Dr. Fred Lee’s research in unit commitment and economic dispatch (UC/ED) revolutionized generation asset optimization techniques and led to the founding of PCI in 1992. His methods allowed utility operators to incorporate fuel constraints, emissions limitations and hydroelectric complications into the already-complex UC/ED problem.

Dr. Lee has a unique ability to leverage academic theory and create practical solutions for the power industry. He joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma in 1985, where he taught and led research in the areas of optimal power system operation and planning. While still on the OU faculty, he published his original UC/ED research and founded PCI.

Dr. Lee continues to lead PCI today as it further refines and enhances its industry leading software solutions and services.

Dr. Lee’s education credentials are as follows:

• Diploma, Electrical Engineering -Taipei Institute of Technology
• M.S., Electrical Engineering – Kansas State University
• Ph.D., Electrical Engineering – University of Kansas
• Professor Emeritus, University of Oklahoma
• Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)

Javier Martin joined PCI in 2002 and has more than 14-years of experience in the energy industry. In his current role, he oversees all PCI operations.

Mr. Martin has been heavily involved in all aspects of design and development for PCI’s overall product platform, with particularly emphasis on its market (front and back office) systems which automate the entire bid-to-bill process.

Mr. Martin holds a Master of Science degree in Natural Gas Engineering and Management from the University of Oklahoma as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the Politecnica de Valencia University in Valencia, Spain.

Sandy Ho has been with PCI since 2002 and has a strong background in executive financial operations. She has been instrumental in managing the growth of the PCI from a team of 30 employees in 2002 to an organization currently comprised of almost 300 people.

Ms. Ho is responsible for PCI’s financial condition and oversees the capital structure of the company. Her CFO duties also include controllership, management of accounting, tax, SEC reporting, budgeting and management reporting functions as well as economic forecasting and modeling.

Ms. Ho has an Master of Public Administration from the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business and a Bachelor of Business Adminstration from National Taiwan University.

Buck Feng has been with PCI since 1998 and is one of the chief architects of the generation asset optimization model known as PCI GenTrader^®. He is also responsible for the development of PCI’s Generation Supply Management System (GSMS), which is a platform that integrates asset optimization, trading and risk management, market communication, bid/offer management, P&L analysis and settlement functions to extract maximum value from an energy company’s asset portfolio.

Prior to joining PCI, Mr. Feng held a number of key positions at PG&E Corporation’s energy trading and utility divisions. He earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (with Power Systems emphasis) at the University of Oklahoma.

Khai Le joined PCI in 2001 and is a preeminent energy industry authority on market-based operations, portfolio optimization, bidding strategies, transaction evaluation and shadow settlement. For more than 35 years, he has worked closely with major utilities in North and South America, Europe and Asia to implement software tools that automate bid management, bid evaluation, shadow settlement, unit commitment, post analysis, transaction management and risk evaluation.

Mr. Le has co-authored over 125 technical papers and articles, 24 of which appeared in the IEEE publications “Transactions” and “CAP”. Mr. Le received his Bachelor of Science degree from Harvey Mudd College and Master of Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania and was elected to IEEE Fellow in 1994 for significant contributions to computerized unit commitment.

Jason Hebert came to PCI in 2004 and has more than 20 years of experience working with deregulated electricity markets in North America and abroad. He currently manages PCI’s Professional Services Organization that is comprised of subject matter experts and project managers who monitor developments and deploy PCI software solutions in every North American energy market.

Before joining the PCI team, Mr. Hebert held various positions with InterGen North America, Altra Software, Equitable Power Services and Valero Power Services. He is an honors graduate with a dual major in Micro and Molecular Biology from Washington University in St. Louis.

Shailesh Mishra joined PCI in 2005 as an application consultant and has been responsible for the successful deployment of numerous PCI solutions with multiple clients across ERCOT, CAISO, SPP, MEM, as well as non-ISO regions.

Over the last several years at PCI, Mr. Mishra has taken up multiple roles in business analysis, project management, marketing, business development and account management.

Mr. Mishra holds a Master of Science degree in Telecom Management as well as a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Oklahoma State University. He also earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics & Telecom Engineering from Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar, MP, India. He is also a certificated Project Management Professional (PMP).

Bryan Kelly joined PCI in 2007 and now guides the evolution of the GenPortal^® technology platform, the Asset Operations Suite and all Transmission-related applications. His duties include overseeing development, enforcing PCI’s quality commitments and planning the product road map.

Upon joining PCI in 2007, Mr. Kelly provided implementation design and delivery services to PCI’s CAISO MRTU clients. He also participated in the implementation of PCI tools for Outage
Management, Settlements, Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence – primarily in the ERCOT, MISO and PJM markets. Since 2011 he has assumed increasing product management responsibilities.

Before joining PCI, Mr. Kelly worked as a Global Product Manager where he was responsible for marketing and product development of generation management systems in deregulated markets throughout North America and EPAC. Mr. Kelly has over 15 years of experience supplying software to ISO/RTO entities and their market participants.

Mr. Kelly earned his Bachelor of Science (Information Systems) and MBA from North Carolina State University.

Lei Tian came to PCI in 2006 and since has been very actively engaged in developing, deploying and supporting PCI solutions with numerous market participants in CAISO, MISO, PJM, ERCOT and SPP as well as in non-ISO controlled regions. She currently manages development for PCI solutions in the areas of Energy Accounting, Transmission Operation and Transmission Settlement.

