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Energy TechnologyAugust 8 - 10, 2010

SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERSlisted in alphabetical order

Dr. Wade Adams is the Director of the Richard E. Smal-ley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University. The Smalley Institute is part of a major initiative at Rice to expand activities in nano, bio, info and energy and enviro science and engineering.Dr. Adams was educated at the U.S. Air Force Acad-

emy, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Massachusetts. For the past 40 years he has conducted research in polymer physics. He is internationally known for his research in high-performance rigid-rod polymer fibers, X-ray scattering studies of fibers and liquid crystalline films, polymer dispersed liquid crystals, and theoretical studies of ul-timate polymer properties. He has written more than 200 publications on these topics, including several review articles and two edited books, has four patents (one licensed), and has given over 700 technical pre-sentations. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Dr. Steve Benson is a Professor of Chemical Engineer-ing and Director of the Institute for Energy Studies at the University of North Dakota (UND). His principal areas of interest and expertise involve the development and management of integrated education and research initiatives that are aimed at overcoming challenges as-

sociated with the efficient and clean utilization of renewable and fossil resources to produce energy. Previously, Dr. Benson had worked in various capacities at the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) at UND and in the Geology Department at UND.Dr. Benson is the founder and president of Microbeam Technologies Incorporated, which conducts service analysis of materials using auto-mated scanning electron microscopy methods. Founded in 1992, the company has conducted over 1100 projects for industry, government, and research organizations.He earned his Ph.D. in Fuel Science at Pennsylvania State University in 1987 and his B.S. in Chemistry from Minnesota State University (Moorhead) in 1977.

Joel Bleth, President, SolarBee, Inc. earned degrees in Industrial Engineering (B.S. 1975) and Law (J.D., 1978) at the University of North Dakota. Bleth and his partner, Willard Tormaschy, started a pump business in Dickinson, ND, which has supported their ongoing work in water science. Throughout most of the 1990’s,

Bleth conducted fulltime laboratory research on various water quality improvement sciences.In 2001, the company developed the SolarBee, solar-powered long distance circulation machines for improving water quality in large bodies of water. SolarBee machines are operating in nearly all US states and in 14 countries. They eliminate harmful algal blooms in lakes without the use of chemicals, keep potable water fresh, and replace energy intensive aeration in wastewater systems.SolarBee, Inc. has received environmental awards in the United States and Australia, including Artemis Project awards in 2009 and 2010. Joel Bleth and Willard Tormaschy were named 2008 North Dakota Entrepreneurs of the Year.

Sandra Broekema is Manager of Business Develop-ment for Great River Energy. She has more than 20 years of experience in the energy industry focusing on R & D and new product commercialization in solar, wind and industrial power generation. Broekema has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the

University of Minnesota - Institute of Technology and a master’s in Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas. She has been a board member for Energy Alley and the Minnesota Environ-mental Initiative.Broekema is leading the development team for Dakota Spirit AgEn-ergy, the proposed 20 MGPY cellulosic biorefinery in Spiritwood, ND.Great River Energy is the fifth largest generation and transmission cooperative in the U.S. The company owns and operates nine power plants- an effective mix of baseload and peaking power plants, includ-ing coal, refuse-derived fuel, natural gas and oil plants- that generate more than 2,500 MW of electricity. GRE’s electric transmission system includes more than 4,500 miles of transmission line.

Charlie Bullinger is Senior Principle Engineer for Great River Energy. He has worked for GRE since 1977 in a number of positions. In 1997, he organized and led the team who developed GRE’s Coal Refining Technol-ogy (DryFining). He is responsible for marketing the “Dryfining” technology and investigating new genera-

tion and carbon capture & sequestration methods for GRE. Bullinger is utility chair for Electric Power Research Institute’s Coal-Fleet Advanced Generation Program (Program 66). CoalFleet now has nearly 70 members from 5 continents. Their mission is to improve advanced coal generation, whether it be advanced supercritical con-ventional firing or Integrated Gas Combined Cycle. A Mandan, North Dakota, native and North Dakota State University graduate in Mechanical Engineering, Bullinger is also a Registered Professional Engineer in North Dakota & Minnesota. He has been a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for over 30 years.

Kateri Callahan brings more than 20 years of experi-ence in policy advocacy, fundraising, coalition build-ing, and organizational management to her position as the president of the Alliance to Save Energy, a non-gov-ernment organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., whose mission is to advance energy efficiency

worldwide to achieve a healthier economy, a cleaner environment, and greater energy security. Under Callahan’s leadership, the Alliance conducts policy, commu-nications, research, education, and market transformation initiatives in the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries. She serves as the principal spokesperson for the Alliance, appearing regularly before the Congress and the media, and addressing conferences and gather-ings around the world. She is a trusted source for credible information on energy efficiency and its role in addressing the environmental, eco-nomic and national security issues associated with the use of energy. She was among the 23 inaugural inductees to the new Energy Effi-ciency Hall of Fame.

