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2021 UAI Excellence Awards Winners

In collaboration with our awards sponsor, Bidgely, UAI announces the winners of the 2021 UAI Excellence Awards.

UAI honors the best of the best in the utility analytics profession, recognizing the individuals, teams, and organizations that have achieved and maintained excellence through innovation.

2021 Awards Sponsor:

The 2021 UAI Excellence Award winners are…

WATCH AWARD CEREMONY

Best Innovative Utility Analytics Team

This award recognizes teams that have set and achieved the highest standards of excellence in utility analytics for problem solving in innovative ways and takes the time to instill that culture in their employees.

WINNER!  Tennessee Valley Authority, Enterprise Analytics Team

Winner Acceptance Speech

Best Utility Analytics Leader

This award acknowledges and honors a utility analytics leader who has excelled at supporting any or all analytics work within their utility and who most clearly demonstrates the ability to serve and advance analytics within the utility industry.

WINNER!  Tom Hobbib, Manager, Data & Analytics Services – SEMPRA

Winner Acceptance Speech

Best Utility Analytics Professional

This award recognizes the utility analytics industry’s top professional who possess the knowledge, skills, experience, passion, and business acumen required to provide consistent, quality, and innovative effort that is directly relevant to the utility analytics industry.

WINNER!  Joselle Abagat Barnett, Senior Data Analyst – Santee Cooper

Winner Acceptance Speech

Analytics Ambassador

This award recognizes the lasting contributions, leadership, enthusiasm, and tireless efforts of industry luminaries who’ve committed themselves to elevating the reputation of the utility analytics profession and improving the industry.

WINNER!  Kim Gaddy, Independent Consultant, Former VP & Managing Director – UAI

Winner Acceptance Speech

Community Engagement

Nominations are not required to qualify for the UAI Community Engagement Awards. UAI selects our winners for this category from a combination of engagement activities, including engagement scores on UAI Connect, UAI Community Conversation involvement, volunteerism with UAI, plus so much more. Two winners have been selected for this category: Most Engaged Individual and Most Engaged Utility.

WINNER!  Community Engagement Award – Most Engaged Individual: Ben Ettlinger, Manager of Digital Analytics  – New York Power Authority (NYPA)

Winner Acceptance Speech

WINNER!  Community Engagement Award – Most Engaged Utility: SEMPRA (SoCalGas & SDG&E)

Winner Acceptance Speech

Top 25 Thought Leaders in Utility Analytics

Utility analytics professionals are a community minded bunch. They are a conscientious group eager to learn and grow, and to share with one another to help promote excellence in the industry. And so, it is no surprise that this community is also eager to celebrate its champions, those who are the most active in the community and share their insights for the benefit of all. We are proud to celebrate all that these influencers do for our industry with UAI’s Top 25 Thought Leaders in Utility Analytics.

Derin Bluhm
Chief Technology Officer – Grant County PUD

Dawn Frye
Manager of Smart Grid and Meter Data Management – Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC)

Tom Martin
Managing Director of Product: Data Science Division – E Source

Rick Perez
Principal – Deloitte Consulting

Mike Rossi
VP of Strategy, Growth, Energy, and Sustainability – Neudesic

Drew Clancy
Marketing Director – Mosaic Data Science

Claude Godin
Director, Energy Data Analytics – DNV

Elizabeth Massey
Director of Connected Analytics – The Energy Authority

Jordan Pino
Sr. Data Scientist – Baltimore Gas & Electric

Kaleb Thompson
Data Science Supervisor – ONE Gas

Marie Clarke
Analytic Center of Enablement (ACoE) Lead – Eversource Energy

Debra Henderson
Principal Consultant – Black & Veatch

Travis Metcalfe
Strategy, Innovation, and Engagement Manager – Tacoma Power

Josh Power
Capability Lead, Advanced Analytics – Oncor Electric Delivery

Rolando Vega-Avila
Interim Director of Advanced Enterprise Analytics – CPS Energy

Mario Correa
Project Manager, Implementation & Deployment – SoCalGas

Brian Hurst
VP & Chief Analytics Officer – Exelon Utilities

Sean Otto
Director of Analytics – The AES Corporation

Gabriel Prado
Sr. Director of Product Marketing – Cognite

Brian Wilkerson
Sr. Manager of AI Solutions – Duke Energy

Ben Ettlinger
Manager of Digital Analytics – New York Power Authority (NYPA)

Ioannis Katsanos
Head of Customer Data Science – Exelon Utilities

Jason Pegg
Domain Architect – Avista Corporation

Gary Rector
Data Scientist – Salt River Project

Jeffrey Yankley
Director of Customer Insights & Analytics – Consumers Energy