Leadership Team

Dr. Fred Lee’s research in unit commitment and economic dispatch (UC/ED) revolutionized generation asset optimization techniques and led to the founding of PCI in 1992. His methods allowed utility operators to incorporate fuel constraints, emissions limitations, and hydroelectric complications into the already-complex UC/ED problem.

Fred has a unique ability to leverage academic theory and create practical solutions for the power industry. In 1985, he joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma, where he taught and led research in the areas of optimal power system operation and planning. While still OU faculty, he published his original UC/ED research and founded PCI.

Fred continues to lead PCI today as it further refines and enhances its industry-leading software solutions and services.

Fred's education credentials include:

• Diploma, electrical engineering — Taipei Institute of Technology
• M.S., electrical engineering — Kansas State University
• Ph.D., electrical engineering — University of Kansas
• Professor emeritus, University of Oklahoma
• Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)

Javier Martin joined PCI in 2002 and has more than 14 years of experience in the energy industry. In his current role, he oversees all PCI operations.

Javier has been heavily involved in all aspects of design and development for PCI’s overall product platform, with particular emphasis on its market (front and back office) systems, which automate the entire bid-to-bill process.

Javier holds a master of science degree in natural gas engineering and management from the University of Oklahoma as well as a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering from the Politecnica de Valencia University in Valencia, Spain.

Sandy Ho has been with PCI since 2002 and has a strong background in executive financial operations. She has been instrumental in managing the growth of the PCI from a team of 30 employees in 2002 to an organization currently comprised of almost 300 people.

Sandy is responsible for PCI’s financial condition and oversees the capital structure of the company. Her CFO duties also include controllership, management of accounting, tax, SEC reporting, budgeting and management reporting functions as well as economic forecasting and modeling.

She has a master's of public administration from the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business and a bachelor's in business adminstration from National Taiwan University.

Buck Feng has been with PCI since 1998 and is one of the chief architects of the generation asset optimization model known as PCI GenTrader®. He is also responsible for the development of PCI’s Generation Supply Management System (GSMS), which is a platform that integrates asset optimization, trading and risk management, market communication, bid/offer management, P&L analysis, and settlement functions to extract maximum value from an energy company’s asset portfolio.

Prior to joining PCI, Buck held a number of key positions at PG&E Corporation’s energy trading and utility divisions. He earned his bachelor of science and master of science in electrical engineering (with power systems emphasis) at the University of Oklahoma.

Khai Le joined PCI in 2001 and is a preeminent energy industry authority on market-based operations, portfolio optimization, bidding strategies, transaction evaluation and shadow settlement. For more than 40 years, Khai has worked closely with major utilities throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia to implement software tools for mission-critical functions, including automated bid management, bid evaluation, shadow settlement, unit commitment, post analysis, transaction management, and risk evaluation.

Khai has co-authored over 125 technical papers and articles, 24 of which appeared in the IEEE publications “Transactions” and “CAP”. He received his bachelor of science degree from Harvey Mudd College and master of science degree from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania and was elected to IEEE Fellow in 1994 for significant contributions to computerized unit commitment.

Shailesh Mishra joined PCI in 2005 as an application consultant and has been responsible for the successful deployment of numerous PCI solutions with multiple clients across ERCOT, CAISO, SPP, and MEM, as well as non-ISO regions.

Over the last several years at PCI, Shailesh has taken up multiple roles in business analysis, project management, marketing, business development, and account management.

Shailesh holds a master of science degree in telecom management as well as an MBA in finance from Oklahoma State University. He also earned his bachelor of science degree in electronics and telecom engineering from Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar, MP, India. He is also a certificated Project Management Professional (PMP).

Bryan Kelly joined PCI in 2007 and now guides the evolution of the GenPortal® technology platform, the Asset Operations suite and all Transmission-related applications. His duties include overseeing development, enforcing PCI’s quality commitments, and planning the product roadmap.

Upon joining PCI in 2007, Bryan provided implementation design and delivery services to PCI’s CAISO MRTU clients. He also participated in the implementation of PCI tools for Outage
Management, Settlements, Data Warehousing, and Business Intelligence — primarily in the ERCOT, MISO, and PJM markets. Since 2011 he has assumed increasing product management responsibilities.

Before joining PCI, Bryan worked as a global product manager responsible for marketing and product development of generation management systems in deregulated markets throughout North America and EPAC. Bryan has over 15 years of experience supplying software to ISO/RTO entities and their market participants.

Bryan earned his bachelor of science in information systems and MBA from North Carolina State University.

Lei Tian came to PCI in 2006 and has been actively engaged in developing, deploying, and supporting PCI solutions with numerous market participants in CAISO, MISO, PJM, ERCOT, and SPP as well as in non-ISO controlled regions. She currently manages development for PCI solutions in the areas of Energy Accounting, Transmission Operation, and Transmission Settlement.

Lei has more than 10 years of experience in energy industry trading, planning, and financial operations. She holds a master of science in both industrial engineering and quantitative and computational finance from Georgia Institute of Technology. She also earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.

Antonio Lopez joined PCI in 2007 and started as a developer before becoming involved in the Professional Services Organization (PSO) as a technical lead and consultant. From 2011-2014, he served as a senior manager leading PCI’s Software Infrastructure Group, actively working on deployment projects. He later managed the Data Warehouse team and, in 2016, became the architect and technical lead for PCI’s Mexico Market team, which he currently oversees.

Antonio has over 15 years of experience designing and developing software, most of it in the energy industry.

Antonio holds bachelor and master of science degrees in computer science from Oklahoma State University.

