Leadership & Board of Directors
The Voltus leadership team knows distributed energy resources
Our team has brought to market a combined 15,000 MW of distributed energy resources (DERs) over the past twenty years, from demand response to distributed generation to energy storage. Voltus’s leadership team is responsible for opening most of the DER market opportunities that exist today.
Leadership team
Dana Guernsey
Dana Guernsey is a leading expert in global energy markets and brings fifteen years of experience developing virtual power plant and demand-side energy management products and first-of-its-kind programs to her role as Chief Executive Officer. Previously, as Chief Product Officer, Dana led the development of Voltus’s technology-enabled distributed energy resource platform, which connects Voltus’s customers and technology partners to the value that they can extract from their local energy markets, while contributing to a more resilient and decarbonized electric grid.
Before co-founding Voltus, Dana was Director of Product Marketing at FirstFuel, which offers cloud-based engagement software to help utilities deepen relationships with their business customers and increase energy efficiency. Prior to FirstFuel, she led corporate development and go-to-market strategies at Ambri, an MIT spinout company commercializing batteries for large-scale energy storage on the electric grid. Prior to that she was the Director of Energy Markets at EnerNOC, where she led a team responsible for the profitable management of the company’s complex portfolio of nearly 10,000 MWs of demand response assets, covering dozens of wholesale electricity markets and regulated utilities across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Dana grew up in New York City and holds an M.S. in Engineering Management, B.S. in Engineering, and B.A. from Dartmouth College. In her now home state of Massachusetts, recognized as the U.S. leader in energy efficiency by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Dana was named a Mass High Tech “Woman to Watch” in 2014 for her groundbreaking work in the energy and technology industries. Outside of work, Dana is likely to be found on the ski slopes, biking, or hiking with her husband and two children.
Matthew Plante
Matt co-founded Voltus to pursue his passion for a cleaner energy future. As President of Voltus, Matt is responsible for Voltus’s new market entry and for developing customer solutions that marry leading technology, energy markets knowledge, and straightforward and compelling value propositions.
Prior to founding Voltus, Matt was the CEO of EcoFactor, a connected home software developer and operator of the award winning, 70 MW residential demand response program with Nevada Energy. Prior to that, Matt held VP of Sales roles at Bidgely and at EnerNOC. At EnerNOC, Matt secured EnerNOC’s first utility contract and spearheaded its initial international efforts, which resulted in the acquisition of two Australian demand response companies and in EnerNOC’s largest non-US portfolio. He also built from scratch EnerNOC’s two largest US markets, PJM and TVA, growing them from 0 to 2,000+ MW and 0 to 500+ MW, respectively. Matt led worldwide sales for EnerNOC’s 200-person commercial and industrial sales team, 15-person utility solutions team, and 40-person energy intelligence software team.
Neil Lakin
Neil Lakin joined Voltus to use his passion for building great technology to help create a smarter grid. Neil brings his world-class experience designing cloud-connected hardware to his role as CTO, where he is leading a team to build the technological infrastructure that will enable Voltus to deliver industry-best value to customers. His passion for solving big problems using the “Internet of Things” sets the foundation for Voltus to elegantly scale into a global leader.
Previously, as Chief Technology Officer and founder of MindMe, Neil developed wireless technology for networked microgrids in developing world markets. His engineering consulting firm has brought more than a dozen products to market for early-stage startups and multinational corporations. Neil enjoys working on every aspect of the Internet of Things: building scalable cloud architecture, designing hardware, and using data science to extract insights from networked sensors.
Neil graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Physics and completed his M.Eng. in Computer Science at Cornell University. A former teacher, Neil enjoys sharing his love of technology with young people by teaching coding camps, including at his alma Mater, Cornell, and mentoring at hackathons around the country.
Jon Wellinghoff
Jon brings his passion for clean energy and years of expertise to his role as Chief Regulatory Officer. He received two Presidential appointments to serve as a Commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a total of seven years, and he was the longest serving Chairman of that 1,500 person agency (5 years). He held the corporate position of Chief Policy Officer for SolarCity, the largest provider of distributed solar energy systems in the U.S., and was also in state government as General Counsel at the Nevada Public Utilities Commission and Nevada’s first Consumer Advocate under the Office of Attorney General.
