One of John McDonald’s personal philosophies is to teach by example, not just by words. McDonald does just that. He teaches several courses including a SCADA/EMS course at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a SCADA/substation and feeder automation course at Iowa State University and the upcoming “Modern Grid: Substation/Distribution Automation” at GE Energy’s Learning Center.

McDonald has 34 years of experience and examples he can take into the classroom: 17 years with suppliers and 17 years in consulting. His supplier experience has given him the real-world experience of building, testing and implementing the technology. His consulting experience has given him the broader perspective of the technology across all suppliers.

He has taught many different courses in electric power engineering since the late 1970s and is currently general manager, marketing, for GE Energy T&D.

“No matter what position I have had or whom I worked for, teaching has always been very important to me,” McDonald said. “I find great satisfaction in taking a complex, technical subject, boiling it down to simple-to-understand steps, and explaining to someone new to the field so that they understand.”

In teaching by example, he encourages students to challenge themselves with new experiences, to get involved in outside organizations and to build an extensive network of industry colleagues. McDonald has done all of the above. To name a few of his industry activities, he is past president of the IEEE PES, co-vice chair of IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 36, a member of IEC Technical Committee 57 Working Groups 3 and 10, a member of CIGRE, and past chair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee.

On Oct. 2 and 3, McDonald will be presenting the “Modern Grid: Substation/Distribution Automation” class at GE Energy. The course will cover modern/intelligent grid technology, more specifically its substation and distribution automation applications, designs, technical issues and benefits. The intelligent grid, its real value, and a summary of its architectures will be introduced.

“The Smart Grid industry initiative consists of all the automation components I teach. These are important to the industry because of the tremendous value they bring to the electric utilities,” McDonald said. “There are untapped potential benefits available to electric utilities that can be ‘unleashed’ with the right technology, organization and business processes. The more the students know about Smart Grid and its components, the more important a position they will play in shaping the future of their organization.”

McDonald enjoys being in the high-growth environment and being involved in molding GE Energy T&D’s Smart Grid solution strategy and offering. As long as he is involved in electrical engineering, he is happy. He has known since “middle school” that he wanted to be an electrical engineer.

“For Christmas and my birthday I wanted electronic kits to make, and I made walkie talkies, a short wave radio, a code oscillator, fixed televisions (put in new picture tube), and later on a stereo AM/FM tuner and a separate stereo power amplifier,” McDonald said. “I took electricity classes in high school. One of the first merit badges I got in Boy Scouts was an electricity merit badge.”

He received his BSEE and MSEE (power engineering) degrees from Purdue University and an MBA (finance) degree from the University of California-Berkeley. He continues to learn by experience and by teaching.

“No matter how much you think you know about a subject, you will always learn something new about it every day,” McDonald said. “I also feel you need to teach a subject before you can say you are an expert in that area. I have taught the same subjects worldwide and learn from every audience.”

McDonald has accomplished many professional successes, but said he has truly been blessed with a wonderful family. He has been married for more than 28 years to Jo-Ann. His daughter, Sarah, is 27 and his son, Mark, is 23. Sarah went to the University of Alabama and teaches moderately autistic third to fifth grade kids in the county where she grew up, and has a passion for teaching special needs kids. Mark graduated from Georgia Tech in electrical engineering in December 2007 and started work with GE in the Energy Application & Systems Engineering (EA&SE) group in Schenectady, New York, in February 2008.

McDonald spent 12 years playing competitive tennis in the Atlanta area on two different teams, and he tries to play more golf—and ping pong—now. He also enjoys walking a dog that he and his wife rescued from the humane society three years ago. “She is the center of attention at home,” he said.