Bill Meffert
GROUP MANAGER – ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Bill Meffert manages the Energy and Sustainability Services group for Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. He oversees the development, transfer, and adoption of energy and environmental best practices and innovations in industry and commercial buildings. Meffert has over 25 years of experience in providing both technical and management solutions to address the energy needs of industrial, commercial, and institutional organizations.
At Georgia Tech, he and several faculty members developed the first U.S. energy management system standard, ANSI/MSE 2000. Meffert is also a U.S. technical expert for development of ISO 50001, the International Energy Management Standard. In addition, his group is currently assisting the U.S. Department of Energy with the development of the Superior Energy Performance program, which utilizes ISO 50001 as a basis for certifying industrial energy performance.
Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Meffert worked for Combustion Engineering and Thermax.
Meffert holds both a bachelor and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and a B.A. in natural science from Covenant College. He is also a Certified Professional Engineer.
Mike Brown
PROJECT ENGINEER
Mike Brown is a project engineer with Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute.
Brown has over 30 years of experience conducting energy assessments and analyses of alternative energy. He has also provided assistance and conducted training for sites implementing an energy management system. He focuses on energy efficiency, alternative energy, measurement, analysis, and verification of energy savings and energy management.
Brown holds both a bachelor of mechanical engineering and a master of science in management from Georgia Tech. He also earned a master of science in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University. He is a registered professional engineer (PE) and a certified energy manager (CEM).
Jessica Brown
PROJECT MANAGER
Jessica Brown is a project manager for Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. She provides energy assessments, implementation, and coaching to companies pursuing ISO 14001.
Brown serves as a management system and energy coach for Texas companies piloting the Superior Energy Performance Program. As a part of this program, she coaches companies in the implementation of MSE 2000 and assists them in using statistical techniques to characterize their energy usage and improvement.
Brown earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech and holds an M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. She is an RABQSA-Certified Environmental Management System Auditor and a Six Sigma Black Belt.
Deann Desai
PROJECT MANAGER
Deann Desai is a project manager for Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. She provides implementation assistance and training to companies pursuing ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. Desai has experience in environmental compliance, policies, and regulatory affairs; quality systems; statistical process control; experimental design; and analytical and scientific techniques. She has assisted over 150 companies with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 implementations. Desai is an RABQSA-Certified Quality Management Systems Lead Auditor and an RABQSA-Certified Environmental Management Systems Lead Auditor.
Desai has M.S. degrees in Statistics and Polymers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Georgia. She is a member of the American Society for Quality, American Management Association, and the American Chemical Society.
Brenda Faile
PROJECT MANAGER
Brenda Faile is a project manager with Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. She has developed both web-based training and self-paced modules for DOE and developed the lead auditor course in accordance with requirements of ISO 50001, Energy Management Systems. Faile also helps plan and coordinate activities necessary to ensure companies become registered to ISO 9001 and ISO 9002.
Previously she worked for Carolina Power and Light reviewing, developing, revising, and auditing quality assurance programs to meet the standards for control of safety-related design.
Faile has a Bachelor of Science from North Carolina State University and is an RAB/ANAB certified QMS Lead Auditor.
Randy Green
PROJECT MANAGER
Randy Green is a project manager for Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute.
Prior to Georgia Tech, he had over 20 years of experience with industrial power systems. Green is a U.S. Department of Energy Certified System Specialist in Steam and Pumping systems. He has authored several software tools to support energy management systems.
Green received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech and a Master of Business Administration degree from Georgia State University.
Holly Grell-Lawe
PROJECT MANAGER
Holly Grell-Lawe is a project manager for Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. She develops and provides training, technical assistance, coaching, and system assessments to help organizations integrate environmental management and sustainability-based decision-making into their business processes. She has worked with numerous organizations to implement and attain third-party certification of environmental, quality, and integrated management systems based on the ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 standards.
Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Lawe worked for the Atlanta office of McKinsey & Company.
Lawe holds a masters degree in information management from Emory University and a B.S. in communications from Northwestern University. She is an RABQSA-Certified Lead Auditor for both environmental and quality management systems and is a member of the ANSI/MSE 2000 Energy Management System standards development team.
Ed Hardison
PROJECT MANAGER
Ed Hardison is a project manager for Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. He provides management and technical assistance to existing and developing industry in such diverse areas as plant layouts, quality, ventilation, energy, environmental, thermodynamics, and general mechanical engineering.
Hardison has assisted numerous companies seeking ISO registration in quality and environmental management systems and is currently working with companies implementing the new ISO 50001 energy management system and Superior Energy Performance. He also provides energy assessments and is certified by DOE as a Qualified PHAST (Process Heating Assessment Survey Tool) Specialist utilizing the PHAST software tool for detailed furnace analysis.
Hardison has both Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in engineering from the University of Central Florida.
Robert Hitch
PROJECT ENGINEER
Robert Hitch is a project engineer for Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. Based out of Gainesville, Hitch provides technical and managerial assistance to Georgia businesses to aid in productivity and cost reduction. He specializes in environmental, pollution prevention, compliance, energy, electrical, gas, and management systems, product design and development, purchasing and inventory control.
Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Hitch held numerous vice president positions and was a product development engineer.
Hitch holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from Columbus State University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Georgia and Indiana.
Matthew Soderlund
PROGRAM MANAGER
Matthew R. Soderlund is a program manager for Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. He provides assistance to manufacturers to help them manage energy consumption and cost. He conducts energy assessments and workshops that address both technical and management issues that affect energy. Soderlund is the assistant director of the Department of Energy sponsored GT Industrial Assessment Center (IAC), which provides energy assessment to medium-sized industrial facilities.
Previously, he was in the merchant generator industry where he worked on power plant project development.
Soderlund has a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