During his FERC tenure, he led efforts to make the U.S. power grid cleaner and more efficient by promoting and integrating renewable energy, demand response, energy efficiency and storage. He championed FERC’s landmark Order 1000 which required grid operators to integrate solar and wind resources into the network, created FERC’s Office of Energy Policy and Innovation to promote new efficient technologies and oversaw the development of the Office of Energy Infrastructure Security focused on cyber and physical security of our Nation’s energy security assets.
In addition to Voltus, Jon is CEO at GridPolicy, Inc. He has written extensively and been published on numerous subjects related to energy policy and practice in such publications as the Energy Bar Journal, Public Utilities Fortnightly, and Greentech Media. He has lectured on distributed energy resources, energy market reform, and emerging grid structures at Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, the Beijing Energy Club among other venues. Wellinghoff received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Nevada, Reno, a M.A.T. in Mathematics from Howard University, and J.D. from Antioch School of Law. He currently calls Berkeley, California home.
Laurie Harrison
Laurie brings over 20 years of experience and expertise to her role as Chief Legal Officer. Throughout her career, she has represented high-growth, innovative public and private technology companies, helping those companies grow and scale quickly. Prior to Voltus, Laurie was CLO at AgileThought, a leading provider of digital transformation and consulting services to Fortune 1000 clients. She also served as General Counsel at Fuze, a leading cloud-based communications provider for the modern global enterprise, and General Counsel at Shutterstock (NYSE: SSTK), a leading global provider of imagery and music headquartered in New York City.
Earlier in her career, Laurie was Deputy General Counsel at Boston-based EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC), now known as Enel X, a leader in demand response and energy intelligence software, where she spent seven years managing and growing its legal operations for the full lifecycle from an IPO-stage company to a global public company leader in its industry.
Laurie began her legal career practicing corporate and securities law at the Boston office of WilmerHale, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, and public company representation. She received her B.A. from Georgetown University and her J.D. from Northeastern School of Law.
Michael Groeninger
Mike joined Voltus as CFO to continue his passion for building mission driven businesses. He brings more than 20 years of Finance experience, having spent his career in both operating and advisory roles. Mike joined Voltus from Apeel Sciences, where he served as Vice President of Corporate Finance, leading all aspects of finance and accounting. Prior to Apeel, Mike was Vice President of Finance at Sonos (NASDAQ: SONO), leading several functions including Global FP&A, M&A and Investor Relations. At Sonos, Mike played a critical role in guiding the company’s transition from pre-IPO to public company. Mike joined Sonos after 10 years in Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan, advising companies on capital markets and M&A transactions.
Mike graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S.B.A. and earned his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. In addition, he is a CFA charterholder.
Outside of work, Mike spends his weekends traveling to his kids’ soccer and basketball games throughout Southern California.
Stephanie Hendricks
Stephanie, a former Naval intelligence officer, joined Voltus to be part of the solution to the energy crisis. Stephanie has more than 15 years of experience building teams with a strong focus on operational excellence. As Chief Operating Officer, Stephanie leads all operational and customer success functions across the U.S. and Canada. Stephanie loves achieving complex, great things, particularly in the world of technology integration and customer success! Her passion for excellence ensures Voltus delivers critical energy resources to grid and utility operators as well as revenue to our customers.
Previously, as Vice President at nDimensional, Stephanie led her teams in extracting real-time business value from big data as an embedded component in customer products and solutions and ensuring customer success using nDimensional's artificial intelligence tools. Prior to nDimensional, Stephanie led cross-functional account management teams for Power Advocate, to ensure clients were getting full value for what they were buying.
Stephanie graduated from Harvard University with a A.B. in Government and completed Reserve Officers' Training Corp (ROTC) at MIT, after which she served in the United States Navy as a commissioned intelligence officer serving in OEF and OIF.
Carey Albertine
Carey brings decades of experience to her role as VP of People and Culture. Prior to Voltus, Carey was the Chief Experience Officer at Shift Thinking, where she was in charge of designing and delivering experiences that create the conditions for exponential growth for large organizations. In 2018, Carey gave a Ted Talk on the power of storytelling at TedX UVA. She taught leadership and professional development in the Masters of the Environment program at the University of Colorado, which includes a Renewable and Sustainable Energy track. Previously, she facilitated a leadership development program for high-potential women executives from Fortune 500 companies with Women Unlimited.
