Staff

Paul Mitchell serves as president and CEO of Energy Systems Network (ESN). Prior to joining ESN, Paul served in the Office of Governor Mitch Daniels as policy director for Economic Development, Workforce, & Energy. In this capacity he oversaw legislation, policy, and program development for the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Indiana Department of Workforce Development, and Indiana Department of Labor, and acted as the Governor's liaison to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and Office of Utility Consumer Counselor. During his tenure with the Governor's Office, Mitchell also led the formation of and directed the Indiana Office of Federal Grants and Procurement. A native of West Lafayette, Indiana he holds a Masters of Public Affairs from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Bloomington, Ind. where he graduated as valedictorian.

Ben Wrightsman serves as executive vice president for Energy Systems Network (ESN). He is a strategic industry executive with over 19 years of experience in high-tech manufacturing, electronics, advance battery, and product development companies. Wrightsman has a passion for finding and utilizing untapped resources and capabilities within a company to open new opportunities for growth and revenue generation. Wrightsman's diverse background in executive leadership, engineering, business development, operations, and supply chain gives him abroad range of understating to tackle problems at all levels of the organization. Wrightsman has held key positions with one of industry’s leading electronics contract manufacturers, large format lithium battery manufacturer, along with owning and advising several small business ventures/startups. Wrightsman attended Purdue University at Indianapolis majoring in Electrical Engineering where he was co-captain of the Electric JAG (Indy) Car Team. He is APICS-CPIM accredited, received Lushin (Sandler) President’s Sales Training, and is a dedicated Lean Six-Sigma Black Belt. He also serves on the advisory board for Indiana IoT Lab and Eclipse Energy.

Matt Peak serves as managing director of Energy Systems Network (ESN) where he currently leads ESN’s mobility efforts to advance clean, safe, and affordable transportation technologies by collaborating with corporate and strategic partners, including Cummins, Duke Energy, and Purdue University, among others.  These efforts include: developing and deploying a turnkey service- (rather than asset-) oriented, multimodal, battery electric public transit operational model; establishing a framework for integrated, multi-modal mobility that enables first/last mile connections by using automated shuttles and other technologies; helping solve automated vehicle (AV) “edge cases” by employing tools that foster competition; building a venture finance model to invest in promising clean energy and advanced transportation companies in underserved areas. Peak also overseas the organization's Indy Autonomous Challenge, the first high-speed, head-to-head autonomous race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Previously, Peak provided strategic consulting services to C-level executives in the fields of connected and automated vehicles and infrastructure, shared mobility, smart cities, big data, advanced mobility, and clean energy technologies. While at CAVita and his own firm, Peak Strategy Partners LLC, Peak worked with the nation’s largest transportation research agency as its autonomous vehicle specialist, the world’s largest aggregator of solar fuels partners and knowledge to commercialize innovative technologies, and has also assisted numerous laboratories and startups commercialize their automotive and energy technologies. Peak launched and led Prize Capital’s and Tri-State G&T’s efforts to discover, invest in, and commercialize advanced energy technologies, and created what became the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a $20 million (USD) competition to spur technological innovation at power plants. He was also the first employee of a venture-funded battery technology startup focused on commercializing a new type of lithium battery for electric vehicles and other markets, and led public policy, renewable fuel, and other collaborative efforts to develop and deploy advanced transportation technologies at CALSTART and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Peak has a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), an Master of Science in environmental policy from The London School of Economics, and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Business.

Tim O'Hara serves as the managing director at Energy Systems Network (ESN) where he leads ESN's grid and infrastructure activities and efforts. He has over 25 years of experience in building/optimizing organizational processes and infrastructure to maximize business results within diverse, complex, matrix-style, energy operations. Most recently, he was the co-head of Global Power and Natural Gas at Bloomberg, where he was responsible for overall global strategy, vision, and product across power, natural gas, coal, emissions and weather, with a constant eye toward maintaining and driving various top line revenue streams and cost management. O'Hara holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Yale University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Florida. At ESN, he organizes and administers various projects, programs and services for ESN activities, specifically related to electrical grid and infrastructure.

Sierra Latham serves as director of the Moving Forward program at Energy Systems Network (ESN). Her ten years of professional experience have focused primarily on housing, community development, and energy efficiency policy research. Originally from the Washington, DC area, Latham served as the demographer for the City of Alexandria, Va., where she provided analytic support based on demographic and economic statistics to residents and other City departments. She has also worked as a researcher for the Urban Institute in the Metropolitan Housing and Community Development policy center, where she supported quantitative and qualitative research projects in communities throughout the United States. Latham holds an Masters of Public Policy from the University of Chicago, a Master of Arts in applied economics from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Mary Washington.

Drew Tharp serves a manager of communications for Energy Systems Network (ESN). Tharp has served a number of marketing and communications roles in his career. He previously served as an account executive at Indianapolis agencies Element Three and Caldwell VanRiper, where he managed marketing communications for national brands such as Allison Transmission, Republic Airways, and ConvergeOne, among others. Tharp’s responsibilities at ESN include overseeing internal and external communications, public relations, digital strategy, and social media management. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Indiana University-Bloomington.