Energy TechnologyAugust 8 - 10, 2010

SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERSlisted in alphabetical order

U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan became North Dakota’s youngest constitutional officer with his appoint-ment as state tax commissioner at the age of 26. First elected to Congress in 1980, the Regent native has devoted his career to fighting for the interests of rural America. Dorgan served six terms in the U.S. House

of Representatives and was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992. He is a senior member of the Appropriations, Commerce and Energy committees. He also serves as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and the Democratic Policy Committee.Dorgan is a strong advocate of energy policy that will move toward the use of renewable energy and domestic energy sources, instead of reliance on foreign oil. As chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, he has worked to fund development of renewable energy sources like wind, solar and biofuels, as well as clean-coal research.

Tom Erickson is an Associate Director for Research at the EERC, where he oversees the activities leading to the development of future advanced power and fuel systems and the environmental control technologies necessary for those systems to operate within future state and federal guidelines as well as technologies

and methodologies necessary to provide efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly power and fuels from existing utilities.Erickson’s principal areas of interest and expertise include the de-velopment of environmental technologies, gasification and combus-tion processes, trace element transformations, process and product modeling, statistical design and evaluation, systems engineering, and scanning electron microscopy for coal and combustion product analysis. Erickson received his B.S and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from UND. He has authored and coauthored numerous publications.

As CTO of TOTE International, LLC, Ryan Chris-tensen is responsible for locating, researching and evaluating all types of new technologies. These cur-rently include XureX Inc.’s nano-technology applica-tions of nano-science, EMIT Technologies applica-tions of microwave technology and related science, all

renewable energy technologies, particularly, solar, waste-to-energy, algae-based biofuel, and many other less progressed areas of TOTE’s interest. Christensen is also currently supplying consultant engineer-ing services to 212 Resources, a Utah based company that has de-veloped a treatment system to backflow and process water produced during oil and gas well drilling operations. This treatment system pu-rifies the highly contaminated backflow water for reuse in the drilling process and captures all contaminants for use or disposal. Christensen is also currently working with waste-to-energy compa-nies and supplying engineering services and procurement of steam turbine generation for projects in the Middle East, United States and Canada.

John Harju is an Associate Director for Research at the EERC, where he oversees numerous staff, projects, and programs, including the Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership and the Northern Great Plains Water Consortium. His principal areas of interest and expertise include carbon sequestration, enhanced oil

recovery, waste management, environmental geochemistry, technol-ogy development, hydrology, and analytical chemistry, especially as applied to the upstream oil and gas industry.Previously, he was Vice President of Crystal Solutions, LLC, a firm involved in commercial E&P produced water management, regulatory permitting and compliance, and environmental impact monitoring and analysis. Harju is a graduate of the Geology program at UND. He is a mem-ber of the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists and serves on the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission’s Carbon Capture and Geological Storage Task Force. He has authored and coauthored numerous professional publications.

Rebecca Harrell Tickell has dedicated her career to the advancement of women in green businesses. She spe-cializes in providing women with ways to profit from their passion for helping the planet and their commu-nities. She has worked with hundreds of women who, collectively, comprise a substantial portion of the ‘green

movement’.Her new book, “Hot, Rich and Green...The Secret Formula Women are Using to Get Rich and Save the Planet,” gives a fresh perspective on the role women are playing in reshaping the environmental move-ment. Harrell Tickell came to her calling as the “queen of green” through her background as a film producer, musician and a youth coordinator. She produced the Academy Award Shortlisted and Sundance Audi-ence Award Winning, environmentally-themed movie, FUEL She chairs The Veggie Van Organization, a national nonprofit dedicated to education around sustainable energy.

Tom Hoffman is President of Carbon Communications Consultants, a corporate and energy communications consulting firm he founded in 2010 following a 36 year career in the energy industry. He brings experience and expertise in strategic positioning, message and issues management, crisis communications, and media

relations to corporate and other clients primarily involved in energy-related activities.Hoffman was Senior Vice President - External Affairs for CONSOL Energy Inc., a Fortune and S&P 500 company, where he was chief communications officer and responsible for a number of corporate functions including public relations, investor relations and government affairs.Prior to his career in the energy industry, Hoffman was Assistant Professor of Earth Science at Minot State University (ND). He holds a Master of Science degree in Geology from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from Dickinson College (PA).