Ms. Tian has more than 10 years of experience in energy industry trading, planning and financial operations. She holds a Master of Science in both Industrial Engineering and Quantitative & Computational Finance from Georgia Institute of Technology. She also earned her Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.

Antonio Lopez joined PCI in 2007 and started as a developer before becoming involved in the Professional Services Organization (PSO) as a technical lead and consultant.  From 2011-2014 he served as a senior manager leading PCI’s Software Infrastructure Group, actively working on deployment projects.  He later managed the Data Warehouse team and, in 2016  became the architect and technical lead for PCI’s Mexico Market team, which he currently oversees.

Mr. Lopez has over 15-years of experience designing and developing software, most of it in the energy industry.

Mr. Lopez holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Computer Science from Oklahoma State University.

Mark Cardinale has been the leading software developer, designer and implementer of PCI software since he joined the firm in 2001. He has deployed large enterprise systems for electric utility companies with both ISO/RTO market participants and non-participants and is an expert in applying technology to solve business problems in energy management, portfolio management and power system operations.

Before joining PCI, Mr. Cardinale spent eight years at Florida Power Corporation’s Power Trading Department, working primarily in energy accounting, portfolio management and trading systems development.

Mr. Cardinale holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York.

Dan Crawford has been with PCI since 2002 and currently supports the firm’s information services, client services, release management, quality assurance and technical documentation groups. He directs major initiatives in the areas of hosted software, CRM and improving the overall quality of PCI products and their delivery. Mr. Crawford also has a strong background in professional services as well as new product introduction in the software and energy industries.

Mr. Crawford has a Master of Business Administration degree from Oklahoma City University, a master’s degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Oklahoma State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from Oklahoma State University.

Scott Quin joined PCI in 2007 and has more than 30 years of experience working with regulated and deregulated electricity markets in North America and abroad.  He currently manages PCI’s Professional Services Organization (PSO) which is comprised of subject matter experts and project managers who monitor developments and deploy PCI software solutions in every North American energy market.

Before joining the PCI team, Mr. Quin held various positions with The Structure Group, Excelergy, ABB, Florida Power Corporation and Florida Power and Light.  He earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Mississippi State University, an M.S. in Engineering Management from the University of South Florida., and is also a licensed professional engineer in the state of Florida.

Ali Merchant came to PCI in 2008 and is now responsible for the operational alignment of numerous business units. His duties include facilitating coordination and collaboration across PCI to ensure efficient implementation of all phases of the solution delivery lifecycle.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Merchant led the development and delivery of PCI’s ISO systems for SPP, as well as for Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse solutions for multiple ISO and non-ISO product lines. Additionally, he has been engaged in and led several implementations of PCI solutions with clients.

Mr. Merchant has more than 20-years of experience in software solutions design, development and delivery. He earned a Bachelor of Science with Honors, in Management Information Systems as well as a Master of Science with Distinction, in Information Technology Project Management, from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.

Jarod Cannicott joined PCI in 2010 and has more than 15 years of experiences in product development with the last 9 years specifically in the energy industry.

Mr. Cannicott started with PCI as the Product Manager for the California ISO GenManager^® product line but continued expanding his role until he was responsible for the solution in all U.S. markets, including ERCOT, SPP, MISO, PJM, NYISO, and ISONE.  He then led and was responsible for building the initial version of PCI’s Energy Trading & Risk Management (ETRM) product for Power, Gas, and Emissions.

Mr. Cannicott holds a Master of Business Administration degree from The University of Texas, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from The University of Oklahoma.

Patrick McGarry joined PCI in 2019 and owns more than thirty years of experience in the commodities trading markets with the last twenty specifically in the energy industry.  In his current role, he is engaged in the business development and product management of PCI’s ETRM platform. 

Before joining PCI, Mr. McGarry held various leadership roles for 20-years with The Energy Authority (TEA).  He helped lead the organization through transformative change while working extensively with clients to deliver value and help them achieve their corporate goals.

Mr. McGarry holds an Executive MBA from The University of Florida, as well as a degree in Finance from Fairfield University.  In 2010, he completed a two year program to achieve a Certificate of Leadership from The University of North Florida.

John Bizon joined PCI in 2008 and currently leads the firm’s Project Engineering group.  Prior to his current role, he was actively involved working with customers to successfully deploy numerous PCI solutions such as GenTrader^® (including Post Analysis), GenManager^® (front and back office), Data Warehouse and Deal Capture.  He has also developed custom applications for clients on the PCI platform and played a key role in the development of the firm’s business intelligence (BI) tools.  

Mr. Bizon held extensive responsibilities in the day-ahead trading and settlements groups at a MISO-based utility.  There, he was an integral contributor in the transition from a bilateral market and built the initial settlements data repository and analysis framework to evaluate market bid/offer strategies.  In aggregate, Mr. Bizon has more than 15-years of experience working not only in MISO, but also in the CAISO, ERCOT and SPP markets.  

Mr. Bizon has a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) and a Master of Business Administration, both from the University of Michigan.

Pooneh started with PCI in June of 2020 and leads the firm’s people division.  She brings 20-years of Human Resources experience with special focus on talent management, organizational change, culture, and scaling.  Pooneh has expertise across multiple industries from energy to healthcare, media, marketing and advertising, as well as multiple countries, having worked in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.  She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Sorbonne, speaks three languages fluently and has Global Certification in Human Resources (GPHR).