Division Director VII Election

Beginning in August, the election for the position of IEEE Division VII Director-elect for 2017 will be held. Division VII consists of the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) only. There are two candidates, both nominated by Division VII, vying for this office: Bruno Meyer and Normal Nair. The successful candidate will serve as the IEEE Division VII director in 2018–2019. Candidate photos, bios, and statements follow.

Bruno MeyerBRUNO MEYER
(Nominated by IEEE Division VII)

Business Development Manager
RTE
Paris La Defense, France

Bruno Meyer is Business Development Manager at RTE. He was previously CEO of ARTERIA (2011-2016), the telecommunications subsidiary of RTE. There he launched new products, increased the revenue by 50% and doubled profits.

He joined EDF in 1985 where he led several departments. He was responsible for EDF’s R&D on Transmission & Distribution (USD$40M) after being department director with a 150 strong team, covering power systems dynamics, economics, design, and technology fields.

He published over 40 scientific papers including a book.

Throughout his career he favored innovation, and always being result driven. He has shown the capacity to detect and foster new activities, and demonstrated ability to build national and international-level partnerships with industry, consultants and academics.

Board member of the French Society of Electrical Engineers (SEE) and the French CIGRE National Committee. He was awarded CIGRE’s Technical Committee Award.

Ph.D. Edinburgh, M.Sc. Sao Paulo, B.Sc. Unicamp.

IEEE Accomplishments and Activities
(M’90-SM’97-F’08)

I have been actively involved in IEEE activities since 1990. Highlights of the activities are:

  • Candidate for Power & Energy Society (PES) President-Elect in 2015 (on request of PES Nominations & Appointments Committee). I see these nominations as a recognition by the Committee of my capability to preside over one of the largest IEEE societies. I believe that my background (utility, research, management and international experience) is a strong asset which explains why the Committee asked be to run twice for president-elect of PES.
  • Candidate for PES President-Elect in 2013 (on request of PES Nominations & Appointments Committee)
  • Member of the Governing Board of PES (2006 to 2008) as Representative for Region 8. I have structured the relationships between PES in Region 8 and encouraged the recognition of volunteers, and favored membership growth during that period.
  • IEEE Power Tech: Member of the International Steering Committee. I have helped to transform this regional conference into a recurrent IEEE one, which gathers industry and researchers within Europe, but also outside Europe.
  • Member of PES Long Term Planning.
  • Distinguished Lecturer for PES (since 2007). Thanks to this DL Program, I was invited to give conferences on smart grids in Australia and New Zealand. I was also invited in Tunisia to give talks to industry but also to Student Sections.
  • Member of the Board of IEEE French Section (2005-2010). There, I held several positions, including being in charge of the relationship between industry and academics.
  • Chapter Representative for PES Chapters for Western Europe (2001-2005). I have organized meetings between chapters in Western Europe, in order to share best practices and encourage membership growth and recognition of volunteers by their management.
  • PES French Chapter Chair (1998-2000)
  • Participation to numerous working groups, panel sessions and meetings of PES
  • Member of both PES and Communications Societies

Statement

I have served IEEE, and PES in particular, since 1990. I contributed to scientific papers and conferences, organized meetings and encouraged work done by volunteers worldwide but specifically in Region 8.

My professional background shows my ability to identify new activities, launch new projects (such as Smart Grids activities in Europe) and detect innovation. My proven track record demonstrates encouraged growth and attention to cost-benefit analysis.

If elected, I will bring my 30-year experience for new activities but keeping cost control, making sure our members and volunteers will gain more than expected from their membership fees.

I was also strongly involved with Telecommunications for years. I will encourage cross-fertilization with Telecommunications, but also with the Digital world in order to make the most of this revolution which is a gigantic source of progress for Division VII.

Finally, living/lived in Europe and in Latin America, and my professional experience working with large international scientific network that included teams from America, Asian and African, I will contribute to thrive the international footprint of this fantastic worldwide association.

Nirmal NairNIRMAL K.C.  NAIR
(Nominated by IEEE Division VII)

Faculty of Engineering
University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand
https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/n-nair

Nirmal Nair received his BE in Electrical Engineering from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, India in 1990. He completed his ME in High Voltage Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India in 1996. After a decade of professional engineering and lecturing, he relocated to United States where he was awarded PhD in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2004. Thereafter, he is based at University of Auckland, New Zealand (NZ).

