OVERVIEW
Island Utilities work extremely hard to perform at the highest level by providing reliable, affordable and sustainable solutions to their customers, frustratingly, there is frequent dissatisfaction from customers who tend to see island utilities as “the big bad wolf” who makes the big bucks and doesn’t care enough about customers. This is the common perception of the masses. The objective of this webinar is to facilitate the development of a utility communication strategy to improve customer awareness of utility successes and challenges to produce BOTH reliable and affordable power, as well as tradeoffs– costs and efforts involved. In these unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic times, it is even more important to keep customers informed and build a relationship of trust which will be important in the coming months post COVID19.
FACILITATORS
DAVID GUMBS, CPA
Mr. David Gumbs is a Senior Consultant with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Islands Energy Program and is the founder and CEO of Daavi Business Solutions (DBS). DBS provides energy solutions, financial advisory and project management services to clients in the US, Africa and the Caribbean.
Background
David is the former Chief Executive Officer of the Anguilla Electricity Company, Ltd. (ANGLEC) and has over 20 years of senior managerial experience. As the Chief Executive Officer of the Anguilla Electricity Company, Ltd (ANGLEC), he successfully implemented renewable energy technologies to achieve one of the region’s highest penetration levels. David developed and implemented ANGLEC’s aggressive public relations and branding strategy, and incorporated several industry leading solutions such as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), grid automation, work order automation and vehicle fleet management into ANGLEC’s operations. David received international recognition for his leadership to rebuild Anguilla’s electricity grid to 100% in 100 days after being decimated by Hurricane Irma.
Education
David is a graduate of the University of Hartford with a Master of Science in Accounting, and a graduate of Connecticut College with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Africana Studies. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
DAGMARA AVANINDRA
Ms. Dagmara Avanindra is the founder and CEO of DAVA Energy Solutions (DAVA). DAVA provides project management and other energy advisory services in the Caribbean and North America. She is an active Board Member of Solar Head of State and 360 Degrees of Innovation non-profit organizations, bringing best sustainability practices to the Caribbean region. As a hardware engineer from Silicon Valley, Dagmara Avanindra highly appreciates the power of technology. She decided to apply her tech expertise to making energy more accessible, affordable and sustainable in the Caribbean region – as islands have a unique opportunity to move towards 100% renewable energy and mitigate their dependence on fuel imports. Dagmara has worked towards this goal both from the private and public sectors viewpoints: first with the former Aruba Prime Minister Mike Eman, who set ambitious renewable goals for Aruba to be carbon neutral, and now she continues her work through DAVA Energy Solutions. Having all stakeholders on board and clear communication channels are paramount. Therefore, Dagmara focuses a wholistic approach of delivering scalable clean energy solutions by working with regulators, governments, private sector and knowledge centers, which results in executed utility scale energy projects.
Education
Dagmara is a Stanford University graduate with a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science Degrees in Electrical Engineering and Hardware Design. She is an Intel Scholar.
For your convenience add this event to your preferred calendar:
