Changing of the Guard
IDEA members elected new
officers to serve one-year terms.
David Toombs of Citizens Thermal
was elected chairman of IDEA’s board
of directors for 2010, succeeding Juan
Ontiveros of the University of Texas at
Austin, who will serve as immediate
past chair for the year. Vincent Badali
of Con Edison Steam Operations
was voted vice chair; Joe Brillhart of
Johnson Controls, second vice chair;
and Thomas Guglielmi of NRG Thermal,
secretary/treasurer.
A slate of six board members
was elected to serve, including three
new board members Tim Griffin of RMF
Engineering, David Musto of Thermo
Systems, Ken Smith of District Energy St.
Paul and three current board members
who were nominated to serve a second
three-year term – James Adams of
Cornell University, Tim Merrill of NRG
Energy Center Pittsburgh, and Stephen
Swinson of Thermal Energy Corp.
Recognizing Excellence,
Honoring Contributions
As outgoing chair, Juan Ontiveros
presented a number of awards recognizing individual contributions to IDEA.
In recognition of their leadership of the
Distribution Forum and the successful workshop in Reno, Nev. in February,
Mark Vogler of Citizens Thermal and
Robert Manning of Harvard University
were presented Chairman’s Awards.
Recognizing the many contributions and
tremendous staff support from Citizens
Thermal Energy in organizing and hosting the 101st Annual District Energy
Conference, Juan Ontiveros presented
Chairman’s Awards to David Toombs,
Jamie Dillard, Ann McIver, Mark Vogler,
Carol Dugan, and Donna Thrasher.
Outgoing board members
Gregg Coffin of the University of
Missouri-Columbia, Steven Tredinnick
of Syska Hennessy Group, and Tom
Pierson of TAS (in absentia) were
presented with Chairman’s Awards for
three years of volunteer service on the
board. Tim Griffin of RMF Engineering
was recognized with a Chairman’s
Award for his efforts spearheading
the review of LEED and district energy
guidelines. Ontiveros was also pleased
to recognize Laxmi Rao of IDEA for her
tremendous success in writing grant
proposals on behalf of IDEA, garnering
over $2 million in grant awards in
recent years.
Monica Westerlund is recognized for 12 years as
executive editor of District Energy.
DOE Regional Application
Centers Available as Resource
Ted Bronson and John Cuttica,
representing the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Regional Application Centers
(RACs), presented an overview of the
resources available from the RACs,
including topical webinars, and they
encouraged attendees to leverage their
regional RACs to promote industry
growth and technology best practices.
IDEA has been awarded a DOE grant
to support the RACs as a district
energy resource.
The University of Missouri-Columbia was presented with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s
prestigious ENERGY STAR®CHP Award.
Neeharika Naik-Dhungel of the U.S. EPA
Combined Heat and Power Partnership
presented the award to Gregg Coffin
of the University of Missouri-Columbia
in recognition of Mizzou’s energy
efficiency gains, adaptation to multiple
fuels and demonstrated reduction in
emissions.
Monica Westerlund, executive
editor of District Energy magazine
for the past 12 years, was recognized
with a special President’s Award for
her many contributions to IDEA in
communications, outreach, marketing
and media relations over the past 25
years. Peter Myers, who had produced
the “Now’s the Time” and other videos
for IDEA, was introduced as the new
editor of District Energy magazine.
John Cuttica and Ted Bronson of DOE-RAC
Thanking our gracious conference hosts from Citizens Thermal (left to right : Rob Thornton (IDEA),
David Toombs, Carol Dugan, Donna Thrasher, Ann McIver, Jamie Dillard and Mark Vogler).
