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Battcon
Hall of Fame
Inductees into the Battcon Hall of Fame are individuals selected by the Battcon Technical Committee whose contributions through research, innovation, and dedication have greatly advanced the battery industry. Over the years, the industry leaders below have been inducted into the Battcon Hall of Fame.
The Battcon Hall of Fame plaque is inscribed,
“In recognition of being honored by the Battcon committee for your outstanding leadership and contributions to the stationary battery industry.”
2010 Steve McCluer
2009 Peter DeMar
2008 Graham Walker
2007 Jim McDowall
2006 Garth P. Corey
2005 Robert Blohm, Frank J. Vaccaro
2004 David O. Feder, Tom Ruhlmann
2003 Glenn Albér,
John Devitt
Battcon
Battery Person of the Year
The Battcon Person of the Year is elected by the attendees during the conference. The honoree is well-known, respected, and contributing to the advancement of the battery industry.
The Battcon Person of the Year plaque reads, “In recognition of being voted by the attendees of Battcon for outstanding contribution to the stationary battery industry.”
2008 Kurt Uhlir
2007 Rick Tressler
2006 Curtis Ashton
2005 J. Allen Byrne
2004 Robert Blohm
2003 Jim McDowall
Presenters, Panelists, Instructors,
Technical and Organizing Committees 2009
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 was 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. Glenn retired from the Battcon Technical Committee in 2008.
Curtis Ashton
Senior Staff Power Tech Support Engineer, DMTS
Qwest Communications
Curtis Ashton has a BSEE from Arizona State U. Formerly an SRP CGS Engineering Technician, he has 18 years with Qwest as a primary power and grounding SME. Curtis is the ATIS STEP Standards Vice-Chair and served a term on the IEEE RevCom. He is the IEEE PES StaBatt 1657 WG Chair, an NFPA member, and a Battcon Technical Committee member. He has published and/or presented at numerous conferences, including Battcon, Intelec, Electric Show, and Lorain Power Conference.
Geraldo Bieler
Consultant
Petrobras
Geraldo Bieler is a graduate electrical engineer from Fluminense State University in Rio de Janeiro State in Brasil. Twenty three years experience in oil refinery electrical power systems has given him a solid understanding of many different systems, such as UPS, induction motors, AC generators, transformers, and switchgear, including design, installation, commissioning, maintenance and testing. Since 2000, he has been responsible for the new employees battery and UPS training program in Petrobras. He has led numerous task forces to improve UPS reliability and is responsible for the Petrobras UPS and batteries standards and maintenance procedures.
Richard Bourgeois
Battery Lead Systems Engineer
General Electric Company
Richard Bourgeois comes to GE’s new Energy Storage Technologies business from the company’s Global Research Center, where he previously worked on advanced gas turbines, solid oxide fuel cells, and hydrogen production. He has ten U.S. patents in these fields with several more pending. In 2006, his team’s invention of a low-cost hydrogen electrolyzer earned a Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics magazine.
J. Allen Byrne
Engineering, Training, and Technical Support Manager
Interstate PowerCare
Allen is a 36 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 12 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 16 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 Senior IEEE Member. Dale owns all Electrical Master Design Standards and Construction Specifications for Intel's next generation logic fabs. Dale is responsible for the selection of all UPS's, batteries, and battery monitoring equipment at Intel. He has led numerous task forces to improve UPS/CPS reliability and has nearly 20 years experience with UPS and battery systems.
William P. Cantor
Engineer
TPI
William Cantor is the Vice President of Technology for TPI. He earned a BS degree from Pennsylvania State University and an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Cantor has 20 years of experience in the battery industry. He has authored/co-authored six INTELEC papers. Additionally, Mr. Cantor has been the chair of the IEEE 1188 working group since 1995 and is a member of the IEEE Stationary Battery Technical Committee of the Power and Energy Society since 1992. He is also the Vice Chair of this organization. Mr. Cantor is also an instructor in the Information Sciences and Technology department at Pennsylvania State University and a licensed Professional Engineer (PE).
Terry Chapman
Technical Specialist
Southern California Edison
Terry is responsible for over 1100 DC systems that range from substations, telecom, steam, hydro, photovoltaic and UPS systems. He is also responsible for the 500 KV series capacitors as well as the static var compensators. Terry has been participating in the IEEE stationary battery work group for the last four years. This is the fourth Battcon he's attended.
