IDEA is pleased to announce that the nominations for the 2024-25 Executive Committee and the 2024-27 Board of Directors were officially approved by the voting members in attendance at the IDEA Annual Business Meeting on Wednesday, June 19, at IDEA2024 in Orlando, Florida, our 115th Annual Conference.
We are pleased to announce that Joan Kowal, Client Manager at Jacobs will now serve as IDEA Chair, with David Woodson, Executive Director Campus Energy, Utilities, & Operations at University of Washington stepping in as Vice Chair. Timothy Peer, Vice President, District Energy at BOND will serve as Second Vice Chair, with Daniel Dixon, Senior Technical Leader of EPRI taking over as Secretary/Treasurer. Carlyle Coutinho, CEO of Enwave Energy Corporation moves into the role of Immediate Past Chair after a successful turn as Chair for the 2023-24 term.
Special thanks to David Musto, 2023-24 Immediate Past Chair for his many years of service on the Executive Committee and to Bob Manning, Senior Director of Engineering & Utilities at Harvard University for his exemplary service as IDEA Secretary/Treasurer for the past 7 years.
We are also pleased to welcome the newest members of the IDEA Board of Directors; Ted Borer, Director, Energy Plants at Princeton and Earl Collins, CEO of Cordia, along with At Large Executive Committee Member, Meghan Riesterer, Chief Sustainability Officer of CenTrio. IDEA also welcomes back three returning Board members, Lalit Agarwal, VP, Energy Management & Sustainability at EnergyCAP; Carol Denning, President, Energy Strategies and Development of Energy Pathways; and Laura Duncan, President of Gilsulate. All will serve three-year terms, 2024-27.
Visit the IDEA website for a complete list of IDEA Board of Directors and Executive Committee members.
On Monday, July 17, at the IDEA2024 Annual Awards and Welcome Dinner, the chair’s gavel was officially passed from Carlyle Coutinho to Joan Kowal. In a speech highlighting the theme for her 2024-25 term, Fostering Innovation through Diversity (which you can view it its entirety here), Joan explains that “(fostering innovation through) diversity extends beyond the description of gender, race and ethnicity. It also describes schools of thought, geography, technical solutions, as well as a host of other areas.”
Joan went on to say that this philosophy will guide us as we move to decarbonize. “Decarbonization will require many tools in the toolbox – ranging from electrification to micro-reactors to hydrogen to geo-exchange – and we’ll need all the district energy industries and partners to innovate how we work collectively to continue to implement these solutions as well as those on the horizon.”
Under Joan’s steady leadership, IDEA looks forward to another amazing year, serving thousands of district energy professionals around the world. If you’d like to get involved with IDEA, visit our website at www.districtenergy.org or contact us at idea@districtenergy.org.
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