Officers
Chairman of the Board
Casey is Vice President, State Government Affairs-South for Constellation, supporting the southern U.S. and the Canadian Province of Alberta. He leads a team that monitors and supports state policy initiatives before various legislative and regulatory entities in the region including Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee. Casey served in similar roles as Director of Government Affairs for nearly a decade at Exelon Corporation prior to the company separation of Exelon and Constellation. Casey has actively participated, or held leadership roles, in multiple trade organizations in Texas, including the Alliance for Retail Markets, Texas Energy Association of Marketers, Texas Competitive Power Advocates, and the Association of Electric Companies of Texas.
Casey serves on the board of several multi-state organizations including the Advanced Power Alliance, which promotes renewable energy and clean technology resources across an 11-state footprint, and the Center for Legislative Energy and Environmental Research (CLEER), which supports The Energy Council a non-partisan legislative organization comprised of 14 energy states and two Canadian provinces.
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Casey holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor of Science in Communications degree from Abilene Christian University, as well as a certificate in Conflict Mediation. Casey also serves as Chair of the Giving Committee on the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs Alumni Board Executive Committee.
Bryan Sams – Calpine
Immediate Past Chairman
Bryan is Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs for Calpine. He leads ERCOT market advocacy in Texas and is an accomplished electric industry veteran with experience across a variety of electric market segments including generators, retail electric providers, and investor owned utilities.
Immediately prior to joining Calpine, Bryan handled regulatory affairs for Lone Star Transmission in Texas. Bryan was also at NRG Energy (NRG) for more than a dozen years, where he worked on a wide range of wholesale and retail legislative and regulatory issues. He began his career in the Commercial Operation division of American Electric Power in Columbus Ohio.
Bryan holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin Graduate College of Engineering with a focus in Energy Policy and Finance and Bachelor of Arts from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.
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Bryan has direct business and policy experience relating to numerous PUCT activities including rulemaking, contested cases and compliance matters. At ERCOT, Bryan has had leadership roles with a number committees including in the Real Time Co-optimization Task Force, Supply Analysis Working Group and has been an elected member of the Technical Advisory Committee, Wholesale Market Subcommittee, Protocol Revision Subcommittee and Retail Market Subcommittee.
Ned Bonskowski – Vistra
Vice Chairman
Ned Bonskowski is Vice President of Texas Regulatory Policy with Vistra Corp. Ned provides regulatory representation for the Vistra Corp. family of companies, including Luminant, TXU Energy, Ambit Energy, 4Change Energy, Express Energy, Veteran Energy, and TriEagle Energy before the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), ERCOT, and other venues.
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Prior to joining the company in 2008, Ned received his Master of Arts degree in Economics from McGill University and his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Economics with a minor in Personal Financial Planning from the University of North Texas.
Delette J. Marengo – Tenaska
Treasurer
As Vice President of public & government affairs, Delette J. Marengo oversees government, regulatory, public and community relations strategy for Tenaska and affiliates in 12 states. Tenaska is one of the largest privately held, independent energy companies in the United States, with a proven record of success in power plant development, finance, construction management, operation and asset management. Tenaska affiliates also provide energy risk management services and are involved in asset acquisition and management; natural gas and electric power marketing; fuel supply; natural gas exploration, production and transportation systems; and electric transmission development.
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Prior to joining Tenaska, Ms. Marengo worked as U.S. Director of Public Affairs for Trina Solar and Director of Public Affairs for Edison International. She has more than 20 years of legislative experience, including serving as Special Advisor and Chief Deputy Appointments Secretary to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Assembly Republican Leader of the California Legislature and as Director of Member Services & Minority Consultants at the California State Legislature.
Ms. Marengo earned an Executive MBA (EMBA) from the University of Nebraska, Omaha and a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in Government from California State University in Sacramento, California.
Elena deLaunay – Rockland Capital
Secretary
Board
Board Member
Resmi Surendran is the Senior Director of Regulatory Policy at Shell Energy North America, where she is responsible for developing and executing regulatory advocacy strategies, representing Shell at the ERCOT/PUC and monitoring market developments at SPP and MISO.Before Joining Shell in 2017, she was with ERCOT for 14 years, where she was responsible for operation and design of Real-Time/Day-Ahead/CRR markets. She has been actively involved with stakeholders in design and implementation of ERCOT nodal market.
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Bill Barnes – NRG
Board Member
Bill is Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs for NRG located in Austin. He is responsible for covering ERCOT market design issues for the retail and wholesale markets, providing market analysis, commercial advice, and regulatory advocacy. Bill represents NRG at ERCOT and the PUCT and has served as an elected member of the Technical Advisory Committee, Wholesale Market Subcommittee, and Protocol Revision Subcommittee in the ERCOT stakeholder process. Bill has over 20 years of experience in the U.S. power industry.
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Before joining Goldman Sachs, Bill was the Manager of Market Settlements at ERCOT. While at ERCOT, he spent over 7 years managing, designing, and maintaining the commercial aspects of the ERCOT nodal power market. Bill began his career at Accenture working on competitive retail markets and ISO market development.