M.S. (Steve) Clark
Senior Engineer
Bechtel Power Corp.
Steve has over 30 years of experience in the operation, startup, design, and maintenance of nuclear power plants. He is a member of the IEEE Stationary Battery Committee and Chair of the IEEE 450 working group (IEEE Recommended Practice for Maintenance, Testing and Replacement of Vented Lead-Acid Batteries for Stationary Applications). Steve is also Chair of the joint IEEE/ASHRAE P1635 working group (IEEE/ASHRAE Guide for the Ventilation and Thermal Management of Stationary Battery Installations). He is also a course co-developer and instructor at the Battcon Beyond the Fundamentals preconference seminar.
Garth P. Corey
Energy Storage Systems Consultant
Ktech Corp
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 Department. 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 at Ktech Corp in a consulting role to industry in the evaluation of emerging energy storage technologies for distributed energy and storage applications on the national grid. Garth retired from the Battcon Technical Committee in 2008.
Pete DeMar
Founder
Battery Research and Testing
Pete has over 30 years in the stationary battery industry, most in the stationary power sector. When he and others founded Battery Research and Testing in 1982, it was the first independent stationary battery service company in the US. Pete has performed all functions, from battery inspections to designing and installing 10,000 amp battery plants. He was the lead from BR&T in discovering the benefits gained from the coupling of the replacement of lost water in VRLA cells with a catalyst in the head space to recover lost capacity, which has progressed into the long term recovery process known as IOVR+. Pete is the longest consecutively serving member of the IEEE Battery Working Group, active since 1982, and has been involved with most standards over that time. He is the author of the UPS Battery Maintenance section of The Electricity Forum’s 2005 Uninterruptible Power Supplies and Standby Power Handbook, been published in Batteries International, and presented and/or been published at Battcon, InfoBatt, Intelec, Power Quality and other conferences.
Mark H. Dixon
Stationary Operation Chief Engineer
ABM Engineering Services
Mark Dixon has been in the building management industry for over 17 years. His experience in this field has given him a solid understanding of many different systems, such as backup generators, fire and life safety, and UPS, but primarily HVAC and cooling systems. Mr. Dixon graduated with an Associate of Applied Science degree in Electronics Technology.
Kyle Floyd
Consultant
EXCEL Services Corporation
Kyle has been involved in the design, start-up and engineering support of fossil, hydro and nuclear generating plants for over 40 years. He has been a member of the IEEE Stationary Battery Committee for over 20 years. Kyle has written several technical papers on battery float current measurements. He is currently a consultant on an EPRI Advanced Nuclear Technology project involving qualification and testing of batteries for new and existing nuclear plants.
Jay Frankhouser
Director of Global Product Management
C&D Technologies, Inc.
Jay has been in the energy storage industry for 23 years at C&D Technologies in various capacities, including Engineering, Marketing, Business Development, and Sales and is currently Director of Global Product Management. Jay has worked with various energy storage technologies, including lead acid, lithium ion, and fuel cells. He is a member of IEEE and has a degree in Engineering from Penn State and an MBA from the University of New Haven.
John Gagge
Senior Director, Engineering and Quality Assurance
EnerSys
John oversees product and process development, new product introductions, applications engineering, and Quality Assurance activities for the Motive and Reserve Power businesses. He is actively involved in the engineering community, serving as a member of American Society for Quality, American Society of Mechanical Engineering, and senior member of IEEE. He also contributes his time to the IEEE standards and BCI technical committees as well as the IEC TC21 working group. In 1995, John began his career with EnerSys as a Motive Power product engineer and has had increasing roles of responsibility within the global EnerSys organization since. John is also a management committee member and co-chair of the INTELEC '10 program committee.
Gil Gonçalves de Lima
Electrical Engineer
Petrobras - Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.
Gil Gonçalves de Lima has been an electrical engineer, electrical technician and safety technician. His background includes over 31 years of experience on mobile and fixed offshore electrical installations.
John Kim
Director, C&D University
C&D Technologies, Inc.
