Jim Robb is the president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. As president and CEO, Robb leads the Electric Reliability Organization (ERO) and is responsible for key programs, including those programs focused on development of mandatory NERC Reliability Standards, the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Program, situational awareness, event and risk analysis, reliability assessments and forecasting, and cyber and physical security. He is also responsible for the performance of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) and key government partnerships. Robb earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael E. Webber is the Sid Richardson chair in the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the John J. McKetta Centennial Energy chair in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Webber’s works spans research and education at the convergence of engineering, policy, and commercialization on topics related to innovation, energy, and the environment. He serves on the board of GTI Energy and the Scientific Advisory Council for ENGIE. Webber has authored or co-authored more than 600 publications, including five full-length general interest books, and holds 6 patents. His essays have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Scientific American and more. Webber’s scholarly articles have appeared in top journals such as Science, Nature, and Environmental Science & Technology. His book Power Trip: the Story of Energy is the basis of an award-winning 12-part television series. Webber holds a B.S. and B.A. from UT Austin, and M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. 

Erin Quigley is the manager of registration & certification at Texas RE. Erin first joined Texas RE in July 2022 as a risk assessment engineer. Prior to coming to Texas RE, she supported real-time operations of ERCOT's Market Management System, as well as LCRA's Generation Management System. She holds a B.S. in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ahmed Rashwan is the senior director of transmission planning and operations at Electric Power Engineers where he leads power system analysis and advisory services for utilities from coast-to-coast, supporting ISO/RTOs, investor owned utilities, co-ops, vertically integrated utilities,  and municipally owned utilities. He has over 17 years of progressive industry experience spanning operations engineering, power system planning, generation and load interconnection, and energy market design and implementation. He’s led forward looking assessments investigating operability and reliability considerations for high renewable penetration systems, major market reform implementation, large scale planning assessments and cutting edge online operating limit derivation methodologies leveraging machine learning supervision. He’s also involved in sector thought leadership through engagements with ESIG related to transmission planning study integration and large load performance requirements.

Katie Coleman serves as managing partner of O'Melveny & Myers’ Austin office. She has almost 20 years of experience representing clients on complex energy transactions, regulatory policy matters, and administrative litigation, with a focus on electricity. Katie works with large industrial energy consumers to navigate regulatory requirements in developing new facilities, buying or selling energy assets, structuring energy supply agreements, and managing energy costs. She assists companies in complying with state and federal laws governing electricity service and participating in wholesale markets.

Katie also has more than a decade of experience litigating contested cases involving electricity issues before the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. She also represents companies in litigation before the Texas Railroad Commission involving natural gas rates and terms of service. Katie received her J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law, and  her B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin.

Lee Bratcher is the president and founder of the Texas Blockchain Council. The Texas Blockchain Council is an industry association with more than 100 member companies and hundreds of individuals that seek to make Texas the jurisdiction of choice for Bitcoin and blockchain innovation. The TBC helped to research two pieces of blockchain legislation that were passed in the 87th Legislative session and an additional two bills in the 88th Session that were signed into effect by Governor Abbott. Lee and the TBC team have a specific focus on the regulatory environment around Bitcoin mining in Texas. The TBC hosts the North American Blockchain Summit at which had sold-out audiences. Formerly, Lee was a political science professor at Dallas Baptist University teaching international relations with a research emphasis on property rights. Lee was awarded a master’s in international relations from St. Mary’s University and a Ph.D. from UT Dallas with a research emphasis on blockchain land registries.

Mark Henry is the chief engineer and director of reliability outreach at Texas RE. He has experience in the electric power industry including generation, transmission, and control center assignments as an electrical engineer and engineering supervisor from the Lower Colorado River Authority where he worked for nearly 15 years. He has worked with the bulk power system compliance program since joining the ERCOT ISO in December 1999. Mark is a licensed professional engineer in Texas and holds a BSEE from the University of Texas at Austin.

Julia Matevorsyan is the chief engineer and an associate director at the Energy Systems Integration Group (EISG). In this role she works with others to drive the organization’s strategy and launch a new effort addressing the integration of large loads such as data centers, hydrogen production and industrial electrification. Matevosyan specializes in integration of wind, solar and battery storage into power systems and transmission system planning, and has spent her impressive career working with world-leading institutions and organizations. She has 25 years of experience, including at ERCOT as a lead planning engineer, and several global consulting firms. She holds both a PhD and master of science degree in electrical engineering from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, as well as a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Riga Technical University. She is a Senior Member of IEEE, and is an active member of CIGRE, the International Energy Agency Wind Task 25.

