Vice Chair of Advisory Board
GE Grid Solutions
Smart Grid Business Development Leader – North America
Global Smart Grid Strategy Group
John D. McDonald, P.E., is SmartGrid Business Development Leader – North America in the Global SmartGrid Strategy Group for GE Energy Connections Grid Solutions business. John has 42 years of experience in the electric utility industry. John joined GE on December 3, 2007 as General Manager, Marketing for GE Energy’s Transmission and Distribution business. In 2010 John accepted the new role of Director, Technical Strategy and Policy Development for GE Digital Energy. In January 2016 John assumed his present role with the integration of Alstom Grid and GE Digital Energy to form GE Grid Solutions.
He is a sought-after industry leader, technical expert, educator, and speaker. John was elected to the Board of Governors of the IEEE-SA (Standards Association) for 2010-2011, focusing on long term IEEE Smart Grid standards strategy. John was the Chair of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Governing Board for 2010-2015 (end of 1Q) coordinating Smart Grid standards development in the US and global harmonization of the standards.
John is Past President of the IEEE PES, Chair of the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) Board, member of the IEEE PES Region 3 Scholarship Committee, the VP for Technical Activities for the US National Committee (USNC) of CIGRE, and the Past Chair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee. He was on the IEEE Board of Directors as the IEEE Division VII Director in 2008-2009. John is a member of the Advisory Committee for the annual DistribuTECH Conference, on the Board of Directors of the GridWise Alliance and Chair of its Technical Committee, Vice Chair of the Texas A&M University Smart Grid Center Advisory Board, and member of the Purdue University Office of Corporate and Global Partnerships Strategic Advisory Council. John received the 2009 Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award from Purdue University.
John teaches a Smart Grid course at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Smart Grid course for GE, and substation automation, distribution SCADA and communications courses for various IEEE PES local chapters as an IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer. John has published 80 papers and articles in the areas of SCADA, SCADA/EMS, SCADA/DMS and communications, and is a registered Professional Engineer (Electrical) in California, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
John received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. (Power Engineering) degrees from Purdue University, and an M.B.A. (Finance) degree from the University of California-Berkeley. John is a member of Eta Kappa Nu (Electrical Engineering Honorary) and Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honorary), a Fellow of IEEE, and was awarded the IEEE Millennium Medal in 2000, the IEEE PES Excellence in Power Distribution Engineering Award in 2002, the IEEE PES Substations Committee Distinguished Service Award in 2003, the IEEE PES Meritorious Service Award in 2015, the 2015 CIGRE Distinguished Member Award and the 2015 CIGRE USNC Attwood Associate Award.
John was Editor of the Substations Chapter, and a co-author, for the book The Electric Power Engineering Handbook, co-sponsored by the IEEE PES and published by the CRC Press in 2000. John is Editor-in-Chief for the book Electric Power Substations Engineering, Third Edition, published by Taylor & Francis/CRC Press in 2012. John co-authored the book Power System SCADA and Smart Grids, published by Taylor & Francis/CRC Press in 2015.
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