Executives
Ruben Llanes
Chief Executive Officer
Ruben is the CEO of AutoGrid. In his previous role as Schneider Electric’s Vice President, National Sales Force, he was responsible for the commercial activities in the Central Region, delivering significant orders and sales growth, while expanding Schneider Electric’s Digital, Software, and Services businesses.
Prior to that position, Ruben was Vice President, Channel Business Development & Strategy, where he launched and led the U.S. Distribution Sales organization and defined strategy for all channels of distribution.
Before joining Schneider Electric in 2010, he worked in the Global Investment Banking Division at Deutsche Bank Securities. Ruben has a Bachelor’s in Finance and Economics from the University of Illinois.
Rahul Kar
Chief Operating Officer
Rahul is the Chief Operating Officer of AutoGrid Systems, a technology company that uses artificial intelligence to revolutionize how we consume and supply clean energy, thereby reducing climate impacts. With over 20 years of experience in both technology and energy, Rahul has a unique combination of skills that has helped him drive the growth and success of AutoGrid since 2014.
Rahul brings over 20 years of experience in both technology and energy. He has a unique combination of skills that has helped him drive the growth and success of AutoGrid since 2014.
Prior to joining AutoGrid, Rahul held a variety of engineering, management and policy design roles; designing turbo-machinery for reduced energy consumption, leading large technology strategy projects for the U.S. Department of Energy and developing machine learning and optimization products for various energy companies. His areas of expertise include business model innovation, data science and analytics, revenue growth and markets for electric energy and operating reserves.
He is a sought-after speaker and thought leader in the clean technology industry, regularly presenting at conferences and events. Rahul graduated from MIT and Texas A&M University.
At AutoGrid, Rahul is responsible for overseeing engineering, product development and delivery; developing and executing growth strategies; and ensuring that the company continues to deliver cutting-edge clean energy solutions to its customers.
Scott McGaraghan
Chief Revenue Officer
Scott leads all of AutoGrid’s revenue-intensive functions, including sales, marketing, and industry solutions. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the cleantech space, and specifically in demand response and VPPs. Formerly VP of International Business Development at Voltus, Scott is an expert in demand response and VPPs for residential, commercial and industrial markets. He spent more than a decade in leadership roles at Nest, where he was responsible for the launch of the highly successful Nest Rush Hour Rewards program. Scott also serves as an advisor to a number of clean energy technology companies and was an early VPP pioneer as a core member of the team at EnerNOC. Scott completed his undergraduate and graduate studies from Stanford University.
Rajeev Singh
Chief Technology Officer
Rajeev is responsible for conceptualizing, developing, scaling and securing AutoGrid’s AI-driven cloud-native SaaS platform and applications. Rajeev brings extensive experience building large-scale, complex enterprise-grade software systems.
Prior to AutoGrid, as Principal Architect and later Director of Technology at iMANY (now Model N), Rajeev built their “next-gen” enterprise contract management platform, starting literally in a garage. Prior to iMANY, as System Architect, Rajeev built decision-support and price- and revenue-optimization enterprise systems at Decision Focus Inc. (renamed Talus and later acquired by Manugistics). The systems Rajeev has built have been used by such companies as Ford Motor Co., Continental and Northwest airlines, GE Aviation, Honeywell, TIBCO, Kodak, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Genentech. One of these — a marketing incentive optimization system for Ford Motor Co. — was chronicled in Forbes and Businessweek.
Rajeev has an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics from University of Minnesota Twin Cities, and a B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur.
Quique Schwarz
Chief Data Scientist
Quique is responsible for developing forecasting, optimization, and customer segmentation capabilities in the AutoGrid platform. He brings more than 20 years experience designing and delivering decision support solutions in a variety of verticals, including digital advertising, air cargo, long-haul trucking, ride sharing, and retail pricing/promotions. He has pioneered the application of revenue management and demand-side optimization in a number of these industries. Prior to AutoGrid, Quique developed forecasting and optimization capabilities at Uber and Brand.net, a leading ad network specializing in brand advertising. Before that he consulted for Polar Air Cargo and Schneider National, where he delivered novel demand-side forecasting and price optimization capabilities. He previously worked for a leading boutique solutions firm specializing in revenue management, Decision Focus (renamed Talus and later acquired by Manugistics), where he designed the analytics behind the first successful revenue management system in the air cargo industry for Continental Airlines, as well as a promotions optimization system for Ford Motor Company. Quique has an M.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Operations Research and Statistics, and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Tad Piper
SVP, Corporate Strategy and Development
Tad leads overall corporate strategy and new strategic partnerships to accelerate growth at AutoGrid. With 20 years of experience serving as a catalyst for growth in emerging businesses, Tad is a nationally recognized Wall Street research leader in the software and technology marketplace. He has held a range of C-Level and leadership positions, driving innovation and sales to achieve rapid growth across multiple industries. Most recently, Piper developed some of the largest demand response resources in the U.S.
Aniket Soneji
SVP of Engineering
Aniket leads our global engineering team, and is responsible for the continued delivery of new features, services and architectures for AutoGrid’s cloud-native SaaS platform and application portfolio.
Prior to AutoGrid, Aniket was a Technology Architecture Specialist at Accenture’s Emerging Technology division, where he gained extensive experience managing global software development teams and delivering on enterprise-scale IoT and Big Data Analytics platforms. The architectures and systems Aniket and his team built were used by many Fortune 500 companies in the acceleration of their digital transition and feature roadmaps, as well as the development of business and product intelligence tooling for senior leadership.
Aniket has a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Mechanical Engineering as well as Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). He is also currently completing his MBA at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Sadia Raveendran
VP of Industry Solutions
Sadia Raveendran is the VP of Industry Solutions at AutoGrid. Sadia has 15 years of experience in clean energy technologies (biomass, solar PV, carbon capture, wind, and distributed energy resources), in NAM, EUR, and APAC regions. She has served in functions for business development, R&D, product management, and pre-sales. At AutoGrid, she led the partnership with Schneider Electric after their initial round of investment in May 2019. She worked with various lines of business at Schneider to go-to-market with joint solutions that deliver enhanced value to utilities, energy companies, and end consumers. Her team partners with AutoGrid’s customers to design and implement flexibility management programs using AutoGrid Flex™, the industry leading Distributed Energy Resources Management System (DERMS) and Virtual Power Plant (VPP) platform and related services.
Prior to joining AutoGrid, she worked at GE Renewable Energy in product management roles for equipment, services, and digital tools for the onshore wind business. While there, she was selected for the company’s Renewable Energy Leadership Program (RELP) and for the GE wide Accelerated Leadership program (XLP). At the MIT Energy Initiative, she researched carbon capture and sequestration and challenges to its commercialization. While at Tata Power in India, she helped build the company’s utility-scale solar generation portfolio from the first 3 MW and 25 MW installations; a portfolio that has grown to nearly 3000 MW in 2023. Her range and depth of knowledge have made her an industry thought leader on clean energy technologies, platform solutions, and emerging trends in the energy transition.
She graduated from Wellesley College with majors in Physics & Economics (Honors) and has a master’s degree in Technology & Policy from MIT.
Ashifa Sunar
VP Engineering, India
Ashifa joined as VP Engineering, India and is managing different teams in India and takes care of all aspects of product development and delivery. Ashifa brings extensive experience of building highly scalable systems and has worked with many MNCs and startups in India for close to a decade and half. Prior to joining AutoGrid, Ashifa has contributed to many high growth startups that have gone global and was building a company in the online consulting and education space. Ashifa holds two Masters degrees , M.Sc. from Hyderabad Central University and MTech from IIT Delhi.
Yusuf Attarwala
VP of User Experience and Design
Yusuf is a Silicon Valley veteran with over 25 years of experience in software development and technical leadership. He was most recently Director of Web Engineering at Seagate Technologies where he led a team developing Cloud Solutions for consumers and Applications for self-encrypting hard-drives. Yusuf was Co-founder and Vice President of Web Technologies at Axiom Design which was acquired by Mentor Graphics. Yusuf has held management and Principal architect positions at several Silicon Valley startups, including Chegg (now a public company), Berkeley Design Automation ( now part of Siemens) and Lyveminds ( later acquired by Seagate ) focusing on computer graphics, UI/UX and Web technologies.
Yusuf holds two Masters degrees in Engineering from UCLA and from University of Iowa. He also holds a US Patent. For fun, he enjoys creating art in different media.
Charlie Brasor
VP of Delivery and Customer Operations
Charlie leads a team responsible for delivering the AutoGrid platform and ensuring maximum customer value. With a passion for energy and protecting the planet, he has over 15 years experience building and scaling customer delivery and engagement teams at the intersection of energy and technology.
Prior to AutoGrid, Charlie helped build and scale the Customer Success teams at Voltaiq, working closely with auto and device OEMs to build better and more efficient battery systems.Charlie was an early member of the Opower Client Success team, helping establish a delivery and engagement strategy with utilities in the US and eventually London to grow and lead Opower’s EMEA Client Success team.
Charlie holds a masters in Energy Policy and Climate from Johns Hopkins University and a masters in International Business from Florida Atlantic University.
Vish Ganti
VP of Product
Vish serves as Vice President and General Manager for AutoGrid India and is responsible for growing AutoGrid’s business in the region, leveraging the artificial intelligence (AI)- driven AutoGrid Flex™ platform. As a passionate advocate for open standards, Vish has nearly a decade of success working with utilities, ISOs and C&I sites to develop automated demand response (AutoDR), helping them to expand the adoption of OpenADR technology solutions in distributed resources.
As a technology pioneer and a subject matter expert in DER/IoT, Vish has a long track record of research, development and deployment across the spectrum of Smart Grid applications, including AutoDR, interoperability, home automation, and smart appliances. Vish has held senior roles at CPower (a subsidiary of Constellation), Johnson Controls and EnerNOC, as well as leading innovative research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).
