EXECUTIVE TEAM

Mischa's product development and management experience in the embedded electronics, wireless, and software industries was honed at organizations such as ECO Fuel Systems, Newpoint Thermal and the Okanagan Research & Innovation Centre.

Mischa is a frequent speaker and panelist at industry conferences, university programs and government events on the smart grid and the innovation potential of technology to transform business and society. He represented Awesense as a voting and participating member during the inception of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and an active volunteer at Science World to encourage school children to pursue careers in math, science, and engineering.

Mischa holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Victoria and Wireless, Electronics, Engineering Technology from the British Columbia Institute of Technology after leaving a Ph.D path at Simon Fraser University in Mathematics.

Karel oversees company finances, operations, and is a key contributor to Awesense’s strategic planning and European market development. Prior to Awesense, Karel held increasingly senior roles in one of Europe’s largest utility holding companies, E.ON AG. Karel joined E.ON in 1998 and rose quickly to the head of electricity strategy for E.ON Bohemia in the Czech Republic. Karel was a central player in E.ON’s acquisition of three major regional utilities and led their merger into a single entity, becoming the Czech Republic’s second largest utility. Karel then managed the company’s separation into distinct entities: Generation & Transmission and Distribution as the Managing Director of E.ON Czech Holdings. Post-separation, Karel's role was Managing Director of E.ON Servisni. For Transmission and Distribution, Maintenance, and Expansion/Construction, Karel held the role of Chief Operating Officer for E.ON Czech responsible for over 1,600 employees.

Karel has held numerous Board of Director roles including Chairman of the Board at Jihomaravska energtika, a.s., Chairman of the Board at Teplarna Kyjov, a.s. and a member of the board at E.ON Ceska republika, s.r.o.

His Supervisory and non-corporate board memberships have included: Supervisory Board Member at Czech Association of Energy Sector Employers, Czech Association of Regulated Electrical Energy Companies, Scientific Board Member at Faculty of Business and Economics at Mendel University in Brno and Supervisory Board member at Prague Gas.

Karel holds a Business degree from FH Würzburg.

Mike is recognized in the software industry for his passion and ability to develop solutions around interoperability, transformation, and optimization. With over 20 years of global software development experience, Mike focuses on the success of Awesense customers and enhancing the Awesense portfolio leveraging his expertise in analytics and business optimization.

Mike most recently worked in the IBM Business Analytics division, working with customers on their performance management, enterprise risk, and business intelligence initiatives. Mike joined IBM through an acquisition in the Collaboration and Portal division and spent several years working with IBM customers and partners focused on automating data acquisition. Prior to IBM, Mike lead software development teams in other companies including Power Measurement where he developed his understanding of the electric utility industry.

Mike holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Victoria.

John Chase brings a wealth of experience in all aspects of financial management with 18 years serving as CFO.
John comes to Awesense from AbeBooks, an online marketplace for used books specializing in rare and out-of-print editions. Prior to that, John was CFO at Power Measurement Ltd., a manufacturer of enterprise energy management hardware and software. John has direct experience with Internet retail, manufacturing, service and venture capital.  As a veteran of multiple mergers & acquisitions, he does consulting for private equity firms.  John’s background, both inside and outside the utility sector supports Awesense’s financial and growth strategies.

A member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, John attained a Masters Degree in Finance from the Boston College Carroll Graduate School of Management.

Board of Directors

Joining Mischa Steiner-Jovic and Karel Dietrich-Nespesny on the board are two industry leaders and visionaries.

Dr. Ake Almgren is the President and 2003 founder of ORKAS Inc. and lends his experience and guidance to Awesense.  Formerly Dr Almgren was the President & CEO of Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ:CPST), the world’s premier developer and manufacturer of micro-turbine systems. Prior to Capstone, Dr. Almgren spent an accomplished 26 year career at ABB (NYSE:ABB), a worldwide power solutions company. He served as President of various business entities, including Business Area manager Distribution Transformers (with 36 plants in 28 countries), ABB Power T&D Co, Inc., ABB Power Distribution and ABB Power Systems. In these capacities he led operations ranging from high volume commodity products to advanced engineered system solutions with a worldwide presence.

Dr. Almgren holds a PhD in Engineering from Sweden’s Linköpings Tekniska Högskola and a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology.

