Advisory Board

Mark Boomgarden
Biography Mr. Boomgarden has 20+ years of business and technology leadership experience including manufactured products, licensing of intellectual property, large-scale research & development and new company formation. He has held key executive leadership positions in both private and public companies, with expertise in business development, operations, engineering and supply chain – domestically and internationally. Boomgarden […]

Tim Fairchild
Biography Tim Fairchild is the Director of the SAS Global Energy Practice. In this role he leads a team responsible for developing global product strategy and defining and delivering market-driven offerings for the Energy industry. His team works closely with global customers, alliance partners, and SAS Research & Development to ensure that SAS Energy solutions […]

Carl Fisher
Biography Appointed to the role of Vice President Customer Accounts & Government Affairs in North America, Carl Fisher draws on over 30 years of extensive domestic and international experience to lead this organization. Fisher began his career in the nuclear field in the United States Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, where he was involved in naval […]

Eric Grant
Biography In his role at Duke Energy, he leads the organization responsible for over $6.0B in spend per year related to fuel procurement for Duke Energy’s regulated generation fleet including the purchase and delivery of coal, natural gas, fuel oil and reagents used in emission control. In addition, he is responsible for power trading (i.e. […]

Robert Keynton
Biography Dr. Keynton is currently Dean of The William States Lee College of Engineering at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Prior to joining UNC Charlotte, Dean Keynton was Interim Executive Vice President for Research & Innovation and professor and Lutz Endowed Chair of Biomechanical Devices in the Department of Bioengineering at the Speed […]

Jim Little
Biography James L. Little as the executive vice president of commercial business development and strategy for Atkins’ US nuclear energy business worked closely with Atkins’ senior leadership team, exercising his deep understanding of the commercial nuclear energy sector to support the company’s growth in North America. He has more than 40 years of leadership experience […]

Brian Maragno
Biography Brian Maragno is the VP Large Generator Product Line with global design and manufacturing responsibility for Siemens Energy and is currently located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mr. Maragno has more than 30 years of experience in the power generation industry and has held various management roles of increasing responsibility within Westinghouse and Siemens. Mr. […]

LaQuisha Parks
Biography LaQuisha Parks is the Vice President of Energy Services and Corporate Communications. She leads a diverse team of professionals who support customer care operations, billing, marketing, sales and economic development. She oversees the development of programs and processes that will improve efficiencies, increase member satisfaction, and promote goodwill and seamless communications between the Cooperative […]

Tom Stepien
Biography Tom is CEO of QM Power, a Charlotte-based company with electric motor and motor controller innovations. Prior to Primus he led Primus Power, a long duration stationary energy storage startup, for thirteen years. Primus raised $100M from equity investors in nine countries, attracted $30M in government grants and were granted thirty six patents by […]

Neil Wilmshurst
Biography Neil Wilmshurst is vice president and chief nuclear officer for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). He has overall management and technical responsibility for $180 million in annual research. Leadership Wilmshurst has been on a nuclear site in every continent that has a nuclear plant, none more so than in Japan over the past […]