Staff

Paul currently serves as ESN's President & CEO. 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 Governor's liaison to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and Office of Utility Consumer Counselor. During his tenure with the Governor's Office, Paul 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, Indiana where he graduated as valedictorian.

Ben Wrightsman is a strategic industry executive with over 19 years of experience in high-tech manufacturing, electronics, advance battery, and product development companies. Ben has a passion for finding and utilizing untapped resources and capabilities within a company to open new opportunities for growth and revenue generation. Ben’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. Ben 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. Ben 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.

Melissa serves as Chief of Staff for Energy Systems Network. She joined ESN as Director of Communications and Development at the end of 2010. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in psychology and Spanish in May 2004. She obtained a master's degree in management from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2008 and is a member of the Lacy Leadership Association. Melissa's background is in the healthcare industry, having spent over six years at Community Health Network. She served in several roles including Healthcare Recruiter and HR Consultant. As a member of the senior leadership team, her focus at ESN is to oversee the communications, marketing, operations and human resources functions across the organization.

Matt Peak is a business and policy strategist, facilitator, and investor with extensive experience catalyzing emerging transportation and clean energy technologies. Matt currently leads ESN’s 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. Previously, Matt 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, Matt 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. Matt previously 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). Matt has a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), an M.S. in environmental policy from The London School of Economics, and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Business.

O’Hara 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. He 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.

Rachel serves as the Manager of Operations for Energy Systems Network, joining the team in early 2018. She was previously Office Manager for the Battery Innovation Center, a collaborative project launched by ESN in 2013. She graduated from Anderson University in May 2015 with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in Business Management and a minor in Non-Profit Leadership.

Paige Geer serves as a communications specialist for Energy Systems Network, joining the team in May 2018. She graduated from Indiana University-Bloomington in 2013 with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in Business through the IU Kelley School of Business. Prior to ESN, Paige held a position as an account manager and digital marketing strategist for Indy Displays. Her past roles have included working as an outreach coordinator and social media manager for Autolist.com and as a territory sales manager for Fortune 100 company, Altria Group Distribution Company. She also currently serves as the volunteer executive director for a local scholarship program. Paige’s responsibilities at ESN include digital strategy, communications and PR, social media management, event coordination, and support of corporate marketing initiatives.

Caroline Kryder-Reid is a VISTA for Energy Systems Network (ESN) where she assists with the initiative’s Moving Forward program. Caroline joined ESN in June 2018. She is a recent graduate of Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs with a Master’s in Public Affairs focused on environmental policy and natural resource management.

Aidan Geissler is a VISTA for Energy Systems Network (ESN) where he serves as a Moving Forward Project Coordinator. He joined ESN in mid-November of 2018. Aidan graduated in 2017 from Indiana University with degrees in Biology, Anthropology, and Neuroscience.