Gary Dorris, PhD

CEO & Co-Founder

Dr. Dorris holds a PhD in applied economics and finance from Cornell University, a BS in mechanical engineering, and a BA in economics with magna cum laude distinction, also from Cornell University.

Dr. Dorris, a pioneer of innovative energy modeling solutions for over 20 years, is the CEO and Founder of Ascend Analytics, an industry-leading, 170+ person energy analytics software and consulting company. His work revolutionized modeling power markets to support real-time operations, portfolio management, and resource planning.

Throughout his career, Dr. Dorris has performed independent market assessment to support over $50 billion dollars in project financing and advised multiple boards of directors. Industry leaders consistently turn to Dr. Dorris for expert testimony and executive presentations.  He previously served as the as the lead expert witness for Merrill Lynch in the prominent Enron proceedings in addition to numerous regulatory proceedings.

Prior to founding Ascend, Dr. Dorris served as CEO of e-Acumen, a 60-person energy analytics software firm.

William Hargett

Vice President of Business Development

Mr. Hargett holds an MBA from the IESE Business School and a BS from William & Mary Research University.

Mr. Hargett leads business development for Ascend Analytics' Market Intelligence, BatterySIMM and the Ascend Energy Exchange.   He has broad experience and a record of accomplishment of success in project and business development within Battery Energy Storage Systems, conventional, and renewable generation systems.

Mr. Hargett has extensive expertise in market strategy and execution, project acquisition and advance M&A, and tenders and competitive bids.  He is also the proud owner of solar projects in Illinois.

Prior to Ascend, Mr. Hargett held senior business development positions at Quanta Services, Abengoa, and Skyfuel, providing EPC and technology services to many of the clients he currently serves at Ascend.  He is also the co-founder of SolarMultiple, an enhanced evaporation technology provider for produced water mitigation, as well as being a second-generation member of Hargett FLP which leases 12MWdc of solar in Illinois with another 60MWdc in pipeline.

Brent Nelson, PhD

Managing Director of Markets & Strategy

Dr. Nelson holds PhD and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Berkeley.

Dr. Nelson leads the forecasting practice at Ascend Analytics and provides expertise in new market dynamics, storage and renewable project valuation and strategy, resource planning, and renewable integration.

Prior to joining Ascend, Dr. Nelson was an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Northern Arizona University, while also holding a collaborative appointment at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Dr. Nelson previously worked for the US Department of Energy from 2014-2016, focusing on research and development strategy for energy efficiency and demand side management.  He has extensive experience in energy technology and energy system modeling, with a focus on understanding the impacts of technological change.

Vera Moffitt, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Moffitt holds a PhD in Informational Sciences, and a MS and BS in Computer Science from Drexel University.

Dr. Vera Moffitt leads Ascend Analytics' talented team of software engineers and data scientists focused on building innovative approaches to optimize the value of renewables and storage for the SmartBidder, BatterySIMM, and Ascend Energy Exchange (AEX) solutions.  Dr. Moffitt has a proven track record leading projects from early customer engagement and proposal development to project execution and transition and she is responsible for launching some of Ascend Analytics' fastest growing products, including SmartBidder.

Prior to joining the company, Dr. Moffitt led the data scientists, software engineers, and analysts at Lockheed Martin that improved commercial fleet operations and she was a key contributor to Lockheed's Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System (AACUS) program exploring advanced autonomous capabilities.

Carley Dolch

Director of Business Development

Ms. Dolch earned her BS from Rutgers University

Ms. Dolch is the Director of Business Development for the PowerSIMM business, where she leads portfolio management, resource planning, and reliability analysis.

Ms. Dolch brings to Ascend Analytics over 15 years of energy market experience, including optimizing reliability and financial margins, settlements, and bringing to market innovative software analytics that assist companies to best manage increasingly complex market conditions.

Prior to Ascend, Ms. Dolch was a business development leader at Integ Consulting, a leading software firm specializing in generation solutions for utilities.  In her role as Senior Director of Generation Services, Ms. Dolch oversaw asset reliability, the analysis of lost opportunity costs during outages meter data optimization, and launch of a versatile analytics tool.  Her achievements included the expansion into international markets, and the establishment of a substantial market share in the private equity sector.