Energy TechnologyAugust 8 - 10, 2010

SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERSlisted in alphabetical order

Shawn Kessel is the City Administrator for the City of Dickinson. He has 10 years experience in city govern-ment and 10 years in the health care industry, most at management level. Kessel holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Moorhead State University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the

University of Mary. He is a member of the International City Man-agement Association (ICMA), the Great Open Spaces City/County Management Association (GOSMA) and Rotary. Kessel sits on several local and state Boards of Directors, includ-ing the ND Insurance Reserve Fund of which he is the Chairperson Elect, the Department of Emergency Service Advisory Council (DESAC), Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental relations and is a former board member and past president of the North Dakota League of Cities.

Honorable Gary Mar was appointed the Official Rep-resentative (Minister-Counsellor) of the Province of Alberta to the United States of America on December 3, 2007. He leads the Alberta Office in Washington, D.C., co-located in the Canadian Embassy. Prior to his diplomatic posting, Mar served for 14

years as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Province of Alberta, Canada. He held several Cabinet portfolios – Commu-nity Development; Health and Wellness; Education; Environment; and International and Intergovernmental Relations. As Minister of Environment, Mar served as co-chair of Climate Change Central, a public/private partnership formed in response to the international agreement on climate change. Before serving Albertans as an elected Member of the Alberta Leg-islature, Mar had a broad general practice including criminal, civil, corporate, commercial and real estate law in Calgary, Alberta. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1994, an honourary designation conferred by the Crown in Commonwealth countries and recognized by the courts. Mar has a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) degree from the Univer-sity of Calgary, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Alberta.

Dr. Mike Jones is the vice president of research and development for the Lignite Energy Council and is the technical advisor to the North Dakota Industrial Commission.  Prior to joining the Lignite Energy Council, Dr. Jones was employed for 30 years at the Energy &

Environmental Research Center (EERC) where he held a number of positions most recently as senior research advisor.  The focus of his activities at the EERC included coal  gasification, carbon manage-ment with an emphasis on carbon capture technologies, and the fate of coal impurities during coal combustion and gasification. In addition, Dr. Jones has been an adjunct professor of physics at the University of North Dakota. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in phys-ics at the University of North Dakota and his B.S. in physics from Bemidji State University. A Minnesota native, Mike joined the Lignite Energy Council in 2009.

State Representative Shirley Meyer was first elected to the ND House of Representatives in 1997.  She cur-rently serves on the interim Agriculture, Natural Re-sources, and Budget Section committees. During the 2009 Legislative Session, Meyer served on the Govern-ment Operations section of the House Appropriations

Committee. Meyer is very involved in energy issues. She is a member of the advisory committee for the North Dakota refining capacity feasibility study. Previously, she co-chaired the North Dakota Oil Refinery Task Force, and she is a member of the Mon-Dak Energy Alliance.She received a Flemming Fellowship in 2006 for legislative leadership, and she was awarded the BILLD Fellowship in 2000. Meyer also is a member of the DSU Department of Nursing Advisory Committee and serves on the ND Cowboy Hall of Fame Board of Directors.Meyer has an agricultural background as a farmer/rancher, raising small grains and commercial cattle. She has represented agricultural interests on a variety of boards and commissions.

Bob Percopo has 35 years of experience in infrastruc-ture, energy and power project finance and structured finance in North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Percopo received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Economics and Marketing from Rutgers University.

He joined the AIG Member Companies in 1998 to oversee the project finance advisory operations of AIU Energy Division. In December of 2000 he was asked to join AIG Highstar Capital, L.P. as a partner. AIG Highstar is a private equity fund managed by AIG with a focus on power generation, transportation and environmental service. Percopo is currently Executive Vice President, Investments with man-agement responsibility for the Project Finance Advisory unit at Char-tis, providing project finance advisor services to clients worldwide.

Jason Pontin is the editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review, a media company owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose print and electronic media describe emerging technologies and explain their impact. As publisher and editor in chief, he is responsible for all the business and media of the

world’s oldest technology publication. Under Pontin’s leadership, Technology Review has won many awards and has itself introduced a variety of important innovations to publishing.From 1996 to 2002, Pontin was the editor of Red Herring, a business and technology publication that was popular during the dot-com boom. From 2002 to 2004, he was the editor of The Acumen Journal, a magazine about the life sciences that he founded.Pontin has written for many national and international magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Economist, The Finan-cial Times, The Boston Globe, The Believer Magazine, and Wired, and is a frequent guest on broadcast, public, and cable television news. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).Pontin was born in London, raised in Northern California, and edu-cated in England at Harrow School and Oxford University.

