Stewart Ramsay is a senior partner with Vanry and Associates. He has more than 30 years of experience in leadership, consulting and engineering roles engineering in the global utility industry and manufacturing industry. He is an experienced utility and technology executive hired for his “startup” and “turnaround” capabilities. He has extensive expertise in strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, and asset and performance management. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is well known for his perspectives on industry strategic directions and the nexus of technology, processes and people/culture. He has contributed to the development of regulatory strategy at both a national and state/provincial level in several countries, including providing expert witness testimony before federal and state utility commissions on technology, asset investment requirements, transmission access and territorial boundaries as well as growth and expansion policies.
As the CEO of Smart Wire Grid Inc., a manufacturer of advanced power flow control technology, Ramsay led a startup organization that partnered with ARPA-e and took technology from laboratory to pilot project in eight months and from laboratory to commercial sales in less than one year. Ramsay provided the vision and leadership for the groundbreaking technology and worked with industry and regulators to hasten its acceptance and adoption. In addition to CEO, Ramsay held a seat on the board of directors of Smart Wire Grid.
As the president of CTC Cable, the manufacturer of advanced high-temperature – low sag conductor, Ramsay provided the leadership necessary to turn around the technical, operational and financial performance of the company. He worked with industry to build the trust and acceptance of the advanced conductor technology and provided the strategy and leadership that rebuilt the global sales of the product. Ramsay also held a seat on the board of CTC Cable.
As an officer at both American Electric Power and Pacific Gas and Electric, Ramsay was heavily involved in innovative approaches to modernizing the grid. He has been a strong proponent of the creation of adaptive, self-healing grids using a range of smart grid technologies on both the utility and customer side of the meter.
Ramsay has served in several external board and advisory positions. He was elected to the Member Advisory Committee of Peak Reliability Coordinator organization that serves the Western Interconnection of North America (population of 78 million in the U.S., Canada and Baja, Mexico). Ramsay serves on the board of expert advisors to the California Emerging Technology Fund. He served on the board of the WECC and as the WECC representative to the NERC MRC. Ramsay was a member of the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research Program’s Policy Advisory Committee, where he was a proponent of rapid development and deployment of intelligent technologies. He served two three-year terms on the board of Coro Northern California, a non-profit focused on developing civic leaders in youth and young professionals. Mr. Ramsay served for four years as treasurer and chair of the finance committee of the board.
Ramsay earned a BSEE degree from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and is a professional engineer licensed in the state of Florida.