Michael Huisenga

Managing Director of Business Development

Mr. Huisenga holds a Master of Science in Mechnical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Iowa.

Mr. Huisenga leads business development and commercial management activities for Ascend Analytics' SmartBidder SaaS specific marketing activities, develops, and executes customer acquisition strategies, supports product positioning with customers and partners, and oversees customer request for proposals.

Prior to joining Ascend Analytics, Mr. Huisenga was a Senior Vice President and Energy District Business Line Leader with WSP USA, a Top 5 ranked design firm by Engineering News Record (ENR), spending 15 years in roles covering sustainability services, renewable energy, and management.

Mr. Huisenga's experience also includes leading Product Strategy for Spruce Power, a Residential Solar & Battery Storage Asset Management firm.

Adam Hise

Managing Director of Storage Risk Solutions

Mr. Hise  holds an MS in Environmental Science & Engineering from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and BS in Biological Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Mr. Hise leads the development and commercialization of insurance-backed revenue risk transfer offerings for clean energy assets.  Mr Hise has successfully grown EnSurance to realize the first insurance backed financing of a merchant storage project.  He leads a team of analysts to develop innovative insurance backed products to advance the energy transition.

Mr. Hise founded and led the EnSurance team at Ascend, developing novel risk shifting products to advance storage and renewable energy deployment.  Prior to Ascend, Mr. Hise held management roles at Scout Clean Energy and provided strategy consulting with emerging renewable tech businesses.   

Diana Roth, PhD

Senior Advisor of Strategic Projects

Dr. Roth holds a PhD and MS in Biogeochemistry with a focus on Statistical Modeling from Cornell University.  She earned her BS in Environmental Physical Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Roth spearheads strategic marketing and design programs across the Ascend Analytics product ecosystem. With over two decades of climate change expertise, Dr.  Roth helps Ascend connect its solution suite to the ever-evolving energy transition.

Prior to joining Ascend, Dr. Roth worked as an Environmental Scientist at Battelle, where she served as a Technical Consultant to the US EPA Climate Office in Washington, DC, with a focus on Science Communications.  Her dissertation addressed measuring greenhouse gas emissions on a landscape scale.  She also addressed environmental policy issues at Harvard University, where she contributed to a study of 'Learning to Manage Global Environmental Risks'.  Dr Roth has also served as a consultant to EDF, publishing 'Opportunities for Agriculture in the Current Climate'.

Carlos Blanco, PhD

Managing Director of Risk Management & ESG

Dr. Blanco holds a PhD in finance from Universidad Complutense, Madrid, where he was awarded magna cum laude distinction. He also has a masters degree in investments and international economics from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Dr. Blanco provides expertise to Ascend's clients in the areas of analytic modeling, forecasting, optimization and simulation, while also contributing to advance the software product and services to meet the evolving client needs.

Dr. Blanco is an internationally recognized expert in energy risk management and climate change risk. He works globally with Ascend customers on development of risk management policy and procedures. His expertise in risk management and climate risk has been highly sought after by corporations for training and board presentations. Dr. Blanco has uniquely linked risk policies consistent with renewables and storage and the attributes of Ascend software. Prior to joining Ascend, he was the co-founder and managing director of Black Swan Risk Advisors, where he worked with leading organizations worldwide on a wide range of advisory and education projects. Dr. Blanco has published over 150 articles on a wide range of financial and commodity risk management topics and taught finance at the University of California, Berkeley.

He also served as the former VP of Risk Solutions at Financial Engineering Associates, where he was a member of the Executive Management Committee as well as an essential contributor in the development and client support of financial and energy derivatives pricing and market risk management models.

Sean Burrows, PhD

Senior Advisor

Dr. Burrows holds PhD and MS degrees from the University of Wisconsin and a BS from Cornell University.

Dr. Burrows has two decades of energy analytics experience developing technology solutions and software for energy trading and risk management.

Dr. Burrows led the initial development of the simulation engine of Ascend's PowerSIMM software. He presently manages the operations of Ascend's computing infrastructure, including Software as a Service, while also contributing to technical advances in PowerSIMM. With his primary knowledge in simulation modeling, he continues to contribute to supporting model advancements.