Energy TechnologyAugust 8 - 10, 2010

SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERSlisted in alphabetical order

Paul Steffes P.E. is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman for Steffes Corporation which is the only North American manufacturer of off-peak electric thermal storage (ETS) heating systems. He has 25 years of experience designing load and demand management products for integration into the electric

power company industry. Steffes has been involved with hundreds of power companies across the US and Canada, helping them to evalu-ate the economics of off-peak programs as a means to allowing them to run more efficiently and cost effectively. His most recent work focuses on the synergy of wind energy and electric thermal storage as well as the incorporation of energy and demand technologies into the emerging smart grid network. Steffes is nationally recognized by the Electric Power Research Insti-tute (EPRI) and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) as an expert in ETS technology and is called upon often to provide insight and expertise into the ETS industry. He is known for his innovation and entrepreneurial spirit which has won him many local and national awards.

Josh Tickell’s work has taken him from the grease dumpsters of Florida and the farms of the Australian Outback to the laboratories of the Department of En-ergy and the oil refineries of the Gulf Coast. He is the author of two books around sustainable energy: From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank - The Complete Guide to Us-

ing Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel, and Biodiesel America. As a director, Tickell focuses on sustainable energy, environmentally conscious films, and films with a social impact. His film FUEL won the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documen-tary. Having grown up in the polluted bayous of South Louisiana, Tickell was extensively involved in hurricane disaster relief efforts. His non-profit organization was selected by President Bill Clinton as a part of the Global Initiative on Climate Change.

Paul Quist is the Market Development Manager for Dakota Gasification Company at Basin Electric Power Cooperative. He has worked in the energy field for over 10 years as a contract negotiator and a market development agent.  He currently works with oil com-panies using carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery. 

Quist also develops markets in ag related products such as anhydrous ammonia and ammonia sulfate.  In addition, he works in rare gas markets with Krypton, Xenon and neon and in the chemicals market with cresylic acid, naphtha and tar oil.Quist received his B.S. in Business from Dickinson State University and M.S. degrees in Management and Business Administration from the University of Mary. He is an adjunct instructor of economics at the University of Mary.

State Senator Rich Wardner has served in the North Dakota House and Senate since 1991. He is currently serving in his third term in the Senate from District 37 located in Dickinson, N.D. Senator Wardner has served as Chairman of Government and Veterans Affairs in the House, and Vice-Chair of the Senate Finance and Tax

Committee in the Senate. He has served on the Senate Appropriations Committee since the 2007 session. Wardner is a member of Legisla-tive Council and is Chair of the Energy Development and Transmis-sion committee for the 2007-2009 and 2009-2011interims. Wardner is a retired educator. After retiring as principal at Dickinson High School in 1998, Wardner served seven years as the Executive Director of the Dickinson Area Chamber of Commerce.

Shawn Wenko is the Workforce Attractions Special-ist for the City of Williston. Working under the office of Economic Development, the position was created in 2008 by city officials in response to the increasing economic activity in the area. Wenko plays a central role in implementing the Williston City Commission’s

“Build Williston Initiative”. A 1994 graduate of Williston High School, Wenko holds an MBA in tourism management with an emphasis on sustainable destination development from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He brings experience in the areas of advanced strategic plan-ning, case study analysis, and quality of life development. Wenko actively serves on the TRAIN ND Petroleum Safety Center Advisory Committee (Northwest Division), ND Petroleum Council Workforce Sub Committee, City of Williston Infrastructure Advisory Committee, Community Action Partnership, and the Williston Basin Resource Coalition.He is involved with Williston Young Professionals and is a 2009 re-cipient of Prairie Business Magazine’s “20 under 40”.

Jeremy Woeste is an Alternative Technologies Coordi-nator at Basin Electric Power Cooperative in Bismarck, ND. His primary area of work includes wind energy, distributed energy resources, and research in other re-newable and alternative energies such as hydrogen and recovered energy generation. He also markets renewable

energy credits (Green Tags) and carbon credits from Basin Electric’s green and renewable energy resources. Woeste is a graduate of the University of Mary.Woeste was part of the project development team for the wind projects owned by Basin Electric’s PrairieWinds subsidiaries. Projects include 120 MW near Minot, ND (80 turbines) which was put in service in December 2009, and a 151 MW (101 turbines) scheduled to begin construction this summer in South Dakota. With these projects, Basin Electric’s total wind resources will exceed 715 MW (485 turbines) con-sisting of Basin Electric owned projects and power purchases.