During his professional career Nirmal has held various industry, research and academic positions. Currently, he is Associate Professor and Energy Theme Leader for Faculty of Engineering engaging with NZ stakeholders like generators, distributors/metering, retailers, system operator, regulators, consultancies, vendors and engineering associations. He volunteers in various roles for IEEE, PES and CIGRE. His expertise is protective relaying, electricity markets, voltage security and blackouts. He is passionate about life-long-learning, energy policy, innovation, leadership excellence and energy media outreach activities.

IEEE Accomplishments and Activities
(S’90-S’01-M’04-SM’10)

Nirmal got introduced to IEEE as a student member during1989-1990. In his formative career, he used IEEE standards for relaying and Transactions Journal for HV impulse testing. Attending the 2001 PES winter conference for the first time, he formally reconnected as Graduate Student member and ever since IEEE is his “professional home”. He started giving back to IEEE through his various Chapter, Section and Regional roles.

IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES)

  • PES Long Range Planning Committee 2014-present
  • PES Constitution and Bylaws Committee Chair 2011-present
  • Transactions on Sustainable Energy, Editor 2014-present
  • PES R10 South Chapter Representative 2015-present
  • PES N&A Member 2011-2013
  • PES Chapter Chair IEEE NZ North 2011-2014
  • Transactions on Power Delivery, Guest Editor 2015-2016
  • PES Life Long Learning Subcommittee (LLLSC): Secretary, Vice-Chair, Chair 2009-2014
  • Membership: Power System Operations, Power System Education, Power System Dynamic Performance, Power System Communication 2000-present

IEEE Section New Zealand North (NZN):

  • Section Vice-Chair 2007-2008
  • Section Chair 2009-2010
  • Section Immediate Past Chair 2011-2012
  • Section Student Activities Coordinator 2011-present
  • University of Auckland (UoA) Student Branch Counselor 2005-present

IEEE Region 10 (R10):

  • NZ Council Chair 2016-present
  • R10 Awards & Recognition Committee 2015
  • R10 Student/WIE/GOLD Congress, Coordinator 2011
  • Authored IEEE Centre for Leadership Excellence SB Counselor role (2011)

Conferences:

  • PES POWERCON (Auckland), General Chair, 2012
  • PELS SPEC (Auckland), Finance Chair, 2016
  • PES POWERCON (Wollongong), Publicity Chair, 2016
  • PES ISGT-ASIA (Auckland), General Co-Chair, 2017

IEEE Awards:

  • R10 Outstanding SB Counselor 2012
  • MGA Outstanding Branch Counselor Award 2013
  • R10 Outstanding Volunteer Award 2014
  • Transactions on SMC Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Co-author 2012

Nominating IEEE NZ North Section groups and members:

  • UoA SB for Darrel Chong Student Activity Award (2007); R10 Exemplary Certificate (2008); R10 Outstanding Certificate (2010); R10 Outstanding Award (2011)
  • President’s Exceptional Student Humanitarian winner “OneBeep” (2011)
  • MGA GOLD Award (2011, 2013), R10 Outstanding Volunteer Award (2013)

Statement

I represent one of 35,500+ PES and 110,000+ IEEE Region 10 (Asia, Pacific, and Oceania) members, the largest and fastest-growing Society and Region across 20+ countries. In 2016, IEEE governance is undergoing constitutional amendments responding to the needs of a complex and changing world ahead.  Issues like low-carbon energy, innovative workforce and humanitarian technology equity will require renewed impetus from societies like PES and Computer Society, both of which by no coincidence has amongst the largest Chapter membership. PES’s unique strength are its industry membership; standards generation; life-long-learning opportunities; financial sustainability; Technical Council (best kept secret); synergy with CIGRE and other national societies; an exemplar that I will promote to IEEE Governing Board as it embarks on anchoring its 2030 vision.  I will bring back to PES members IEEE’s 2030 resource streams of empowering discovery, development and delivery of cutting-edge products/services to strengthen PES’s own recent initiatives on Innovation (Smart Grid), Policy (QER, Cyber Security) and Energy equity (Smart Villages). I humbly seek your support to help deliver my above vision and opportunity to serve.