He has previously led technical development over a large range of activities from complex statistical models to managing extremely large data structures. He also has broad experience in statistics, computer management, database management, and application development.

Leela Gill

Senior Advisor of Marketing

Ms. Gill earned her MBA from Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and her BS in Engineering from University of California, Berkeley.

Ms. Gill leads Ascend Analytics' marketing team, helping to further fuel the business's rapid growth.  She is an accomplished full-stack CMO specializing in revenue acceleration for B2B SaaS companies.  Ms. Gill's expertise spans a comprehensive range of key marketing disciplines, including go-to-market strategy, demand generation, brand awareness, field marketing, public relations, and analyst relations.

Prior to joining Ascend Analytics, Ms. Gill was Chief Marketing Officer for several high-tech AI-driven Silicon Valley startups where she helped double and triple business revenue year-over-year.

Jeff Hartsough

Managing Director of Asset Operations

Mr. Hartsough holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and his BA from Yale University.

Mr. Hartsough, Managing Director of Asset Operations, leads the SmartBidder business, Ascend Analytics' real-time bid optimization platform for storage, renewables, hybrids, and load.  He works across the technical and commercial teams to drive platform innovation centered on customer needs and ensure customers fully realize the value of the platform's optimization capabilities.

Prior to joining Ascend Analytics, Mr. Hartsough was a senior product manager at Cisco Systems, and led product development on energy, ioT, and cybersecurity products, and held management consulting roles.

Vena Kostroun

Senior Advisor

Mr. Kostroun holds a MS in physics from the University of California at Berkeley and holds a BS in physics from Cornell University with cum laude distinction.

Mr. Kostroun has over two decades of experience developing high-end analytic and software tools of energy trading and risk management and electric resource planning.

Mr. Kostroun has successfully grown Ascend's PowerSIMM development team to include a rich depth of experience, breadth of skills, and high degree of innovation with strong focus on delivery. He previously worked as Senior Consultant at Nexant, Inc., where he led software development of PRYM for asset valuation and physical risk management of generating assets. Prior to Nexant, he served as technical lead and manager of the AcuPower analytics team at e-Acumen, Inc.

His areas of expertise include: backend mathematical modeling, software design and architecture, building and management of software engineering teams, and complex optimization and stochastic modeling.

Brandon Mauch, PhD

Director of Resource Planning Analytics

Dr. Mauch holds a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University where his research focused on wind power forecasting and risk assessment.  He holds an MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Kansas.

Dr. Mauch leads a team of Ascend Analytics' analysts that provide modeling support for resources planning.  His project portfolio includes developing integrated Resource Plans for Northwestern Energy and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power among many others.

Prior to joining Ascend Analytics, Dr. Mauch was a Senior Program Manager for CLEAResult Consulting where he managed utility energy efficiency and demand response programs for Midwestern utilities.  Earlier in his career, he was a Utility Regulation Engineer for the Iowa Utilities Board where he worked on regional energy policy issues, resource planning and rate cases for Iowa's owned utilities.

Michael Fisher, PhD

Senior Manager of Portfolio Analytics

Dr. Fisher holds a PhD in energy policy from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in economics and BAS in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Fisher, PhD leads the BatterySIMM team which produces bankable asset valuations and revenue forecaasts for merchant storage.  Dr. Fisher has a deep understanding of the needs of developers and project finance professionals across the project lifecycle.  His doctoral research at Carnegie Mellon explored the technical, economic, and emissions impacts of distributed storage, where he created a battery optimization model that explored how storage behaves when responding to retail and wholesale value streams.

Jonah Simon

Director of Battery Products

Mr. Simon holds a BS in Mathematical Sciences from Middlebury College.

Mr. Simon applies his extensive expertise in ISO Market Forecasting and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) dispatch optimization to oversee and ensure the successful deployment of the Ascend Analytics BatterySIMM and the SmartBidder products.  He leads a team of eight analysts, software developers, and product developers that continues to advance increasingly complex dispatch strategies and model simulations for every ISO in the United States.

While at Ascend Analytics, Mr. Simon has supported project finance closings on more than $2 billion of assets.

