After Alex’s (ESM ’19) first year of studies in USF’s Energy Systems Management program, he was hired as a Project Manager with Gridworks, a nonprofit group whose mandate is to ‘convene, educate and empower stakeholders working to decarbonize electricity grids.’ His studies at ESM allowed Alex to expand his knowledge of energy systems, establish industry connections and develop the necessary skills to succeed in the electricity industry. Recently, he was hired at Alameda Municipal Power as an Energy Resource Analyst to assist with resource planning and acquisition, cost-of-service analysis, rate design, energy usage and demand analyses.
Dainen Bocsary, ESM ’19, Candela Renewables, is with a utility scale solar developer focusing on solar and solar plus storage projects in the Lowe 48 states. He started as an intern at Candela during the Fall 2018 semester. After graduating with an MS in ESM in May 2019, he stated working as a project development analyst at Candela. He focuses on project siting, interconnection, acquisition support, market research, and competitive analysis.
Javier Palma, ESM ’19, Staten Solar, a commercial and Industrial solar company based in Milpitas. Javier working as project manager with them for over a year, and he has 14 years of professional experience in different engineering fields and 8 as project manager. The ESM program gave him enough understanding of the electric engineering fundamentals that he needed for this position plus the additional understanding of how the grid works and the trend in the policies driving this change.
Justin Pine, ESM ’19, is working at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) as a utility analyst on the CleanPowerSF team. CleanPowerSF, San Francisco’s renewable energy program operated through the SFPUC, serves over 360,000 customers under the CCA model. While duties vary day to day, Justin primarily focuses on rate analysis and program design as well as manages the program’s key commercial accounts. Prior to CleanPowerSF, Justin spent 4 years implementing energy efficiency programs for PG&E and Arizona Public Service (APS) as well as organized for one of Solar Mosaic’s (Mosaic) first crowd-sourced solar installations in Flagstaff, Arizona. Justin received a master’s degree from the University of San Francisco’s Energy Systems Management program and a bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences from Northern Arizona University.
Maddie Brown, ESM ’19, is working at Borrego Solar as a project finance associate. She is currently working on M&A transactions for commercial-scale solar and storage projects. Prior to Borrego, she worked at Tesla as a project manager in new markets and energy deployment. Maddie received a master’s degree in energy systems management from USF, and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and environmental studies from University of Vermont.
Mike Lowell, ESM ’19, is a Development Engineer at Amber Kinetics, and is currently working on increasing local energy resilience with an emphasis on microgrids and trans-active energy.
Sameer Desai, ESM ’19, is at Enchanted Rock in Houston, TX where they build, own, and operate microgrids using natural gas generators. Their generators are used to provide emergency backup power to their customers and their business model allows them to minimize the upfront capital cost borne by their customers. This happens by financing the project over multiple years and generating revenue through energy and ancillary services to the ERCOT grid. Getting an MS at ESM was instrumental in preparing him for this opportunity. Through the classes at ESM, he learned the value of reliable, flexible quick-response distributed generation systems and how they help improve the overall stability of the electric grid.
Simon Feng Ou, ESM ’19, Senior Market Design Analyst for PG&E.
Unmesh Mali, ESM ’19, recently started working for Sunverge Energy as a Data Analyst and Energy Algorithms Engineer. He is grateful to the ESM program for giving him the opportunity to gain multidisciplinary understanding of the energy industry. Learning from industry veterans like Dr Paul De Martini was a highlight, and it also helped secure him job at Sunverge, where Dr. Martini is one of the advisors.
Ibrahim Akil, ESM ’19, Penumbra Inc. At Penumbra, Ibrahim is working as an Environment, Health, and Safety (EH&S) Specialist. His work involves developing sustainability initiatives with internal and external stakeholders to reduce environmental footprints and assisting the Facilities Department in reviewing and implementing energy efficiency projects in the company.
Rajneesh Kaul, ESM ’19, is working at the CPUC as a Senior Regulatory Analyst with the Demand Response, Retail Rates team supporting the Commissioners and ALJ (Administrative Law Judges) on regulatory and policy matters for the IOUs in California.