Entergy Endowed Chair for Power Systems Engineering

Professor of Electrical Engineering, The University of New Orleans College of Engineering

Tulane University Emeritus Entergy Chair in Electric Power Engineering

Tulane University Emeritus Professor of EECS

Parviz Rastgoufard joined the University of New Orleans (UNO) and serves as the Entergy Endowed Chair for Power Systems Engineering – a $2 million endowment established by Louisiana Board of Regents and Entergy Services Inc - since August 2007. He is currently engaged in research and teaching Power Systems Engineering and serves as the Director of Power & Energy Research Laboratory (PERL) and the General Chair of the UNO Engineering Forum since 2009 and chairing panels of experts on Engineering Education, Cybersecurity, and Smart Cities in the years 2016, 2017, and 2019 respectively.

Before joining UNO, he served in many roles at Tulane University from 1987 to 2007, including Professor and Chair of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (1998 – 2007); Director of Electric Power Research Laboratory (1991 – 2007); Chair of American Association of University Professors (2003 – 2007); member of Tulane Senate for six years, and Entergy Endowed Chair in Electric Power Engineering (1998 –2007). Through collaboration between Entergy and Tulane School of Business and School of Engineering, he was instrumental in creation of Entergy-Tulane Energy Institute in 2004-2007. He served as General Chair of Society for Electric Power Research Implementation (SEPRI), a collaboration between universities and industry in State of Louisiana, during 1990-1994, and the co-founder of Tulane Engineering Forum and serving as the member of its organizing committee during 1998-2004. Parviz serves as the Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Emeritus Entergy Endowed Chair for Electric Power Engineering at Tulane University since July 2007.

Prior to joining Tulane University, he was a member of faculty of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at North Carolina State University in the years 1983-1987 and founding member of Electric Power Research Center - established by Department of Nuclear Engineering and ECE with membership from electric utilities, government agencies, and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

Parviz has served as Principal Investigator on more than 80 funded grants and projects resolving issues related to Power Systems Engineering reliability, planning, operation, safety, prevention of blackouts, hardening of transmission network, system resiliency, smart grid, cybersecurity, and hurricane preparedness of industrial plants in Gulf States. Through the funded grants and projects, Parviz successfully created the Master and Ph.D. programs in Power Systems Engineering at Tulane University and University of New Orleans resulting in more than 75 Master and Ph.D. students including 4 post-doctoral fellows. Several of his students have leading roles in different sectors of workforce nationally and internationally including universities, government, and industry. Parviz has served as Principal Consultant on more than 20 projects.

Parviz is a senior member of IEEE and a member of New Orleans ACE Board, and has served as professional engineer, member of industry Board of Directors, member or chair of 25 Search Committees, and as research and engineering consultant for several local and national companies since 1988. Dr. Rastgoufard received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from State University of New York in Buffalo in 1976, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Systems Science from Michigan State University in 1978 and 1983, respectively.

Jason Rogers Williams was first elected Councilmember-at-Large on March 15, 2014 and re-elected October 14, 2017. A native of New Orleans, Councilmember Williams has worked tirelessly for the betterment of New Orleans and continues to do so as a member of the City Council. He had the opportunity to spend his formative years in both Atlanta, GA and New Orleans. He graduated from the prestigious Woodward Academy in College Park, Georgia (formerly the Georgia Military Academy) before returning to New Orleans to earn a Bachelor's Degree from Tulane University on a full football scholarship as well as the Martin M. Kelly Leadership Award. Williams is also a graduate of Tulane Law School, where he received the honor of being inducted into the prestigious Order of the Barristers based for his three years of excellence in the art of courtroom advocacy.