Keith Aubin, PhD

Senior Managing Director of PowerSIMM Development

Dr. Aubin holds MS and PhD degrees in applied physics from Cornell University and a BS in physics and  BS in applied mathematics from the University of Rhode Island.

With academic and work experience in portfolio theory, rocket science, and nano-biotechnology, Dr. Aubin's main interest is in the application of advanced mathematics to complex problems. As Senior Director of Development, he has lead Full Stack activities for 18 years. Prior to working for Ascend, Keith held a position at MIT Lincoln Laboratory as a system and architecture analyst.

Dr. Aubin has published his work in a number of journals, proceedings, and book chapters. He is also an inventor on several issued or pending patents.

 Greg Welk

Chief Financial Officer

Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Boston University.

Greg Welk, Chief Financial Officer at Ascend Analytics, leads the finance team and helps the company focus on revenue growth and increased operational efficiency. With more than 18 years of finance, start-up, and investment banking experience, Mr. Welk previously worked as Vice President and Managing Director at boutique investment banks, where he led mergers and acquisition transactions in a variety of industry verticals.

Rahm Orenstein

Managing Director of Ascend Energy Exchange

Mr. Orenstein holds an MBA from Reichman University and a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tel Aviv University.

Mr. Orenstein leads Ascend Energy Exchange – Asset Sales, an analytics-based marketplace that enables Ascend customers to buy and sell high quality energy storage and renewable energy projects in a streamlined and efficient way, wrapped by Ascends’ unique suite of analytical and consulting services, thereby maximizing reach and value.   

Prior to joining Ascend, Mr. Orenstein spent 15 years holding executive positions in the renewable energy industry, including as CEO of Sunflower Sustainable Investment, Ltd (TASE: SNFL), a global developer and IPP of renewable energy and energy storage; VP Business Development – Energy Storage and VP Business Development – Americas, at Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: ORA), a global developer and IPP of renewable energy and energy storage. Prior to that, Mr. Orenstein spent nine years with ECI Telecom (now Ribbon Communications) in various senior capacities covering product management, business development, and pre-sales engineering.

Anthony Boukarim

Director of Resource Planning & Power Procurement

Anthony holds a master’s degree in Energy Resources Engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the American University of Beirut.

Anthony Boukarim, Senior Manager of Resource Planning and Valuation, leads Ascend’s RFO services supporting load serving entities procure resources to meet their energy and capacity needs. He manages multiple resource planning efforts (IRPs, RFO administration, asset valuations, decarbonization studies) for clients across the US. He provides consulting expertise for utilities and CCAs for renewable integration, reliability, and risk management. His portfolio of clients in California and the broader west includes Clean Power Alliance, San Jose Clean Energy, San Diego Community Power, Peninsula Clean Energy, Grant County Public Utility District, and Arizona Corporation Commission, among others.

Prior to joining Ascend, Mr. Boukarim worked at Arthur D. Little/McKinsey & Co as a management consultant in their Energy & Utilities Practice. Mr. Boukarim has also worked as a research analyst in energy topics for Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley.  

Zach Brode

Director of Analytics  & Strategy

Mr. Brode joined Ascend after completing his M.A. in economics at the University of British Columbia, and his B.A. in economics and mathematics at Wheaton College.

Zach Brode, Director of Analytics & Strategy, leads resource planning, portfolio management, and valuation projects. He also manages the development of PowerSIMM. At Ascend, he works with utility clients to model energy systems in support of capacity planning and resource assessment and valuation. He also has experience with avoided cost analysis and new resource power procurement analysis.

Robert Lafaso

Director of Forecasting & Valuation

Mr. LaFaso holds a B.S. in Energy Systems Engineering from the University of Wyoming and a M.S. in Engineering Management from the Colorado School of Mines.

Mr. LaFaso leads Ascend Analytics’ Market Intelligence (AscendMI) day-to-day practice area, which encompasses the development of long-term supply-stack, market-price, and project-economics forecasts. His work influences Ascend's software suite, as AscendMI forecasts drive the analytics behind PowerSIMM and BatterySIMM. Mr. LaFaso conducted the Valuation Due Diligence for significant M&A transactions, including the multi-gigawatt portfolios behind TerraGen’s sale to Masdar and Origis Energy’s sale to Antin Infrastructure Partners.