Carey was also an executive recruiter at The Capstone Partnership and managed a multi-million dollar P&L for Kaplan. She co-founded and served as Creative Director of In This Together Media, an organization dedicated to creating more diversity in the media and producing stories for children and young adults that represent and reach all audiences. Carey holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Kelly Yazdani
Kelly joined Voltus to combine her passion for go-to-market strategy with clean energy innovation. Kelly has a talent for taking the complex world of distributed energy resources and distilling it down in a way that’s engaging and approachable for prospective customers. Kelly loves partnering with the sales team to drive efficiencies in the sales process and helping every Voltan achieve personal and professional success.
Kelly arrived at Voltus after three years in the world of commercial product startups, first as Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Waggletooth and then as Director of Customer Analytics at Qore Performance. Prior to her entrepreneurial endeavors, Kelly served on the Admissions Committee of the George Washington University. Her foray into the energy industry began as an Analyst at DC Energy, where she traded Financial Transmission Rights in PJM’s deregulated electricity market.
Kelly graduated from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Chemistry and Environmental Studies. You can find her before the sun rises swimming with her masters team. After hours, she’s most likely driving her three kids to a myriad of after-school activities or watching true crime documentaries with her husband. Kelly resides in Vienna, Virginia outside Washington, DC.
Dan Svejnar
Dan has enjoyed over 20 years in the renewable energy sector successfully setting strategies and leading businesses that create value propositions out of the complex dynamics of renewable energy markets. As Senior Vice President of Growth at Voltus, Dan is responsible for developing and implementing scalable growth strategies across products, partners, and geographies. He has grown organizations cross functionally including sales, development, engineering, operations, asset management and corporate strategy. He is a high energy team player with a history of fostering a collaborative approach that values individual strengths and areas of expertise to create a holistic approach to each opportunity.
Prior to Voltus, Das was the global Vice President, Renewable Solutions at Johnson Controls. His teams drove building decarbonization through the deployment of distributed energy resources and grid-scale supply services across North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. Prior to Johnson Controls, Dan led the Commercial organization for Centrica Business Solutions North America before running the distributed energy resources P&L.
Dan began his career as an investment and merchant banking professional where he successfully invested capital in renewable energy companies and projects in both the United States and Europe. He has executed renewable and low carbon energy investments spanning the capital structure and technologies including solar, wind, storage, fuel cells, electric vehicles, combined heat and power, and central plants.
Dan graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. He enjoys volunteering his time coaching youth ice hockey and playing tennis, golf, and skiing. He is an avid runner who lives in New YorkCity.
Board and advisors
Dana Guernsey
Dana Guernsey is a leading expert in global energy markets and brings fifteen years of experience developing virtual power plant and demand-side energy management products and first-of-its-kind programs to her role as Chief Executive Officer. Previously, as Chief Product Officer, Dana led the development of Voltus’s technology-enabled distributed energy resource platform, which connects Voltus’s customers and technology partners to the value that they can extract from their local energy markets, while contributing to a more resilient and decarbonized electric grid.
Before co-founding Voltus, Dana was Director of Product Marketing at FirstFuel, which offers cloud-based engagement software to help utilities deepen relationships with their business customers and increase energy efficiency. Prior to FirstFuel, she led corporate development and go-to-market strategies at Ambri, an MIT spinout company commercializing batteries for large-scale energy storage on the electric grid. Prior to that she was the Director of Energy Markets at EnerNOC, where she led a team responsible for the profitable management of the company’s complex portfolio of nearly 10,000 MWs of demand response assets, covering dozens of wholesale electricity markets and regulated utilities across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Dana grew up in New York City and holds an M.S. in Engineering Management, B.S. in Engineering, and B.A. from Dartmouth College. In her now home state of Massachusetts, recognized as the U.S. leader in energy efficiency by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Dana was named a Mass High Tech “Woman to Watch” in 2014 for her groundbreaking work in the energy and technology industries. Outside of work, Dana is likely to be found on the ski slopes, biking, or hiking with her husband and two children.
Gregg Dixon
Gregg connects customers, investors, teammates, and the world with Voltus value, ensuring that the vision for the company, and its culture, is meeting their expectations. Gregg is a world-renowned expert in commercial and industrial energy management and has pioneered many of today’s innovations that unlock the economic and environmental benefits of “intelligent energy.”