In his current position at C&D, John is responsible for technical battery training program and support. During his 18 years with C&D Technologies, he has held the positions of R&D Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Senior Product Manager, and Senior Technical Account Manager. Mr. Kim received a Bachelors of Science in Materials Engineering in 1988 and a Masters of Science in Engineering Management in 2000 from Drexel University.
Jeff J. La Marca
Project Manager
Luminant Power, Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant
As a Project Manager for Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, Jeff is responsible for several projects related to power plant improvements and upgrades. He presently serves as the Chairman of the IEEE Stationary Battery Committee, the Working Group Chairman for IEEE 484 on battery installation, and the Nuclear Working Group on battery use at nuclear power plants. Mr. La Marca participates on several other working groups associated with battery sizing and battery maintenance. As the System Engineer for the batteries at Comanche Peak, he was responsible for ensuring the reliable operation of the batteries through maintenance and testing. He has assisted in the replacement of batteries and resolved battery issues with vendors, maintenance personnel, and regulators. Jeff has a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering.
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 creates and edits end-user guides, engineering and quality assurance documentation, marketing materials, and Web sites for the industrial, medical, and electronics fields. He publishes literature for Battcon, maintains the Battcon Web site, and is the Battcon publications liaison. Jack was the conference coordinator for four years and currently serves on the Battcon Organizing Committee.
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.
Mike Nispel
Principal
Sierra Power Group, Ltd.
Mike Nispel is co-founder of Sierra Power Group, a supplier of active materials, electrolytes, and production equipment to the emerging lithium battery industry in North America and Europe. He has been in the industrial battery industry for over 20 years, working for various battery manufacturers, including Honeywell, C&D Technologies, International Battery, and Yuasa/Enersys. He is active in IEEE/PES, holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering, and has experience with lead-acid as well as various lithium battery systems (lithium metal primary, lithium-ion polymer, lithium-ion).
Carey O’Donnell
Principal/Vice-President, Business Development
Mesa Technical Associates, Inc.
Carey has been in the DC power systems and battery industry for almost 30 years, and 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 Principal at Mesa, a DC power system EF&I firm based in Cobleskill, NY. Carey is a 1978 graduate of Colgate University, Hamilton, NY. He is also an IT Fellow at Temple University, Philadelphia PA and an adjunct professor, teaching technology courses at the Temple Fox School for both the undergraduate and graduate schools. He resides in Cherry Hill, NJ, and his primary hobbies are aviation and motorcycles.
Minturn S. Osborne
Founder and President
Power Agent Systems, LLC
With more than two decades of experience developing, testing, deploying and supporting emerging technology in the cable industry, Minturn was most recently the top executive managing the multimillion dollar Comcast account for RealNetworks. Concurrently, he was an investor and Chairman of the Board of AgentArts until that company was sold in 2007 to Fast Networks (since sold to Microsoft). Highlights of Minturn's career include participating in startups (At Home Networks, Fine Point Technologies) and, as CEO, selling Auburn Cablevision to Harron Communications.
Joe Parrino
Data Center Facilities Manager
United Parcel Service
Joe Parrino has worked as the Manager of Facilities at the United Parcel Service
Windward Data Center for the past 11 years. His team is responsible for all aspects of data center facilities management, including testing and maintenance of the electrical power and mechanical cooling infrastructure, raised floor management and installation of computer IT equipment, energy reduction initiatives, installation and programming of building automation monitoring points, staff training, and development of operating and PMI procedures. The UPS Windward Data Center is recognized by the Uptime Institute as being the first Tier IV data center in the world, equipped with a System+System power and cooling infrastructure.
Marco Piemontesi
Advanced Development Manager
GE Digital Energy
Marco received a degree in 1991in Electrical Engineering from the ETH in Zürich,
with diploma work on current-voltage characteristics in ceramic
superconductors. From 1992 to 1996, he was an assistant at the Institute of High
Voltage at ETH. His thesis was on SF6 decomposition products. From 1996 to
2000, Marco was a project leader working in the field of electrical breakdown
mechanisms in gases and development of GIS at ABB Corporate Research,
High Voltage Systems Group. Since October 2000, he has been at GE Digital Energy in Riazzino as
Advanced Development Manager.