Vish holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering specialized in Energy Management from San Francisco State University. In December 2018, he completed activation of a MicroGrid at his house in Silicon Valley, with by DERs such as Smart-thermostat, Solar PV, Tesla Powerwall, EV with Smart Charging, including a personal weather station.
John Perry
VP of Marketing and Communications
John brings more than two decades of experience in the software and energy sectors. Prior to joining AutoGrid, he held a range of marketing and communications leadership roles at Oracle, GE, ABB, and Hitachi Energy. HIs work has been recognized with both Hermes and Muse Creative Awards. He holds a BA from Princeton and masters in English from Rutgers and Stanford.
Alex Pratt
VP of Business Development
Alex heads utility engagement working closely with AutoGrid’s largest domestic utility customers. He has a background in leading high-performance teams as well as bringing a broad spectrum of resources to bear to solve complex problems in dynamic environments. Before joining AutoGrid, Alex served as an officer in the U.S. Navy SEAL teams and subsequently earned an MBA and MS from Stanford University. He also holds a BSE in Civil Engineering from Duke University.
Anton Prenneis
VP of Strategic Partnerships
Anton is responsible for driving global growth with AutoGrid’s strategic partners. Passionate about cleantech, he is energized by AutoGrid’s mission of applying SaaS, data analytics and AI toward the creation of a prosumer-driven distributed energy world.
Over the course of his career at IBM, EMC, Dell Technologies, and Cardinality.io., Anton has served in a variety of technical and business leadership roles spanning software engineering, product management, solution architecture, technical evangelism, corporate strategy, competitive intelligence and software licensing. Anton has earned patents in distributed computing, served as CMO for telecom software businesses and has established reseller and SI partner programs at the country and worldwide levels.
Anton holds a M.Sc. in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
Adam Todorski
VP and GM of Energy AI Systems
Adam is the General Manager of AutoGrid’s Energy AI Systems subsidiary where he manages AutoGrid’s wholesale power market integration and operations teams, including the 24/7 desk and SCADA engineering teams. He has nearly 20 years of hands-on energy resource integration experience in 10 countries and started his career designing and installing SCADA solutions for combined heat and power and automated industrial Demand Response sites. He has founded or co-founded several technology startups in the energy controls automation and integration space serving the distributed generation and merchant demand response markets in the US and overseas. Mr. Todorski holds a BS in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is a certified supply resource operator in multiple markets.
Board Of Directors
Amit Narayan
Amit is the Founder and former CEO of AutoGrid. He led the company from its inception in 2012 to successful acquisition by Schneider Electric in 2022. Under Amit’s leadership, AutoGrid became a recognized leader in Climate-AI solutions for decarbonization of the world’s electricity grids and developed its breakthrough technology platform AutoGrid Flex™, which utilizes the latest advances in AI, cloud, and distributed computing to perform large-scale, real-time optimization of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). AutoGrid Flex has been ranked #1 for VPP and DERMS by independent industry analysts for several years. Prior to founding AutoGrid, Amit was the Director of Smart Grid Research in Modeling & Simulation at Stanford University, where he led an interdisciplinary project related to modeling, optimization, and control of the electricity grid and associated electricity markets.
Earlier in his career, Amit was in the semiconductor electronic design automation industry, where he served as the Vice President of Products at the publicly traded company Magma Design Automation (Nasdaq: LAVA) and the Founder and CEO of Berkeley Design Automation, a venture-backed company in analog and radio-frequency semiconductor design software that was acquired by Mentor Graphics (Nasdaq: MENT). It was estimated that over one third of advanced consumer electronics chips were designed using the software developed by Amit’s team. Additionally, the software was adopted by over 100 semiconductor companies (including 20 out of the top 25).
Amit and his work have been recognized with several awards, including Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer, and the EDN’s Innovation for the Year. Amit earned a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur.
Annette Clayton
As Chief Executive Officer for Schneider Electric North America, Annette is responsible for the region’s business strategy, developing and fostering new growth business models specifically in the areas of sustainability, decarbonization, and renewables. In her role, she is partnering with innovators, industry, and governments to further the mission toward an all-electric world. She is also a member of the company’s Executive Committee, chairs the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, and is a board of director for the National Association of Manufacturers.
Nadège Petit
Nadège is the Chief Innovation Officer of Schneider Electric and a member of its Global Executive Committee. She is responsible for the external innovation activities of Schneider Electric including the corporate venture arm SE Ventures, incubations, partnerships, joint ventures, and the eMobility business. Nadège started with Schneider Electric in 2004 and has had multiple operational and management roles in Europe, Russia, and Hong Kong including Corporate Strategy Senior Vice President, and was most recently EVP for the global Power Products division.
Luis D’Acosta
As the Executive Vice President of Schneider Electric’s Digital Energy Division, Luis oversees the accelerating advancement of electrical grid infrastructure, critical facilities, and the buildings where we spend most of our lives. He also leads the digitalization of power distribution through EcoStruxure, an IoT-enabled architecture and platform that embraces advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics, and cybersecurity. He is responsible for addressing the needs of global design firms, building operators, and customers within the healthcare, commercial real estate, and hospitality industries by overseeing a team of solution architects.