Janice Lin
Founder and Managing Partner, Strategen Consulting LLC
Co-Founder, California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA)
Janice brings over a decade of experience in clean energy strategy and market development experience to Strategen, and more than two decades of general corporate strategy experience. During this time she has advised a diverse range of clients including renewable energy equipment manufacturers and service providers, large corporations diversifying into clean energy, and real estate developers building sustainable communities.
Janice has been very active in advanced energy storage (AES), having led a successful effort to obtain incentive co-funding for AES through the CA Self Generation Incentive Program. She also recently co-founded the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA), an inter-industry advocacy group focused on expanding the role of AES technology to promote the growth of renewable energy and a more stable and secure electric system in California.
Prior to founding Strategen in 2005, Janice held several senior management positions with PowerLight Corporation (now SunPower), including Vice President of Product Strategy and Vice President of Business Development. During her tenure at PowerLight, Janice led initiatives in product and new market strategies, business development, regulatory affairs, strategic partnerships, investor relations, and customer finance.
Janice holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a BS from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Chris Edgette
Senior Director
Chris has over a decade of experience in renewable energy project construction, product development, and corporate strategy. For the last several years, Chris has specialized in grid storage markets, applications and value propositions throughout the electric power system, assisting a variety of global companies to evaluate appropriate market entry.
Prior to Strategen, Chris served as Director of Commercial Projects at SolarCity, a leading grid connected photovoltaic systems integrator. Chris started his career in the solar industry at PowerLight - now SunPower Systems - in 2002, working on research and development for PowerLight's non-penetrating rooftop systems. By 2004, Chris was managing construction on PowerLight commercial projects. By 2005, he became PowerLight's first product manager, managing the T10 non-penetrating rooftop product. After the SunPower acquisition, Chris was the first supervisor of the construction management group. In all, Chris directly managed or oversaw 25 MW of global installations, and participated in development of two non-penetrating systems and the SunPower tracker.
A Senior Director at Strategen, Chris helps clients with product, process, and market entry strategy, as well as value proposition analysis and detailed system costing for clean energy systems, using real-world detail to inform high-level decision-making.
Giovanni Damato
Manager
Giovanni has led Strategen’s Value Proposition Practice in distributed energy storage since 2005. Storage technology providers, global solar integrators, leading real estate developers, and public utility commissions have sought out his expertise to make critical strategic decisions about distributed storage markets, including the integration of storage with renewable energy resources. He is currently advising suppliers and developers as well as clean energy end-users to develop the value proposition and strategic implications of photovoltaic, solar thermal, and advanced energy storage systems for a wide range of key stakeholders.
Giovanni brings practical and analytical skills to Strategen from the construction industry. Prior to joining Strategen, Giovanni founded a custom homebuilding business and is a licensed General Contractor in the State of California. Incorporating green building into his homebuilding business ultimately led Giovanni to the clean energy space and Strategen. He has also worked for Granite Construction, a leading U.S. heavy civil transportation contractor, as a Field Engineer on the Las Vegas Monorail Project, where he was responsible for day-to-day construction activities and jobsite/public safety.
On the regulatory front at Strategen, Giovanni played an integral role in building the business case for including Advanced Energy Storage in California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), which led to the Public Utility Commission’s (CPUC) favorable ruling to include energy storage in the SGIP program.
Giovanni holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Advisors
Ron Hofmann
Senior Advisor
Ron Hofmann specializes in business development and technology assessment in the energy sector. Mr. Hofmann has extensive experience in developing new businesses and markets from the ground up. Currently, he sits on two Boards of Directors (Power Standards Laboratory & Sentient Energy), one Board of Advisors (EchoFirst) and one Technical Advisory Committee (DOE/HNEI) for a Smart Grid project in Hawaii. He also is a pro-bono advisor to several emerging energy-related technology companies. Through the University of California, he helps the California Energy Commission’s PIER program develop RD&D projects, and through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, he advises regulators on the implications of Smart Grid technologies--especially those that involve controls and communications.
