Battery Person of the Year by his peers in 2005.

Garth P. Corey
Principal Member of Technical Staff
Sandia National Laboratories

Garth P. Corey, recently retired as a Principal Member of the Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories, had project management responsibilities with the Energy Infrastructure and Distributed Energy Resources Dept. Throughout his Sandia career, he was involved in high technology energy storage R&D projects. He is a member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society and active with the PES Stationary Battery Committee. In addition to continuing his association with Sandia as a consultant with responsibilities related to electric energy storage systems, he is active in the evaluation of energy storage components for distributed energy and storage resources on the national grid. He is assigned consulting responsibilities as Technical Project Manager for the California Energy Commission / U.S. Dept. of Energy Electric Energy Storage Initiative, a three-year demonstration program underway in California.

Jim McDowall
Business Development Manager
Saft America, Inc.

Jim McDowall has worked in the battery industry since 1977 and is currently with Saft in the position of Business Development Manager. He is very active in standards work and is currently the Standards Coordinator of the IEEE Stationary Battery Committee and chair of three of its working groups, as well as being a former chair of the parent committee. Jim is also a current member and former chairman of the board of directors of the Electricity Storage Association. He is a member of the Battcon conference technical committee and has written or co-written numerous technical papers.

Michael Nispel
Principal
Atlantic DC Power Distribution, Inc.

Mike Nispel has been in the industrial battery market for over 20 years, directly working for various manufacturers and providing technical consulting services to the industry. In his tenures at Honeywell, Yuasa/EnerSys, C&D Technologies and International Battery, he has worked on lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, and various lithium chemistries (ion, metal and polymer). He has domestic and international experience in many aspects of the battery industry, including engineering, quality, product management, nuclear applications and sales. He is active in several industry committees, including IEEE/PES, IEEE/SCC21, Telcordia GR3150, and Battcon. Mike holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering.

Rick Tressler
Training and Education Manager
Albércorp

Rick has been working with stationary batteries for over 20 years. His experience includes installation, testing, and maintenance of batteries in a variety of applications. He provides the company's clients with his experience, knowledge, and training programs in many locations, ranging from oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to remote operations in Northern Alaska. Rick has authored several Battcon papers that address the nuts and bolts of battery operation and has contributed numerous magazine articles for industry and trade publications throughout his career.

Kurt Uhlir
Director of Technical Services
Standby Power System Consultants, Inc.

Kurt Uhlir, founder and principal owner of Standby Power System Consultants, Inc., received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Technology from Southern Illinois University in 1981. He has specialized in stationary battery, DC power system and energy storage design, installation, maintenance and testing for electric utility, communications, industrial, UPS and renewable energy applications. At Commonwealth Edison Co., Chicago, 1981 to 2001, Kurt was Stationary Battery and DC System Technical Expert for the Nuclear Generation Group and Transmission and Distribution Dept. He has been an active member of the IEEE PES Stationary Battery Committee for 19 years. He was an advisor to the Illinois Institute of Technology Chemical and Environmental Engineering Dept. IPRO Program and on the Board of Directors for the Illinois Renewable Resource Group. He is a member of the Battcon Technical Committee.


Seminar Instructors

M.S. (Steve) Clark
Battery and DC System Engineer
South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company

Steve has over 30 years of experience in the operation, start-up, design, and maintenance of nuclear power plants. He is a member of the IEEE Stationary Battery Committee and Chair of the IEEE 450 (IEEE Recommended Practice for Maintenance, Testing and Replacement of Vented Lead-Acid Batteries for Stationary Applications) working group. Steve is also Chair of the joint IEEE/ASHRAE P1635 (IEEE/ASHRAE Guide for the Ventilation and Thermal Management of Stationary Battery Installations) working group. He is also a course co-developer and instructor at the Battcon Beyond the Fundamentals preconference seminar.

Garth P. Corey
Principal Member of Technical Staff
Sandia National Laboratories

Garth P. Corey, recently retired as a Principal Member of the Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories, had project management responsibilities with the Energy Infrastructure and Distributed Energy Resources Dept. Throughout his Sandia career, he was involved in high technology energy storage R&D projects. He is a member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society and active with the PES Stationary Battery Committee. In addition to continuing his association with Sandia as a consultant with responsibilities related to electric energy storage systems, he is active in the evaluation of energy storage components for distributed energy and storage resources on the national grid. He is assigned consulting responsibilities as Technical Project Manager for the California Energy Commission / U.S. Dept. of Energy Electric Energy Storage Initiative, a three-year demonstration program underway in California.

Jim McDowall
Business Development Manager
Saft America, Inc.

Jim McDowall has worked in the battery industry since 1977 and is currently with Saft in the position of Business Development Manager. He is very active in standards work and is currently the Standards Coordinator of the IEEE Stationary Battery Committee and chair of three of its working groups, as well as being a former chair of the parent committee. Jim is also a current member and former chairman of the board of directors of the Electricity Storage Association. He is a member of the Battcon conference technical committee and has written or co-written numerous technical papers.

Michael Nispel
Principal
Atlantic DC Power Distribution, Inc.

Mike Nispel has been in the industrial battery market for over 20 years, directly working for various manufacturers and providing technical consulting services to the industry. In his tenures at Honeywell, Yuasa/EnerSys, C&D Technologies and International Battery, he has worked on lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, and various lithium chemistries (ion, metal and polymer). He has domestic and international experience in many aspects of the battery industry, including engineering, quality, product management, nuclear applications and sales. He is active in several industry committees, including IEEE/PES, IEEE/SCC21, Telcordia GR3150, and Battcon. Mike holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering.

Jan Reber
Director of Engineering, RP Flooded Products
EnerSys

Rick Tressler
Training and Education Manager
Albércorp

Rick has been working with stationary batteries for over 20 years. His experience includes installation, testing, and maintenance of batteries in a variety of applications. He provides the company's clients with his experience, knowledge, and training programs in many locations, ranging from oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to remote operations in Northern Alaska. Rick has authored several Battcon papers that address the nuts and bolts of battery operation and has contributed numerous magazine articles for industry and trade publications throughout his career.


Battcon Conference Coordinator

Jennifer Stryker
Business Development Manager
Albércorp

Jennifer graduated from Florida Atlantic University in 2000 with a Bachelors of Finance and Management. She joined Albércorp in 2000 and, in 2006, was promoted to Business Development Manager. Jennifer has certification in event planning and is a member of Meeting Planners International (MPI). She has been the Battcon Conference Coordinator since 2004, working with the hotels, attendees, and trade show participants.


Battcon Publications

Jack Mack
President
Jack Mack Technical Writing, Inc.

Jack has worked in technical, production and quality management in the electronics industry for over 35 years, in areas as diverse as phototypesetter development, nuclear instrumentation, and battery monitoring. He became an independent technical communicator in 1998. In 2004, he founded Jack Mack Technical Writing, Inc., which specializes in creating and editing technical and quality documentation, marketing material, and Web sites. Jack is a senior member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). He publishes literature for Battcon, maintains the Battcon Web site, and is the Battcon publications liaison. He was the conference coordinator for four years.

 

 

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Last updated 24 March 2008

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