Bill earned a Masters of Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelors of Chemical Engineering from the University of Dayton.
Kevin Bunch – EDF Energy North America
Board Member
Kevin Bunch is Manager of Reliability Compliance for EDF Trading North America, LLC. He is responsible for overseeing EDF’s operational and IT compliance activities and for development of EDF’s compliance policies and procedures applicable to ERCOT and NERC.
Mr. Bunch has managed NERC and ERCOT compliance for more than 10 years, in a variety of roles. Mr. Bunch started his career with ERCOT and worked as a NERC compliance auditor for the Texas Reliability Entity. Prior to joining EDF, Mr. Bunch developed and implemented NERC compliance programs for an independent generator.
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Mr. Bunch is the immediate past chair of the ERCOT Reliability and Operations Subcommittee. He also served on the ERCOT Technical Advisory Committee and the ERCOT Wholesale Market Subcommittee.
Mr. Bunch received his Bachelor of Science in software engineering from The University of Advancing Technology.
Board Member
Christopher (Chris) Sherman, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, oversees all regulatory and market affairs and clean energy development for Cogentrix Energy Power Management, LLC.
Chris joined Cogentrix in 2017 as the vice president of regulatory affairs and became the vice president of development for Cogentrix in 2019. Chris’ current role leverages regulatory and market conditions to optimize the existing assets with clean energy integration.
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Chris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. Mr. Sherman is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Board Member
Mr. Dedrickson has over 30 years of experience in the energy industry including power engineering, portfolio management and trading, market operations, financial modelling, and structured transactions in power, gas, and LNG.
Most recently, Mr. Dedrickson was the Managing Director responsible for the New England and Southeast portfolios of Constellation, an Exelon company. Mr. Dedrickson spent 19 years at Constellation where he focused on optimizing all aspects of generation, load, transmission and natural gas portfolios throughout the US and Canada. Prior to joining Constellation, he spent 12 years at Baltimore Gas and Electric Company in various roles within the Generation, Transmission and Distribution divisions as a plant engineer, business analyst and trader. During the transition to retail choice, Mr. Dedrickson created the quantitative models valuing the BGE generation assets for the stranded asset recovery mechanism and the pricing of the BGE Standard Offer Service tariff rates.
Mr. Dedrickson received a B. S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park and an M.S., Business from Johns Hopkins University.
Board Member
Stacie is VP of Wholesale Market Policy, ERCOT, for one of the largest privately held electric power industry investment and development companies in North America. On behalf of LS Power, Stacie develops and executes competitive market strategy, as well as regulatory, political, and community relations strategy in the ERCOT region of Texas. Stacie is also an attorney with substantial experience in the electric industry, having counseled electric utilities and competitive market participants in all types of regulatory proceedings. Her unique background includes litigation, regulatory, and public policy experience, including serving as the energy policy advisor for the Governor of Texas.
Board Member
Greg Thurnher is Liberty Power Innovation’s Senior VP of Power Generation. In this capacity, Greg is launching LPI’s wholesale, retail, and IPP commercial operations in ERCOT, as well as other regions. Prior to Liberty, Greg has had assignments of increasing responsibility at vertically integrated utilities, independent system operators, power marketers, retailers, and independent power producers. Greg holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering, as well as an MBA, both from Tulane University.
Staff
President & CEO
michele@competitivepower.org
Michele Richmond is the President & CEO for the Texas Competitive Power Advocates (TCPA), a non-profit trade association that is dedicated to helping ensure a successful energy future for Texas by investing in and operating clean and diversified energy sources to ensure ample, reliable and affordable electricity for Texas consumers.
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Michele has over 30 years in the legislative arena. Her career includes nearly a decade as the Director of Legislative and Political Affairs for a statewide trade association as well as lobbying for a statewide education association. She specialized in tax and finance legislation and also directed the association’s political action committee, grassroots and election activities. Michele also lobbied on school finance and governance issues for several years. Mrs. Richmond began her career in the Texas House of Representatives, serving four years as the Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for a Houston representative.
Mrs. Richmond received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She has served on Government Relations Committees for state and national associations. She served from 2015 through 2018 on the Board of Directors for the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative, a national non-profit organization that advances the consumer-driven market for services and technologies enabled by smart grid. Mrs. Richmond lives in a competitive retail electric area north of Austin with her family.
Director of Communications and Administration
paul@competitivepower.org
Paul Townsend is the Director of Communications and Administration for the Texas Competitive Power Advocates (TPCA), a non-profit trade association that is dedicated to helping ensure a successful energy future for Texas by investing in and operating diversified energy sources to ensure ample, reliable and affordable electricity for Texas consumers.
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Mr. Townsend received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University and his Juris Doctorate from St. Mary’s University School of Law. He resides in Dallas with his wife, Linda, twin daughters, Amelia and Isabel, and their three dogs.