Dan Tabas joined Base Power Company in 2024 to work on market operations for a distributed fleet of energy storage resources in ERCOT. His activities include design and deployment of algorithms for grid support, development of simulation environments, real-time fleet operations, and market analysis. Prior to joining Base, he earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle where he was a recipient of the NSF graduate research fellowship. He has also worked at Tesla, CAISO, and NREL. He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Diego Doménech is a product and applications engineer within the solar and storage division at Power Electronics USA. His career with Power Electronics started at the company's headquarters in Spain in 2021, where he focused on the IEC market, primarily serving Australia, EMEA, and LATAM regions. His core responsibilities include the development of current and future product specifications driven by market demands and grid code analysis and relevant standards.

Diego previously also provided technical support at the power plant controller (PPC) level, including the creation of technical specifications and support for plant control functionalities. He also managed battery storage integrations including test plan definition, coordination, and technical customer support.

Ernesto Ballesteros serves as the Cybersecurity State Coordinator (CSC) for the State of Texas at the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in Region 6. As the CSC for the State of Texas, he is the principal point of contact for non-Federal entities to engage with the Federal Government on cybersecurity matters. Previously, Ballesteros served as the Texas state cybersecurity coordinator and chair of the Texas Cybersecurity Council, at the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR). During his tenure he contributed to the development and implementation of statewide initiatives, such as the Texas Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (TxISAO), the Statewide Cybersecurity Awareness Training Program, and more.

Mr. Ballesteros holds BS MS in CISS from Our Lady of the Lake University; an NSA/DHS-designated Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE), and a JD specializing in cyber and privacy law. Lastly, Ballesteros is an (ISC)2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), ISACA Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), and CompTIA Security+ certified professional.

Betsy Soehren Jones is an executive director for the Critical Infrastructure Security Consortium and a partner at West Moreoe Partners, specializing in cyber security, artificial intelligence, and supply chain. She works with infrastructure owners to build and mature their enterprise-wide cyber programs.  Betsy also advises the private equity and venture capital communities on practices and protocols to ensure emerging technologies are cyber safe for consumption and utilization by the energy and utilities sector. Previously she served as the chief operating officer for the energy industry’s Center of Excellence for Supply Chain. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and a master’s degree in public administration and policy from Northwestern University.

Brandon Miller is a cybersecurity and NERC CIP compliance professional with over a decade of experience, beginning with a military career focused on network security and evolving into supporting critical infrastructure. He later transitioned into the utility sector, where he held roles in SCADA/EMS administration and the aforementioned NERC CIP compliance, gaining deep, operational insight into the challenges faced by registered entities. He currently serves as a consultant helping electric utilities strengthen their cybersecurity posture and meet ever changing regulatory requirements, with an emphasis on practical, audit-ready solutions grounded in real-world operations.

David Penney is the director of reliability services at Texas RE. Prior to joining Texas RE, David had over 20 years of experience with various aspects of the energy industry, including system protection and substation design, substation and transmission maintenance, and system operations with the LCRA and Austin Energy. He has also worked for an ISO 9001 certified organization while serving as a senior facility manager at Samsung Austin Semiconductor. David holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Texas.

Harsh Naik is senior manager of transmission planning at Oncor Electric Delivery. He is a strategic leader with deep expertise in ERCOT's stakeholder process, large load interconnections, and system planning studies. Harsh oversees the development of transmission projects across a wide range of scopes, leads major large load interconnection efforts, and manages the team responsible for building planning models and performing transmission studies. He has played a key role in shaping ERCOT policy, including contributing to the development of rules governing large load interconnection processes. Harsh actively represents Oncor in critical stakeholder groups such as the RPG, PLWG, LLTF, and SSWG. He earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University and is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Texas.

John Moura is NERC’s director of reliability assessment and performance analysis. He leads NERC’s efforts to assess and report on the reliability, adequacy, and associated risks to the North American bulk power system (BPS). Mr. Moura oversees the development of NERC’s annual long-term and seasonal reliability assessments, as well as evaluating system performance, resilience, event analysis and system forensics, critical infrastructure interdependencies, and emerging issues facing the North American BPS. Throughout his career, Mr. Moura has been dedicated to improving and safeguarding the grid and has been instrumental in advancing NERC’s mission as the Electric Reliability Organization by co-authoring numerous special reports and technical publications. Mr. Moura graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor degree in 2008.