Over the past 45 years, Mr. Hofmann has started several successful enterprises. In the early seventies, he helped pioneer the commercialization of engineering simulation software (PISCES) through direct sales and the use of CDC Cybernet (an early worldwide computer network of mainframes). In 1974, he co-founded and co-managed a SAIC office for 9 years. Among his long-term clients were EPRI for nuclear reactor safety software development (STEALTH codes) and ONWI/ERDA for nuclear waste isolation simulations. In 1983, he was a co-founder (and the original CEO for 10 years) of EnergyLine Systems, Inc. ELSI, now a division of S&C Electric, developed smart (communicating) controls for commercial and industrial HVAC equipment (e.g., chillers, unitary equipment, VAV boxes, etc.) and electric utility power-distribution controls for sectionalizers, capacitor banks, reclosers, etc.
Mr. Hofmann has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of California in Berkeley and did post-graduate studies in thermo sciences at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. For many years, he was an active (and charter) participant in the CEO Forum sponsored by the Santa Clara University Business School. In his career, he has held technical, marketing, sales, and management positions in large and small companies.
Roger Levy
Senior Advisor
Roger Levy established Levy Associates in 1980. He has been actively involved with the utility industry since the mid 1970's, completing over 200 projects in system development, planning, implementation, evaluation, and research.
Roger was the principal consultant for the California Energy Commission advanced metering and pricing initiatives as well as the lead on the California Statewide Pricing Pilot. He has been a consultant to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Demand Response Research Center since shortly after it began and has been the lead consultant on the Smart Grid Technical Advisory project, which provides technical support to state regulatory commissions nationally. Roger also participates as a technical advisor on several of the Smart Grid Investment Grant Consumer Behavior pilots funded by DOE.
Roger has been involved with sustainable community projects, transportation planning, environmental impact evaluations, technology development, and implementation in private industry and with utilities. He began his career with the Corporate Planning group at Xerox Corporation, was a senior system analyst with RCA Computer Systems, and spent seven years as a management consultant with Arthur Young & Company and Price Waterhouse. In the mid 1970's Roger received a special appointment to the just inaugurated California Energy Commission where he managed 23 of the first PURPA pricing and load management pilots and co-managed development of the State Load Management Standards.
Roger received a BS in Management Science from the Simon Graduate School of Management at the University of Rochester and a MBA in Quantitative Methods from the Marshall Graduate School of Business at the University of Southern California.
Don Liddell
Senior Advisor
Don is a Principal of Douglass & Liddell, and specializes exclusively in energy business transactions and regulatory proceedings involving a broad array of energy-related products and services. He is also General Counsel for the California Energy Storage Alliance. Don has over 30 years of experience in the private and government sectors of the industry. Prior to joining with Dan Douglass to form Douglass & Liddell, Don was Assistant General Counsel for Sempra Energy. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Independent Energy Producers Association from 1990 to 1997, including a term as Chairman. As an Adjunct Professor, he helped create and taught a course in Energy Law and Policy at the University of San Diego's School of Law. Prior to joining Sempra's predecessor companies in 1982, he was counsel to the United States Department of Energy's San Francisco office. He received an LL.M from the London School of Economics, a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law, and his B.A. with honors from San Diego State University.
Jim Eyer
Advisor
Jim's entire 25 year career has involved energy efficiency, renewables and advanced energy technologies, concepts, benefits and markets. He has been Senior Analyst with Distributed Utility Associates for 13 years. Before that he held a range of positions with Pacific Gas and Electric Company related to advanced electric technology and concepts R&D, electric supply planning, and commercial energy efficiency services. For the last fifteen years Jim has focused on energy storage with an emphasis on benefits and value propositions. He has an undergraduate degree with a double major in physics and management from Sonoma State University and an M.A. in management also from Sonoma State.