Panel 1: The Infrastructure Imperative – Meeting the Needs of Every Driver

John Gartner

Center for Sustainable Energy

United States

John Gartner has 35 years of experience in research and consulting focused on emerging technologies. Since 2009 his focus has been on electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, and vehicle to grid integration. At CSE, John oversees the Transparency and Insights team of 37 data scientists, analysts and software developers. He has authored more than 25 market research reports and whitepapers on transportation electrification and provides customized client solutions for state and federal agencies, automotive OEMs, utilities and infrastructure providers. John is a participating member of the Colorado Electric Vehicle Coalition and National Association of Convenience Stores Executive EV Council. John is also a public speaker and panel moderator providing data-driven insights at many of the leading global transportation electrification conferences, including Roadmap, Distributech, EPR’s Infrastructure Working Council, VERGE, GridConnext, the Electric Vehicle Symposium, and EVs and the Grid.

Doron Frenkel

Driivz

Israel

Doron is an experienced entrepreneur with over 25 years’ international management experience in the EV charging, telecommunications and fleet industries. Prior to Driivz, Doron was co-founder and CEO of We!Secure and before that he held the position of GM of Israeli operations at Sphera. As a Director at Amdocs (NYSE:DOX), Doron led business relationships worth hundreds of millions of dollars with top customers such as Nextel and T-Mobile.

Frankie McDermott

SMUD

United States

Frankie McDermott serves as SMUD’s Chief Operating Officer, providing strategic leadership and tactical oversight of the safe and reliable delivery of energy to California’s capital region. In this role, McDermott is responsible for the safety, reliability and operations of the transmission and distribution systems, delivery of energy to customers and construction and maintenance of SMUD’s grid. His responsibilities also include employee and public safety, operational efficiency and all non-technology capital investments. McDermott has served in a variety of executive and senior leadership roles since joining SMUD in 2003, including Chief Energy Delivery Officer, Chief Customer Officer, Senior Director of Customer Services, Director of Enterprise Performance and Director of General Services and Supply Chain.

Ashley Horvat

Schneider Electric NA

United States

With 13 years of experience as a pioneer in the eMobility industry, Horvat is Head of eMobility for Schneider Electric North America, overseeing hub operations, responsible for full P&L of the eMobility business unit, which includes engineering, project, technology, marketing, communications, and commercial teams. She spearheads the EV strategy, business plan, full charging offer, deployment execution and business performance, and the oversight of a team of eMobility experts driving innovation throughout North America in charging hardware, software, power distribution, and energy management. She began her career in the public sector where she worked at DOT, DOE, and for the Oregon Governor’s office as Chief EV Officer, where she worked nationwide on ZEV state initiatives. Horvat pivoted to the private sector, forging a path working for EV industry startups as an early-stage employee, scaling the orgs through to M&A stage at PlugShare (Innogy Acquisition) and Greenlots (Royal Dutch Shell Acquisition). In 2013, Horvat co-founded the “Women of Electric Vehicles” organization, dedicated to “elEVating women” to leadership roles in the EV industry, which now includes nearly 2,000 women around the world.

Jan Freimann

WAVE Charging

United States

Jan Freimann is a highly accomplished expert in future technologies, specializing in smart charging and electric vehicle technology. As the Chief Operating Officer at WAVE Charging, Jan is responsible for leading his team in providing innovative charging solutions that meet each fleet’s unique operation. Prior to joining WAVE Charging, Jan served as Head of Connected E-Mobility at BMW of North America from 2017-2021, where he led the E-Mobility Engineering teams and oversaw the development and management of BMW NA's smart charging and sustainability projects. Before that, Jan worked as the Innovation Manager, E-Mobility for BMW AG in Germany, where he was responsible for developing the future E-Mobility product portfolio for the company.

Kenneth Tennyson

Electrify America

United States

Ken Tennyson is the Senior Director of Quality & Conformance. He joined Electrify America in 2017 as the Senior Manager of Service & Network Operations, initially focused on the deployment and operational management of Electrify America’s nationwide electric vehicle DC Fast (DCFC) charging network. During this time Ken oversaw the build out of the Electrify America network operations, field services, and supply chain supporting over 800 DC fast charge locations. His current leading quality includes responsibility for developing and leading the quality organization overseeing Electrify America’s product portfolio, including: DCFC and L2 electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), switchboards, battery storage, and digital services, as well as our interoperability focused Center of Excellence. He brings over two decades of experience in Engineering Quality Management, with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics. Ken previously worked as a Director of Quality, reliability, and homologation engineering at the engineering firm VT iDirect, and worked as a corporate quality engineer in semiconductors at Micron Technology.