Hicham Mansouri has been with PCI since 2008 and is currently responsible for all U.S. RTO Markets teams. Prior to his current role, Hicham managed PCI’s analytics team followed by the Western Interconnect (CAISO EIM and MRTU) product delivery group.

Hicham has over 13 years of experience designing, implementing, and delivering software solutions to the energy industry. With his accumulated knowledge in electrical engineering and RTO market operations, he has been able to lead the development of key components of the PCI Enterprise Platform that benefit a wide range of RTO market participants.

Hicham earned a Ph.D. in operations research from the University of Oklahoma and an MBA from Oklahoma City University. He also earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering from Mohammadia School of Engineering in Rabat, Morocco.

Ali Merchant came to PCI in 2008 and is now responsible for the operational alignment of numerous business units. His duties include facilitating coordination and collaboration across PCI to ensure efficient implementation of all phases of the solution delivery lifecycle.

Prior to his current role, Ali led the development and delivery of PCI’s ISO systems for SPP, as well as for Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse solutions for multiple ISO and non-ISO product lines. Additionally, he has been engaged in and led several implementations of PCI solutions with clients.

Ali has more than 20 years of experience in software solutions design, development, and delivery. He earned a bachelor of science with honors in management information systems as well as a master of science with distinction in information technology project management from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.

Justin Shearer joined PCI Energy Solutions in 2013. He initially analyzed and developed SPP Integrated Marketplace (SPPIM) shadow settlements, and was subsequently promoted to SPPIM product owner. He later assumed product ownership for PCI's CAISO EIM solution, and in this role, actively worked with all EIM clients to help them successfully participate in that market. In 2017,  Justin began working in PCI’s Solution Management division, which helps clients apply PCI systems to meet ever-evolving business requirements. Justin earned his bachelor’s degree in English literature and language from the University of Oklahoma. He then received his MBA with a focus in MIS and supply chain management from the Price School of Business, also at the University of Oklahoma.

John Bizon joined PCI in 2008 and currently leads the firm’s Project Engineering group. Prior to his current role, he was actively involved working with customers to successfully deploy numerous PCI solutions such as GenTrader® (including Post Analysis), GenManager® (front and back office), Data Warehouse and Deal Capture. He has also developed custom applications for clients on the PCI Platform and played a key role in the development of the firm’s business intelligence (BI) tools.

John held extensive responsibilities in the day-ahead trading and settlements groups at a MISO-based utility. There, he was an integral contributor in the transition from a bilateral market and built the initial settlements data repository and analysis framework to evaluate market bid/offer strategies. In aggregate, John has more than 15 years of experience working not only in MISO, but also in the CAISO, ERCOT, and SPP markets.

John has a bachelor of science degree in computer science and an MBA, both from the University of Michigan.

Mark Cardinale has been the leading software developer, designer, and implementer of PCI software since he joined the firm in 2001. He has deployed large enterprise systems for electric utility companies with both ISO/RTO market participants and non-participants and is an expert in applying technology to solve business problems in energy management, portfolio management, and power system operations.

Before joining PCI, Mark spent eight years at Florida Power Corporation’s Power Trading department, working primarily in energy accounting, portfolio management, and trading systems development.

Mark holds a bachelor of science degree in computer engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York.

Dan Crawford has been with PCI since 2002 and currently supports the firm’s information services, client services, release management, quality assurance and technical documentation groups. He directs major initiatives in the areas of hosted software, CRM, and improving the overall quality of PCI products and their delivery. Dan also has a strong background in professional services as well as new product introduction in the software and energy industries.

Dan earned his MBA from Oklahoma City University, a master’s degree in manufacturing systems engineering from Oklahoma State University, and a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering and management from Oklahoma State University.

Scott Quin joined PCI in 2007 and has more than 30 years of experience working with regulated and deregulated electricity markets in North America and abroad. He currently manages PCI’s Professional Services Organization (PSO), which is comprised of subject matter experts and project managers who monitor developments and deploy PCI software solutions in every North American energy market.

Before joining the PCI team, Scott held various positions with the Structure Group, Excelergy, ABB, Florida Power Corporation, and Florida Power and Light. He earned his bachelor's of science degree in electrical engineering from Mississippi State University, a master's of science degree in engineering management from the University of South Florida, and is also a licensed professional engineer in the state of Florida.

Gerardo Villena joined PCI in 2008 and has more than 13 years of experience in the energy industry. In his current role, he is responsible for all international markets. Previously, Gerardo worked with different electric utilities in the United States and Latin America, implementing enterprise-wide systems to automate their full market workflow — from the creation, submission, and evaluation of bids and offers to performing shadow settlements and analyzing market results.

Gerardo earned his MBA from the Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma. He also holds a bachelor's of science degree in information systems engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Perú.

Pooneh Sadeghi started with PCI in June of 2020 and leads the firm’s people division. She brings 20 years of human resources experience with special focus on talent management, organizational change, culture, and scaling. Pooneh has expertise across multiple industries from energy to health care, media, marketing, and advertising, as well as multiple countries, having worked in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Sorbonne, speaks three languages fluently, and has her Global Certification in Human Resources (GPHR).

As PCI's Sr. marketing director, David sets the strategy and vision for the company's marketing. David joined PCI in 2021 to build a cross-functional marketing team that delivers innovative branding, campaign development, and effective sales enablement.

David is an expert at accelerating growth for SaaS software companies by listening to customers and successfully integrating research, product marketing, and digital marketing into operations to inform product roadmap. Over his 15+ year career, he has developed data-driven marketing and led marketing teams for software companies, media companies, and agencies.