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At MISO Mr. Evans has focused principally on Generator Interconnection, Transmission Planning, and Competitive Transmission Administration. He  has been involved in multiple high-profile FERC dockets, including being the primary drafter of MISO’s Order 2023 comments. Mr. Evans is also one of America’s leading lawyers in the area of lawyer jokes. Prior to joining MISO, He worked at Midwest Reliability Organization which enforced the NERC Reliability Standards. Mr. Evans started his career at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.

Sean Armstrong has worked in building electrification for 28 years, the last 12 as a consultant. He has designed more than 300 commercial buildings and 25,000 residences for low-income households to be all-electric and solar powered. Starting in 2018, Sean and his staff co-authored seven practical guides to building and transportation electrification and helped develop California’s pro-electrification, solar and battery Energy Codes. He has received design awards from the United Nations, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Southern California Building Industry Association and been inducted into the 2022 Clean Energy Hall of Fame by the California Energy Commission.

Babak Enayati (Senior Member, IEEE) received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Clarkson University, USA, in 2009. He joined New Leaf Energy in 2022, where he is the Director of Engineering. His team provides engineering services for the development of solar, wind, and energy storage facilities. Prior to joining New Leaf Energy, Mr. Enayati worked in the utility industry for 13 years holding various grid modernization engineering and managerial positions. He joined the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2006. He currently serves as the Vice President of Education on the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Governing Board. He is the current chair of the IEEE PES Transmission Subcommittee. Mr. Enayati serves as the vice chair of the IEEE Std 1547 Standard for Interconnecting Distributed Energy Resources with Electric Power Systems, and the IEEE P2800 Standard for Interconnection and Interoperability of Inverter-Based Resources Interconnecting with Associated Transmission Electric Power Systems. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Massachusetts.

Mr. McNamara serves as Grid Energy Storage Policy Analyst for Sandia National Laboratories with a focus on energy storage policy development at the federal and state levels. Mr. McNamara has spent his entire 30-year career in the energy and utilities industry with a concentration on regulatory and legislative policy. He has served as a lobbyist in California and has represented major utilities across the U.S. in numerous jurisdictions in proceedings pertaining to integrated resource planning, procurement, cost recovery, rate design, and the development of policymaking best practices. Mr. McNamara is also now leading the development of a DOE-funded Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) National Consortium that will create a forum for industry stakeholders to convene and develop consensus-based recommendations to chart a pathway to commercialization for LDES technologies over the next decade. Mr. McNamara’s areas of subject matter expertise, in addition to energy storage policy, include distributed energy resources, AMI/smart grid, renewables, and competitive retail markets.

Mr. Vartanian has over 25 years of experience deploying advanced grid technologies, performing electric system studies, and contributing to technical standards development. Mr. Vartanian was most recently a Sr. Technical Advisor at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. At PNNL his work supported R&D to improve the reliability and integration of grid-connected energy storage systems. He has also worked previously for Mitsubishi Electric, DNV KEMA, A123 Systems, Enron, the California Energy Commission, and Southern California Edison. During his 15 years at Southern California Edison Mr. Vartanian’s activities spanned traditional T&D planning through utility R&D. He is a currently Secretary of the IEEE P1547.4 working group revising the Guide for Interconnection of Intentional Islands, and is vice-chair of the IEEE Energy Storage Collaboration Team. Mr. Vartanian received his BSEE from Cal Poly Pomona and his MSEE from USC. Mr. Vartanian is a licensed professional electrical engineer and a senior member of the IEEE.

Executive Director Tennessee Concrete Association 
Mr. Sparkman has served as the Executive Director of the Tennessee Concrete Association since 1998. In July of 2016, he was recognized by the Tennessee Society of Association Executives as their 2015 Association Executive of the Year. He regularly teaches concrete industry professional courses across the US and served as an Assistant Professor at Middle Tennessee State University for the Concrete Industry Management program for the 2010-2011 academic year. Mr. Sparkman developed and teaches a class on Concrete Construction Sustainability for the “Concrete” MBA program at MTSU. He has been deeply involved with pervious concrete for over a decade and regularly places pervious concrete both for TCA demonstration projects and commercial projects where he is asked to assist and train contractors learning about the correct placement of pervious concrete. Mr. Sparkman holds the NRMCA Pervious Concrete Craftsman certification and is a co-author on several research publications relating to pervious concrete, as well as other concrete topics. He works closely with universities in Tennessee to design and direct research relating directly to current concrete issues, and TCA publishes this research in Tennessee Concrete magazine on an ongoing basis. As a firm believer in lifelong learning, he completed his Master of Business Administration degree in May of 2004 from Jones International University. In November of 2006, he became a LEED Accredited Professional through the U.S Green Building Council and in January of 2007, Mr. Sparkman earned his Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation, a certification earned by less than 5% of all association professionals. He currently holds 15 technical and professional certifications related to concrete, construction and associate management. Mr. Sparkman was honored to receive one of the prestigious Kodak American Greenways Awards in 2004 for his efforts in making the Count on Concrete bike ride across America a success. He was honored with the 2010 Tennessee Sustainability Award by the Tennessee Environmental Council and has twice been honored with the TCA President’s Award (2008 & 2013). In April of 2016, Mr. Sparkman received the Concrete Sustainability Award from the American Concrete Institute “for significant mentorship of the concrete community in the field of sustainability and exemplary outreach to those in the public, private and social sectors improving recognition, understanding and appreciation for the sustainable benefits of concrete as a building material”. TCA has been named by the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association as the State Association of the Year three times under his leadership, with the most recent award coming for 2015.