Prior to co-founding Voltus, Gregg was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales and a founding executive at EnerNOC, a leading provider of demand response, energy procurement, and energy intelligence software, where he led all facets of marketing, sales, product, and professional services. Gregg developed and executed EnerNOC’s award winning go-to-market strategy that took EnerNOC from $0 to nearly $500 million in revenue over the course of 10 years. Among his proudest achievements, he created more than 350 jobs, brought to market more than 10,000 MW of demand response around the world, delivered more than $1 billion in cash savings to customers, opened more than two dozen markets for the very first time to demand side resources, architected the company’s product strategy, and, before he left, led EnerNOC’s Supreme Court of the United States case on FERC Order 745, which was decided in favor of EnerNOC, ensuring that the demand response industry can continue to grow.
Prior to joining EnerNOC, Gregg was Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Hess Microgen, the leading provider of commercial on-site co-generation systems and services in the United States, where he pioneered efforts to bring more than 100 co-generation systems to leading grocery, hospitality, commercial property, and manufacturing customers. Gregg was also a Partner at Mercer Management Consulting, where he advised Fortune 1000 companies on customer and product strategy, economic analysis, and new business development.
Gregg has been the keynote and contributing speaker at hundreds of energy conferences, and his work in the industry has been cited broadly in the media, including The Wall St. Journal, The Economist, USA Today, Wired Magazine, and The Boston Globe, among others. Gregg graduated from Boston College with bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and Information Systems and he is a Certified Energy Manager, Certified Demand Side Management Professional, and Certified Sustainable Development Professional with the Association of Energy Engineers with whom he was also recognized as a “Lifetime Legend in Energy.” Gregg was also voted one of Boston’s “40 Under 40” by Boston Business Journal as recognition for having established himself as a leader to be watched in the field of technology and energy.
Philip Deutch
Mr. Deutch is Chief Executive Officer of NGP ETP III, a portfolio company of NGP XII that invests in companies with products, services, or technologies in the areas of renewable energy, power, energy storage, environmental, energy efficiency, and transportation. Mr. Deutch founded NGP ETP in 2005 and has been investing in the energy technology sector since 1997. Mr. Deutch managed NGP Energy Technology Partners and NGP Energy Technology Partners II, two private equity funds affiliated with NGP, which invested in companies that provide products and services to the oil and gas, power, environmental, energy efficiency, and alternative energy sectors.
From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Deutch was Partner, COO, and President of Social Capital, a $1.8 billion Silicon Valley-based investment firm, where he helped launch SC Public Equity Partners and Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. (NYSE:IPOA). From 1997 to 2004, Mr. Deutch was Managing Director at Perseus, L.L.C., where he led or co-led the firm’s energy investing activities and was a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. At Perseus, Mr. Deutch helped launch Perseus CDO I Limited, Perseus Acquisition-Recapitalization Fund, and Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, L.P. From 1986 to 1988, Mr. Deutch was a financial analyst in the Mergers & Acquisition Department of Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc. Mr. Deutch is a board member of Form Energy Inc., Voltus Inc., Community Energy Inc. and TPI Composites Inc. (NASDAQ:TPIC) and is a former board member of, among other companies, American Wind Capital, Beacon Power, Evergreen Solar, Renewable Energy Group (NASDAQ:REGI), and SatCon Technologies.
Mr. Deutch is a member of the External Advisory Board of the MIT Future of Storage Study, the Board of Governors of the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Board of Trustees of the Menlo School. He previously served on the Boards of the International Center for Women, the Washington Performing Arts Society and Capital for Children. Mr. Deutch holds a J.D. with distinction from Stanford Law School and a B.A. in Economics from Amherst College, where he was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Raj Atluru
Raj is a founder and Managing Director at Activate Capital, and has been investing in technology, energy, mobility and industrial markets since 1996. Raj is a passionate champion of the entrepreneur, having founded three private investment firms as well as an educational nonprofit (Spotlight Foundation) after graduating business school.
