Deepak Divan, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor, John E. Pippin Chair, GRA Eminent Scholar, and Director of the Center for Distributed Energy at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. He is a leading authority in power electronics, power systems, smart grids, and distributed control of power systems. Dr. Divan is the recipient of the 2024 IEEE Medal in Power Engineering “for contributions to advanced power conversion technologies for modern electric power grid.” He has worked extensively with utilities and industry, resulting in over 250 published refereed papers and over 85 issued and pending patents. He has started several companies, including Varentec, where he served as Founder, President, and CTO, leading the company as it developed its innovative distributed real-time grid control technologies. Dr. Divan’s ventures, including Soft Switching Technologies, Innovolt, Varentec, Smart Wires, GridBlock, and GigaGrid, have raised over $160M in venture funding. Dr. Divan is an elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a member of the National Academies Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, and a member/coauthor of the influential report by the NASEM Committee on the Future Grid. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, past President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, and the recipient of the IEEE William E Newell Field Medal. Dr. Divan is the International Steering Committee Chair of the IEEE Empower a Billion Lives global competition, which crowdsources scalable energy access solutions. He has also been invited to present on electric grids at high-profile events, including the White House Electrification Summit in 2022, COP-22 in Morocco in 2016, and the UN General Solutions Summit in New York in 2023. Dr. Divan received his B. Tech from IIT Kanpur, India, and his MS and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Calgary, Canada. Suresh Sharma is a business leader with diverse experience in technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation. He is recognized for his exceptional knowledge of commercializing innovations and has made significant contributions to the fields of venture capital, investments, and entrepreneurship. As a former GE executive-turned-entrepreneur, Mr. Sharma has a unique understanding of building profitable innovation ecosystems in private, public, and university domains worldwide. In addition to his extensive industry experience, Mr. Sharma has been actively involved in academic research and teaching. He served as a special faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he worked with cutting-edge R&D teams to commercialize innovations in various fields, including energy, digital technologies, sensors, analytics,AI, nanomaterials, power electronics, manufacturing, biotech, and biomedical areas. He is the author of the books Industrializing Innovation – The Next Revolution (2019) and The 3rd American Dream (2013) and has extensively published in leading technology journals, magazines, and newspapers. Mr. Sharma has created significant value in energy, power, and healthcare through his entrepreneurial journey. He has served on the boards of public and private companies and in VC/PE investment firms.