Shortly after graduation, Councilmember Williams started his own law firm, Jason Rogers Williams & Associates, which he continues to manage to this day. As a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association and the Federal Bar Association, he was appointed to serve as a State court Judge at Criminal District Court by the Louisiana Supreme Court in 2003 after tackling a series of high profile cases as a criminal defense attorney. In addition to working as an adjunct professor at Tulane Law School, Williams has also worked as a legal analyst at WDSU, WWL, WBOK, WGNO, FOX 8 and the Times-Picayune. Councilmember Williams also serves on the Conflict Panel for the Orleans Parish Public Defenders Office and the Federal Public Defenders Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He was selected as a fellow in 2016 for the American College of Trial Lawyers.

As a staunch advocate for community development programs, Williams has served as a Board Member of The Audubon Nature Institute, Partnership for Youth Development, and The Children's Bureau of New Orleans. He still serves as a Board Member of the Innocence Project of New Orleans. In 2015 he received the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center’s Mondale-Brook Award for Fair Housing Leadership and Civic Participation. In 2017 Williams received the Forum for Equality Acclaim Award in Advocacy for the LGBTQ community.

In addition to spearheading New Orleans’ revolutionary “Smart City” initiative, Councilmember Williams has and continues to focus on fiscal responsibility, public safety and criminal justice reform. He was the leading advocate on Municipal Bail Reform and for the first ever budget allocation by City of New Orleans to early childhood education. He has three children, Zoe, Graham, and Xavier, who serve as his motivation to make New Orleans an even better place to live in the future.

Stephanie Dreher is a professional civil engineer with experience in roadway and pavement design, environmental permitting and storm water management, with extensive policy and technical experience in disaster recovery program management. Assisting dozens of clients post-disaster in the past 15 years, Ms. Dreher has forged relationships with many dedicated leaders of state agencies, local governments and private institutions in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas. Currently serving as a Sustainable Infrastructure Project Manager for the City of New Orleans, she manages storm water storage and green infrastructure improvements in the St. Anthony and St. Bernard neighborhoods. Ms. Dreher has Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in civil engineering from Auburn University.

Jim Benson is the Head of Strategic Alliances for Current by GE’s Intelligent Cities business. In this role Jim partners with city leaders to turn their ubiquitous lighting footprint into a digital infrastructure that delivers positive economic, social and environmental impact as populations grow and infrastructure needs are stretched. He is responsible for building an eco-system of Smart City partners who utilize the data this digital infrastructure collets to drive unprecedented outcomes for cities.

His passion is driven by the possibilities an interoperable IoT platform, that captures real-time ubiquitous data can deliver, from reducing traffic congestion, driving new economic development and job creation to reducing gun violence and increasing pedestrian safety. He believes by building an ever-expanding ecosystem of partners and engaging the innovative developer community, thousands of applications can be built to drive desired outcomes for cities.

Before this role Jim ran Marketing and Business Development for GE’s Commercial Lighting business and was a key member of the founding intelligent Cities startup inside of GE that lead to the creation of Current by GE’s CityIQ™ platform.

Jim has gained valuable experience working with its GE’s Power, Energy, Appliances and Lighting businesses. He has more than 20 years of experience leading solution development and commercial teams at both GE and The Hoover Company. He was also a GE Ecomagination steering committee member and has lead multiple GE leadership training development programs.

Jim is a member of the Smart Cities Council and on various committees and represents GE as a Platform Partner for US Ignite and NIST’s Global Cities Team Challenge.

Jim has degrees in finance and economics from The Ohio State University and is a graduate of GE’s Financial Management Program, Experience Financial Management Program and Northwestern University’s Executive Marketing Program. A native of Canton, Ohio, Jim and his wife Robyn have five children.

Smart Cities Practice Lead, Leidos

Brandon Freeman is the Smart Cities Practice Lead and a Solutions Architect at Leidos, where he oversees the development of smart city, utility grid modernization, intelligent transportation, and IoT cybersecurity initiatives. In this role, Brandon draws upon his experience in building the Internet of Things space as a former executive at Ingenu. Prior to joining Leidos, Brandon was the first Chief of Staff at HTC America, where he led management of the sales & marketing framework and oversaw special projects for the region.