Shawn Pryer
Senior FSE / DC Systems Supervisor
Chloride Power North America
Shawn Pryer is a Senior Field Service Engineer and DC Systems Supervisor for Chloride Power North America. He received a degree from DeVry University in 1996 and is certified in power quality measurements and troubleshooting. His experience includes 15 years of field work on site evaluations, installations, maintenance, commissioning, testing, emergency response calls and troubleshooting on single phase and three phase UPS systems, as well as VRLA, VLA and NiCad batteries. Shawn is a member of the IEEE power Engineering Society and is active with the PES Stationary Battery Committee.
Ed Rafter
Principal
Tier IV Consulting Group
Ed 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, a Certified Commissioning Process Authority Professional (CxAP), and an Accredited Tier Designer (ATD). 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.
Wieland Rusch
Senior Advisor, Research and Development,
BAE Batterien GmbH
Wieland received a degree in physics at the University of Stuttgart, Germany in 1972. He has been involved in the design of submarine batteries, the realisation of AGM and GEL batteries at HAGEN Batterie AG, now EXIDE, and is the inventor of the negative expanded copper electrode CSM. In 1990, he was head of development for industrial batteries at VARTA, now EnerSys, and in 1997 was the R&D leader at BAE Batterien GmbH, obtaining realisation of tubular GEL batteries. Since 2005, Mr. Rusch has been a senior advisor for BAE Batterien GmbH.
Jennifer Stryker
Business Development Manager
Albércorp
Jennifer graduated from Florida Atlantic U. 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.
Matthew C. Theriault
Designer
HindlePower, Inc.
Matt Theriault 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.
Rick Tressler
Senior Training Engineer
Albércorp
Rick has been working with stationary batteries for 25 years. His experience includes installation, testing, and maintenance of batteries in a variety of applications, including UPS, utility and telecommunications. Rick provides Albér clients with his experience, knowledge, and training programs in numerous locations, from oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to remote operations in Northern Alaska and internationally. Rick has authored several Battcon papers that address the "nuts and bolts" of battery installation, operation, and maintenance 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 U. 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 22 years. He was an advisor to the Illinois Institute of Technology Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department IPRO Program and on the Board of Directors for the Illinois Renewable Resource Group. He is a member of the Battcon Technical Committee.
Harold Vanasse
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Philadelphia Scientific, LLC
Harold has been with Philadelphia Scientific for over thirteen years, the first seven of which he served as Director of Engineering. Prior to joining Philadelphia Scientific, he served as Director of Interpretive Services and Chief Meteorologist at the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia and, before that, was a weather officer in the United States Air Force. Harold holds an executive Master of Science in Engineering degree in Technology Management from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from Penn State University.
Lesley Varga
President
Quality Standby Services, LLC
Lesley Varga has been in the standby power industry for over 22 years. Lesley's primary job functions include specifying standby power equipment for telecom, switchgear and control, and UPS applications. Her company provides engineering, furnishing and installation services, including the application of equipment to site specific requirements, system design, project management, installation and maintenance services, and system testing. Lesley has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Professional Engineering license in Georgia. A member of the IEEE PES Stationary Battery Committee since 1992, she is currently serving as Secretary of the Battery Committee.
Ofira Varga
Senior Consultant
1WEEE Services GmbH
Ofira Varga has been a senior consultant at 1WEEE Services GmbH since 2006. She is an expert for electronics, battery
and packaging take back and recycling as well as all auxiliary administrative proceedings, such as registration and
reporting. Her expertise covers the Member States of the European Union, the US and Canada. She is a project manager
with nine years of professional experience, which is important when compliance services for a variety of different topics
and countries must be put in place for customers. Prior to her current assignment at 1WEEE Services, Ms. Varga
worked for TechProtect GmbH as Take Back Manager for four years and in the environmental department of
Hewlett Packard GmbH for two years. She holds a degree in geography from University Mannheim, Germany.
Michael Zelinsky
Director, Marketing and Business Development
Ovonic Battery Company
Michael has been involved in various aspects of portable and stationary power for the past 25 years, He began his career researching electrolyte systems and cathode materials for implantable lithium batteries with Wilson Greatbatch. After marketing tenures with Ultralife Batteries and Yuasa, he joined ECD/Ovonics to develop market and product strategies for the novel fuel cell and hydrogen storage technologies. He is now responsible for developing the stationary business strategy for Ovonic’s NiMH battery technology.
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