ESC Staff

Executive Staff

Executive Director
Director of Publications and Communications
Staff Consultant

Executive Director
Jason Makansi
President, Pearl Street, Inc.
p. 314.495.4545
jmakansi@pearlstreetinc.com

Career Profile
Jason Makansi , founder Pearl Street, Inc., has over 25 years of experience evaluating the technological, business, and regulatory issues governing the electricity industry.

Pearl Street
As President of Pearl Street, founded in December 2000, Jason specializes in providing technology deployment services to companies in all segments of the electricity value chain.

Services Provided:
•           Technology evaluation
•           Competitive positioning
•           Tactical communications
•           Engineering due diligence
•           Alliance creation and partner building
•           Executive and management recruitment
•           Marketing programs.

Sectors Served:
•           Global power industry suppliers
•           Investment community, distributed power
•           Energy companies and electric utilities
•           Technology development and R&D firms
•           Energy storage
•           Software companies
•           Consulting and market research firms

Published Materials:
Jason has published articles in Business Week, Electrical World, Global Energy Busines, Power, and IEEE Spectrum. In addition, Pearl Street has been quoted in Newsweek, CFO Magazine, Power Engineering, FT Energy, and others.

Lights Out: The Electricity Crisis, the Global Economy and What it Means to You,
John Wiley & Sons, May 2007

An Investor's Guide to the Electricity Business, John Wiley & Sons, April 2002.

Conferences and Associations
As President of Pearl Street, Jason continues to speak at industry meetings, moderate brain-storming sessions and symposia, deliver presentations, and organize insightful and imaginative conferences and forums, including serving as Conference Program Chair for Electric Power 2001, one of the largest meetings in the electricity industry.

Previous Positions
MyPlant.com
Jason served as Director, Power Generation for Myplant.com where his responsibilities included business development, sales, content marketing and staff development. Under his direction, the Power Generation vertical became one of the most vibrant and most visited industry web portals serving its market.

McGraw-Hill
As Editor-in-Chief of Power and Electric Power International magazines and contributing editor of Electrical World magazine, and during his 18-year tenure with The McGraw Hill Companies, Jason researched and analyzed every aspect of electricity generation. He conceived, launched, and nurtured The McGraw Hill Companies' Annual O&M and Powerplant Management Symposium, The Powerplant Information Technology (IT) Forum, and Annual Independent Power & Cogeneration Market Conference, and regularly consulted on the leading issues affecting the industry.

Education
Jason received a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University in New York.

He has completed coursework in Graduate Studies in Strategic Management of Technology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Media Director
Robert Schwieger
PSI Media, Inc.
p. 702-869-4739
f. 702-869-6867
bob@psimedia.info

Bob is President of PSI Media Inc., a Pearl Street affiliate company, and has many years of experience both practicing engineering in the field and serving the electricity industry by participating in and leading the development of technical and business information products for the global energy market. From plant design/project management at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission and working at the plant level in various oil-fired steam plants to Vice President and Editorial Director for McGraw-Hill's energy magazines, Bob has been involved at every level of the electricity business. For McGraw-Hill, he spent 30 years setting the standard in electricity trade publications. He helped develop and manage magazines, (Power magazine, Electricial World, Energy IT, Electric Power International, and Global Energy Business) web-based news services, conferences, seminars, directories, books, and maps in to serve the English market as well as the Chinese, Russian, and Spanish markets.

At PSI Media, Bob helps companies in the electricity industry (1) better position themselves for business success and (2) introduce new products and services to the marketplace. PSI Media's technology focus is on gas turbines and auxiliaries, coal-fired stations, emissions control, distributed generation, transmission, energy storage, and renewables. PSI Media’s activities include publication of objective, subscription-based information products to facilitate the flow of ideas among engineering decision-makers responsible for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of energy infrastructure from fuel source through application by the end user.

Staff Consultant
Septimus van der Linden
Brulin Associates
p. 804-639-5679 f. 804-639-5361
brulinassoc@comcast.net

With more than 40 years of experience in power generation with three major international companies: Worthington Corporation, Curtiss-Wright Power Systems, and ALSTOM Power, Inc.(BBC, ABB AND ABB ALSTOM), Sep has extensive world-wide experience in power equipment and rotating machinery, strategic marketing and sales management, sales promotion, application engineering, engineering studies and reports, contracting, cost estimating, market analysis, and supervisory responsibility of engineering service and equipment installation. In 2003, he founded his own consulting practice, Brulin Associates, which provides consulting services to the power industry in the area of strategic marketing and application of new technology development, new power concepts, and related functions including technical, legislative, regulatory, environmental and other after market services. Sep works closely with both Pearl Street and the Energy Storage Council.