Brandon joined private industry from EvoNexus where, as its founding COO, he oversaw the creation and management of one of California's most successful technology incubators. Prior to working with early-stage companies, Brandon served in academia at the State of California's Institute for Science and Innovation in wireless communications (Calit2) where he worked with principal investigators at the institute to operate research programs and innovation centers.

A UC San Diego alumnus with a B.S. in Management Science and focus in Computer Engineering, Brandon is a 2008 Webby Award Honoree and is also the author of a (HEP theory) physics book, entitled Grand Symphony. Brandon serves on the board of the UC San Diego Alumni Association and is actively involved in the community. His interests include volleyball, the arts, and philanthropy.

Hector Artze is a Managing Director in Navigant’s Energy practice. His professional career spans more than 30 years in the electrical utility field. Mr. Artze assists utility and government clients craft their Grid Modernization strategy, explore new business models to take advantage of distributed grid resources, leverage the integration of new technologies to transform their business and organization, and improve their operations through operational excellence and continuous improvement. Mr. Artze’s relevant expertise includes distribution operations; asset management; reliability; and the evaluation and selection of operation technologies (including among others EMS, ADMS, etc.), and how these technologies impact utility processes and organizations. Prior to consulting, Mr. Artze spent 14 years at Florida Power and Light, a major investment-owned electric utility (IOU) in Florida focusing on emergency restoration processes, process and quality improvement, key customer accounts management, energy conservation, as well as electrical distribution engineering and construction. He manages key investor owned utilities, and the U.S. Navy client relations. He is a member of Navigant's Diversity & Inclusion Council, and Co-Chairs the Latino Ancestry ERG. Hector is a Certified Energy Manager.

Omar El Shal is Manager, Emerging Technology in Distribution Operations and Asset Management at Entergy Services, LLC (Entergy). In this role, he is responsible for new and emerging technology strategy development across Entergy’s five utility operating companies in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas.

Omar is also Manager, Emerging Technology Transfer (METT) for Entergy at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). In this capacity, he leads research and development strategic alignment and coordination in the generation, power delivery and utilization, environment, and technology innovation sectors.

Prior to joining Entergy, Omar was a strategy and operations management consultant at Navigant Consulting Inc. (Navigant) in the Global Energy Practice. At Navigant, Omar advised leading electric, gas, and water utilities on new products and services strategies, organization design, operational technology deployment, and process improvements.

Senior Vice President, Distribution Operations and Asset Management Entergy Services, Inc.

Rick Riley promoted to Senior Vice President, Distribution Operations and Asset Management for Entergy Services, Inc. in July 2018. In this role, Riley is responsible for the operations, planning and modernization of over 100,000 miles of distribution circuits across Entergy’s four state service territory. Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 9,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.9 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of approximately $11 billion and nearly 13,000 employees.

Prior to this role, Riley served as the CEO of Entergy Arkansas, Inc. starting on May 2, 2016. Riley was directly responsible for EAI's electric transmission and distribution systems, customer service, resource planning, economic development, regulatory and public affairs, as well as the company's overall financial performance. Entergy Arkansas is the largest electric utility in the state of Arkansas, serving more than 700,000 customers in 63 Arkansas counties, covering more than 40,880 square miles of service territory.

Riley served as vice president of transmission for Entergy Services, Inc. (ESI) from 2010 to 2015. As the leader of the Transmission organization, Riley was responsible for the planning and operations of the Entergy Transmission System, which comprises over 15,700 circuit miles of transmission lines and 1,500 substations spread over a 115,000 square-mile area spanning four states. He began his utility career in 1985 at Gulf States Utilities in Beaumont, Texas, as a transmission and distribution engineer. Starting in 1990, Riley held various engineering positions at Texaco Chemical Company and Fina Oil & Chemical Company in Port Arthur, Texas, before joining Entergy Services, Inc. as a senior lead engineer, power quality, in 1995.

