Austin, Texas (April 2, 2023) – Zpryme, a research-based firm with services focused on energy and technology, announced today that Emeka Anyanwu, Energy Innovation & Resources Officer of Seattle City Light, has been selected as the 2023 ETS Thought Leader of the Year. Anyanwu was chosen for the recognition amongst a group of peers following voting by ETS alumni and committee members.

ETS, or Energy Thought Summit, is Zpyrme’s signature annual event, bringing energy and industry thought leaders together from all over the world to share ideas and work to solve some of today’s most pressing energy problems. This year they are going extra, extra big, to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of this landmark event. This year it’s being held at Hotel Zaza in Austin, TX, from April 2-5th.

The ETS Thought Leader of the Year award salutes an individual among the ETS community of thought leaders who possesses the type of inventive and brave vision needed to inspire the global energy ecosystem toward sustainable modernization.

Previous award winners include Jackie Sargent, General Manager of Austin Energy (2022) Paul Lau, CEO and General Manager of SMUD (2021), Calvin G. Butler, Senior Vice President and COO at Exelon (2020), and Gil C. Quiniones, the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Power Authority (NYPA) (2019).

This year, Zpryme is also partnering with the Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions’ American-Made EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP)! In EnergyTech UP, student teams will compete for $370,000 in cash prizes for successfully identifying a promising energy technology, assessing its market potential, and creating a business plan for commercialization.

Teams will be competing during ETS23 on Monday. This event seeks to attract the talented students of today and help them develop into the engineers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, market analysts, and project developers of tomorrow.

Multidisciplinary student teams will develop and present a business plan that leverages National Laboratory-developed or other high-potential energy technologies, including university-developed technologies or other technologies of interest to student competitors.

Both events will occur during Energy Thought Summit (ETS23) at Hotel Zaza in downtown Austin.

Sponsors for this year’s ETS include Avertra, SEW, GE, Armada Power, esri, Bidgley, Austin Energy, ESS inc, Deloitte, Siemens, Froliq, and more.

Speakers for this year include:

  • Henk Rogers, Founder & CEO, Blue Planet Alliance
  • Gene Rodrigues, Assistant Secretary of Energy, Office of Electricity, U.S. Department of Energy
  • David Irwin, Director, Project Development, Army Office of Energy Initiatives, Army
  • David Wade, President & CEO, EPB
  • Jackie Sargent, General Manager, Austin Energy
  • Paul Lau, CEO & General Manager, SMUD
  • Lon Huber, SVP, Pricing & Customer Solutions, Duke Energy
  • Mark Webb, SVP and Chief Innovation Officer, Dominion Energy
  • Adrian Rodriguez, President, Texas & New Mexico, Xcel Energy
  • Raiford Smith, Chief Utility Innovation Officer, AES
  • Ali Mohammed, Sr. Director Digital Innovation & Transformation, NYPA
  • Ann Delenela, VP & Chief Information Security Officer, Entergy
  • Bart Franey, VP Clean Energy Development, National Grid
  • Brad Chadwell , Director, Enterprise Research & Innovation, TVA
  • Bryan Hannegan, President & CEO, Holy Cross
  • Carlos Nouel, VP of Transformation Programs, National Grid
  • Celina Bonugli, Sr. Energy Innovation Strategist, APS
  • Cengizhan Yenerim, VP/Head of Risk, ENGIE Global Energy Management & Sales
  • Cheryl Mele, VP, Customer Care & Corporate Communications, El Paso Energy
  • Denise Munoz, Director of Strategy & Innovation for Customer Solutions, ComEd
  • Drew Higgins, Sr. Director, Products and Services, CPS Energy
  • Emeka Anyanwu, Energy Innovation & Resources Officer, Seattle City Light
  • Erika Bierschbach, Vice President Energy Market Operations and Resource Planning, Austin Energy
  • Heather Herndon-Wright, Director, Supply Chain Diversity & Sustainability, Vistra
  • Jason Handley, General Manager – Distributed Energy Group, Duke Energy
  • Jason Ketchum,Vice President, Commercial, ONE Gas
  • Jenise Osani, Vice President of Marketing & New Products, Orlando Utilities Commission
  • Jesse Hernandez, Director of Equity Community Strategy & Engagement, CPS Energy
  • John Kochavatr, Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, Portland General Electric
  • Khalil Shalabi, EVP for Strategic Initiatives and Transformation, LCRA
  • Marie Steele, VP – Integrated Energy Services, NV Energy
  • Nancy Bui-Thompson, Board Director, SMUD
  • Natasha Contreras, Clean Transportation Customer Engagement Manager, SDG&E
  • Nathanael Gillespie, Director of Customer Solutions, PEPCO Holding
  • Peter Muhoro, Chief Strategy, Technology & Innovation Officer, REC
  • Richard Ramirez, Head of Innovation and Technology Corporate Responsibility, DTE Energy
  • Shaun Hoyte, Section Manager- Clean Energy Networks, Con Edison

 

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For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact:

Bethany Ruhe

bethany.ruhe@zpryme.com

412.443.7969

About Zpryme

Based in Austin, Texas, Zpryme is a research-based firm with agency-geared services focused on energy and technology. Based on the creative direction of our associates, Zpryme produces influential research and events that challenge the status quo and offer innovative marketing solutions for fully-immersive brand experiences. For more information, visit www.zpryme.com.