Mr. Berkowitz serves as the Senior Vice President of Ventures West Capital Ltd. focusing on investment opportunities in energy technology. David has become one of the most active and best-known cleantech investors in Canada. He speaks regularly at industry conferences and is frequently quoted in the media.

Prior to Ventures West, David worked with Motorola New Enterprises, the venture arm of Motorola, and previous to that he was a consulting engineer and entrepreneur.

David's past investments include Cellex Power Products (acquired by Plug Power, NASDAQ: PLUG), Astropower (NASDAQ:APWR, acquired by GE), 6N Silicon Inc. (merged with Calisolar Inc.), NCompass Labs (acquired by Microsoft, NASDAQ:MSFT), Serveron Corporation (merged with BPL Global Inc.), Greenlight Power Technologies (acquired by Hydrogenics Corp, NASDAQ:HYGS), TIR Systems, (acquired by Royal Philips Electronics, NYSE:PHG) and Angstrom Power (acquired by BIC Group).

David earned a Bachelor of Applied Science from Queen's University and a MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Atlantic City Electric, a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings, Inc., delivers safe, reliable and affordable electric service to over 545,000 customers in southern New Jersey in a service territory of 2,700 sq. miles.

BC Hydro is a provincial Crown corporation with a mandate to generate, purchase, distribute and sell electricity.  BC Hydro has a network of over of transmission and distribution lines 325,000 individual transformers and serves 95% of the population of British Columbia - 1.9 million customers. 

Serving over 35,000 members, Central Virginia Electric Cooperative is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric utility headquartered in Colleen, Virginia. CVEC serves residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial accounts in the rural portions of 14 Virginia counties 

CFE Peninsular is a division of Mexico’s national power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) – one of the largest electricity utilities in the world. CFE Peninsular Division serves 1.7 million customers across 9 distribution zones including Cancun and the spectacular Mayan Riviera.

Chilquinta Energía is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, a Fortune 500 holding company with 8 subsidiaries and nearly 12,000 employees. Their operation area covers 11,496 km2 in the Valparaíso Region of Chile.

Enel is multinational energy company working in 31 countries across 4 continents, generating energy with a net installed capacity of around 83 GW and distributing electricity and gas across a network spanning about 2.1 million km.

FortisBC delivers 21 per cent of the total energy consumed in British Columbia, Canada. Their 2,260 employees serve approximately 1.1 million customers in 135 communities. FortisBC owns and operates approximately 7,200 kilometres of transmission and distribution power lines.

Florida Power & Light Company is the third-largest electric utility in the United States, serving approximately 4.9 million customer accounts or an estimated 10 million people across nearly half of the state of Florida.

Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative, Inc. (MCEC) is a not-for-profit electric distribution utility headquartered in Lexington, South Carolina owned by approximately 47,000 member-owners. MCEC is the fifth largest of the twenty electric cooperatives in South Carolina. 

South Central Indiana Rural Electric Membership Corporation (SCI REMC) was established in 1939 and is the largest rural electric cooperative in Indiana, owned and operated by its 33,000 members. 

Technology Partners

We've partnered with some of the leading names in the electrical power and IT industries to help utilities reduce non-technical losses. 

Regional Partners

We work with regional representatives for business development and local support for TGI deployments.  These partners provide our customers with a local contact experienced with their market and any unique regional requirements.  

Invited Speaker at India's Smart Grid week, 2016

INDIA SMART GRID WEEK (ISGW 2016) was the second edition of the Conference and Exhibition on Smart Grids and Smart Cities, organized by India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF). With 200+ members comprising of Ministries, Utilities, Technology providers, Academia and Research, ISGF has evolved as a Think-Tank of global repute on Smart Grids and Smart Cities.

Winner of the innovation award, 2015

SmartGrid Canada focuses on developing a well-curated program by consulting with our utility, industry and academic members to understand the pressing issues of the year.

Vendor to watch

The Smart Grid Summit represent a quality, hands-on experience where high level Utility Executives interact with Industry Leading Vendors, analysts and federal agencies. .

ioT software and tool award, SMUK 2017

The 8th Annual Smart Energy Europe & Future Utility Summit 2017 is Europe's leading and most established Smart Energy event.  The event examined the developments, challenges and opportunities in smart energy; for utilities, government, regulators, solution providers, and other industry professionals working within the sector.  

Featured speaker

IoT Things Expo highlights the robust nature of IoT by focusing on sets of solutions and technologies that address the opportunities as well as the vast array of business challenges that every company faces.