In 1996, Riley was named manager of engineering field services, system protection and control for ESI. He also held management positions at ESI in the market management group and transmission operations planning before being named director of transmission policy in 1999. Riley later served as vice president of transmission regulatory compliance for ESI in New Orleans and then was named director of transmission and distribution operations for Entergy Mississippi, Inc. in 2008.

Riley holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in engineering management from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Riley is a registered professional engineer in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Systems Manager at Texas Instruments

M.S (ECE) – Texas Tech University, M.B.A – University of Arizona

Amit collaborates with Grid Infrastructure Customers’ worldwide to solve their system design challenges. He has 15 years of experience working in the semiconductor industry in product development, operations, marketing and business development.

His group has introduced 50+ innovative system solutions during the last 5 years for power transmission and distribution R&D teams. His expertise in grid management includes developing and optimizing:

• Sensor signal acquisition systems in transmission and distribution end equipment

• Data processing systems for computation on-the-edge and cloud for grid asset monitoring

• Wired and wireless networks for IoT and smart cities

• Power optimization for AC to DC conversion, isolation, energy harvesting and storage.

Norma Jean Mattei, PhD, PE, is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New Orleans. In the past she has served as Chair of the Department and Interim Dean of the College of Engineering at UNO. She now serves as one of two civilian civil engineer Commissioners of the seven-member Mississippi River Commission, nominated by President Obama. She is the 2017 President of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Norma Jean also has chaired of several National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES) committees, most recently the NCEES Education Committee. She was named by the Governor of Louisiana to Louisiana’s licensing board for professional engineers, LAPELS, and served as Chairman of that Board during the final year of her term in 2011-12. She is a lifelong resident of New Orleans, married to Richard Louis Mattei and is the proud mom of Helen Claycomb, PE in civil/structural engineering, and Genevieve Mattei, a biomedical engineer.

Ray Areaux is the founder of, and continues to lead, the firm’s intellectual property practice group. He is a founding member of the firm, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. For thirty-three years he has practiced primarily in the IP field, including a strong emphasis on software and computer issues. In connection with the software and computer contract aspects of his IP practice, Ray became involved many years ago in rendering advice on related data breach, privacy and security issues. Ray is a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (since 1989); and, has taught “Trademarks and Unfair Competition” (since 1999) and Informational Privacy Law (since 2015) at Loyola University School of Law. He co-founded and co-hosts the annual Gulf Coast Data Breach, Security and Privacy Summit. He frequently lectures to business and academia on IP topics as well as informational privacy, data breach and security topics.

Ray served as the firm’s first managing member during its founding year; and, again served as the firm’s managing member for the three-year term from 2010 through 2012.

Ray received his J.D. from Loyola University (1985) where he was a member of the Law Review. Ray holds both a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.S. in Computer and Information Systems (both from Tulane University, 1978). Prior to starting his law practice, he was a product development engineer with IBM at its lab in Austin, Texas (1978-1981) and then later a systems engineer with Conoco in New Orleans (1981-1985).

Ray, and his bride Dana, are natives of Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, and have been married for forty years; and, they are blessed with a son, daughter and daughter-in-law and three beautiful and precious young granddaughters.

Ray’s experience includes:

• counseling clients on state and federal database breach, security and privacy issues (including HIPAA, GDPR and GLB);

• litigating software and computer contract disputes;

• negotiating large software and computer contract matters, including SaaS, on-premise, hosting and outsourced arrangements for both users and software providers;

• serving (28years) as an arbitrator and mediator for computer contracts, IP transactions or infringement disputes;

• litigating patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright infringement disputes as well as licensing disputes, including patent claims against the U.S. Department of Defense;

• negotiating many and varied brand licensing, distribution, and franchise agreements;

• obtaining patents (electrical/electronics, software, web-based delivery, biotech and machinery);

• rendering patent and trademark clearance, validity and infringement opinions and counsel;

• obtaining and maintaining all forms of trademarks, service marks and brands;

• preparing and negotiating organizational and operating documents for corporations and limited liability companies, including capital investment, as well as agreements for the acquisition or divestiture of companies and/or their assets.