Prior to Activate, Raj was a founder of Silver Lake Kraftwerk, a private equity fund focused on the energy and resource sectors. From 2000 until 2011, Raj was a Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, where he founded the firm’s cleantech and India investment practices. DFJ was an early investor in companies that created entirely new markets with visionary founders – Baidu, Skype, Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City, EnerNOC, Box, Athena Healthcare, Redfin and Ping Identity. In 2005, Raj co-founded DFJ Element with Activate co-founder David Lincoln – the leading dedicated cleantech firm of its vintage. Raj has served on over 25 public, private and nonprofit boards including SolarCity (SCTY), Ping Identity (PING), EnerNOC (ENOC) and current investments Generate Capital, FLEXE, Nozomi, Ridecell, Scoop & Voltus.
Raj has an MBA as well as BS/MS degrees in Environmental Engineering from Stanford, where he began his lifelong passion for renewable energy systems. Raj was previously a Sandia National Labs research associate and an Aspen Fellow. Raj’s passions include skiing the steeps, running and cooking for his family in San Francisco.
Selina Tobaccowala
Selina is the Chief Digital Officer at Openfit, which acquired her startup Gixo, where Selina was the Co-founder & CEO. Prior to Gixo, Selina served as the President & CTO at Survey Monkey, from 2009 to 2016. Under Selina’s leadership, Survey Monkey grew rapidly to become the world’s dominant online survey company, with 16 million surveys processed per day. Before Survey Monkey, Selina co-founded Evite, the pioneering online invitation service, and held senior engineering roles at Ticketmaster, where she oversaw European engineering and product operations. Selina also serves on the board of directors of Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN), a multi-billion-dollar full-service technology-enabled real estate brokerage that went public in August 2017.Selina holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children.
Tim Woodward
Tim joined Prelude Ventures in 2013 as a Managing Director with 25 years of venture capital investing experience. Having grown up in Silicon Valley, Tim has a long history of working with talented entrepreneurs who want to change the world. Prior to Prelude Ventures, Tim was a Managing Director for 15 years with Nth Power where he led investments in companies involved in renewable energy, demand response, advanced materials and outsourced utility customer management. He was the lead investment partner for that firm’s successful investments in Evergreen Solar (ESLR), Comverge (COMV) and Proton Energy Systems (DESC).
Before joining Nth Power, Tim spent eight years managing venture capital investments for Liberty Environmental Partners, a firm that focused on energy, industrial and environmental technologies. During that time, he served as full-time Chairman of Monitoring Technology Corporation, a company that provides on-line condition monitoring of power and industrial equipment.
Prior to entering the venture capital business, Tim was involved in the launch of First Source, a company providing industrial solvent recycling services. He also spent more than six years in international marketing for an industrial filtration equipment manufacturer.
Tim currently serves on the board of directors for Allotrope, Encycle, EnergySavvy, MineSense and Powerhive, and he has oversight for Prelude Ventures’ investments in QuantumScape.
Veery Maxwell
Veery Maxwell is Partner and Co-Head of Innovation + Expansion at Galvanize Climate Solutions. She has spent her career focused on climate change, and is a deep believer in the virtuous cycle of markets, technology, and policy reinforcing each other to drive decarbonization. Previously, Veery was a founding partner at Ajax Investment Strategies, where she invested in technology companies solving climate change. She currently sits on the boards of Alcemy, Regrow Ag, The Routing Company, Arable, and Voltus. Additionally, she serves on the nonprofit boards of Clean Energy for America and CREO Syndicate.
Prior to co-founding Ajax, Veery was a director at Energy Innovation managing a large climate philanthropy portfolio focused on supporting regulatory interventions to drive emissions out of the power, transport, and industrial sectors. Veery previously worked at Climateworks Foundation and The Nature Conservancy. Veery earned a J.D. from University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and a B.A. from Georgetown University with a double major in finance and international business. Veery lives in Marin with her husband, two children, and Norwich terrier.
Ashley Johnson
Ashley Fieglein Johnson is Planet’s Chief Financial & Operating Officer. Previously, Ashley was the Chief Financial Officer of Wealthfront Inc. from June 2015 to February 2020, as well as the Chief Operating Officer from June 2016 to February 2020. Prior to that, she was the Chief Financial Officer at ServiceSource from January 2013 to October 2014, the interim Chief Executive Officer at ServiceSource from October 2014 to December 2014, and the Chief Customer Officer from January 2015 to May 2015. She holds a BA in International Relations and an MA in International Policy Studies from Stanford University.