MEET OUR TEAM
We’re a hard-working team, fighting to make distributed energy resources (DERs) an asset to utilities across North America.
We’re building a world-class team of engineers, thinkers, and business people focused on a single goal: to empower utilities at the grid edge with tools that proliferate the adoption of renewable energy, decarbonize our energy supply, and create a healthier planet. We’re a diverse team from all walks of life and backgrounds, and we value that. Interested in joining our team? Check out our openings on our careers page.

Vince Carter
Lead Electrical Engineer
Vince has worked in various capacities as an electrical engineer for ConnectDER. He supports the product development front, from diving into Research & Development projects to designing PCBs and working on software and firmware development.

Olga Boleslavsky
QA Engineer
Olga performs quality assurance, regression testing, and release support for all aspects of ConnectDERs solutions, both hardware and software.

Jorge Cesmegi III
QA Engineer
Jorge is a computer engineer specializing in quality assurance of software, firmware and hardware products. He provides testing and verification for the portfolio of ConnectDER devices. He has a passion for technology and is proud to be a part of the ConnectDER mission to facilitate and bring clean, renewable energy onto the grid.

Ashley Donnelly Leonard
Chief Financial Officer
Ashley is responsible for finance, organizational health, and strategic planning efforts at ConnectDER. She brings a background in investment banking, recruiting, new ventures and non-profit leadership. Ashley is passionate about mission-driven businesses like ConnectDER that focus on people and planet alongside and as a path to profitability.

Whit Fulton
CEO
Whit founded ConnectDER™ to give inventors a place to solve meaningful problems and to ensure they have an ownership stake in the solutions they create. His personal mission is to create technologies and business approaches that unlock profitable models for renewable energy. Whit honed his analysis, negotiation, and product development skills through a series of senior managerial positions in energy analytics consultancies and cleantech startups.

Ben Lewis
Lead Mechanical Engineer
Ben provides design and development of multiple subsystems of the ConnectDER, as well as support for field deployment operations. He was a fellow in the photovoltaics department of Fraunhofer CSE. Ben previously worked in residential and commercial photovoltaics, solar thermal, and biofuels.

Lorena Machado Gomes
Electrical Engineer
Lorena has a background in electrical engineering and is responsible for assembling, calibrating, testing, and shipping all of the Smart ConnectDER units made in-house. She checks each completed unit for quality, accuracy, and functionality, as well as manages logistics and inventory to ensure our production processes are seamless.

Jon Knauer
VP Hardware and Delivery

Katie Bentley
Mechanical Engineer

Colin Mattox
Head of Product Marketing
Colin leads ConnectDER’s marketing efforts, focusing on content creation, overall messaging, campaign planning, and budget management. He comes with experience from consumer facing tech startups where he focused on product development and growth. He is deeply passionate about a sustainable and scalable energy future.

Ganesh Sarwate
Software developer
Ganesh is a seasoned software engineer who works on building components of ConnectDER’s Cloud product. Throughout his more than twenty years in the tech industry, he has designed and constructed software products and tools in a variety of business domains. He is passionate about building distributed, fault-tolerant, and concurrent systems while adopting emerging technologies.

Dan Lasley
Electrical Engineer, Manager

Bill Mayer
VP Sales
Bill is an experienced energy industry executive responsible for Business Development at ConnectDER. Prior to joining the ConnectDER team, he held Sales Executive positions in the Smart Grid space for over 15 years where he leveraged his utility engineering experience gained at Florida Power and Light and national policy experience gained at Edison Electric Institute. As a clean energy proponent and a Tesla owner, he is looking forward to helping utilities and their customers do more at the meter.

Brad Pulley
Electrical Engineer
Brad is an electrical engineer who focuses on various new product development initiatives and Research & Development projects at ConnectDER. He provides support for the design and implementation of testing beds, additive manufacturing, and printed circuit board design.

Kip Leitner
Senior Electrical Engineer
Kip Leitner designs and implements hardware, real-time firmware and software for ConnectDER. He has a passion for renewable energy design and special interests in the semantics of technology, complexity modeling and tool chain efficiency.

Thomas Williams
Software Developer

Joseph Scabarozi
Senior Electrical Engineer
Our Valued Consultants

Adam Koeppel
IP and Design Support

Dr. Evan Malone
Product Development Support

Paul Duncan
Engineering & Market Advisory Support