We deliver world-class solutions for electric utilities in developing markets
What we do
3.5 billion people across the world live without reliable electricity access. Our simple plug-and-play solution enables microgrids and distribution utilities operating in hard-to-reach places to improve their operations and help them achieve financial sustainability through a range of features like flexible billing, customer communications and remote monitoring and control.
25+
Countries Sold to
4
Continents Represented on the Executive team
100,000+
meters Sold
Our mission & values
We envision a world where all people have access to clean, reliable and affordable electricity. In order to get there, we focus on our core value of opportunity: the opportunity for under-served communities to be free and empowered. Our mission is to increase access to electricity in under-served communities - it is electricity and the services derived from it that unlock and create those opportunities. SparkMeter seeks to increase energy access and energy quality across the world. Our technology transforms utilities from enterprises with unreliable operations, negative cash flow, and credit unworthiness to enterprises that are sustainable, provide high quality of service and can take on outside investment to continue their operations and connect new users to their grids. In turn, utilities can provide reliable power to their customers, increase electricity access and invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency in their systems.
We operate on these values:
Be a pioneer
Listen to understand
Act together
Grow capability
Take responsibility
We believe technology can rapidly expand energy access in emerging markets and make the world a more equitable place
Our people
Dan Schnitzer, Ph.D
CEO, Co-founder
About Dan
Dan has ten years experience in smart grid & rural electrification, and received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University with a focus on electricity access. Before founding SparkMeter, he founded EarthSpark International, a microgrid developer in Haiti.
Arthur Jacquiau-Chamski
COO, Co-founder
About Arthur
Arthur has close to 15 years of energy sector experience with both utilities and microgrids. Following his Engineering degree (signal processing) from CentraleSupelec, he managed R&D projects at Engie, targeted on optimization of transportation network operations. In 2013, he joined the US non-profit EarthSpark International to design and manage the first 24/7 solar-based microgrid in Haiti, and the same year cofounded SparkMeter. He’s been living in the Washington, DC area since 2015.
Salman Ahmed
CFO
About Salman
Salman has 20+ years global power and utilities sector experience. Prior to joining SparkMeter he worked for The AES Corporation where he has held numerous leadership positions. He grew up in Pakistan and has worked and lived in Central Asia, Europe and USA. He is a CPA and Chartered Global Management Accountant. Salman likes to explore the world with his family & friends, read and listen to music.
Ben Momat
CCO
About Ben
Ben has 12+ years of global power and utilities sector experience. Prior to joining SparkMeter he held various sales and leadership positions in Africa, working for Wärtsilä and ABB. Originally from the DRC, Ben is a member of the Engineering Council of South Africa and is very passionate about developing the African energy sector. Ben likes traveling the world with his family, watching soccer and Formula 1 racing.
Jon Thacker, Ph.D
SVP of Engineering
About Jon
Jon has a B.A. in Physics from UC Berkeley, and a Master of Science and Ph.D. from Northwestern in Biomedical Engineering. He has co-authored 2 papers related to wireless metering. Originally from the Bay Area, he spent two years in Boston and currently resides in Chicago. Jon is a sailing racer and instructor.
Tristan Escalada
Principal Engineer, Co-founder
About Tristan
Tristan has two decades of professional software development experience. He started volunteering with EarthSpark in 2011, and co-founded SparkMeter the following year. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, and has a cabin in Vermont where he gets to play with all forms of engineering.
Nai Phasay
VP of Hardware Engineering, Co-founder
About Nai
Nai has twenty years experience in electronic design/development for industrial, commercial, and consumer markets. He was born in Vientiane, Laos and grew up in Northern Virginia. Nai likes hiking, partly for the exercise, partly to see and identify plants, animals, and fungus.
Ryan Karp
VP of Operations
About Ryan
For the past 20 years Ryan has been a team leader for various industrial technology OEMs, including, Wind Power, Aerospace, Industrial PC and Additive Manufacturing. Previously Ryan has been a part of multiple VC funded start ups and a Global $3B entity and has lead teams in Asia, the US and Europe. In addition, Ryan speaks Manadarin Chinese, is an international trade expert and SixSigma Blackbelt. Ryan likes to play guitar and is currently in an 80's cover band.
Wendy Houseman
Director of Supply Chain and Logistics
About Wendy
With 15+ years of experience Wendy has implemented and managed Product Operations and Global Supply Chain frameworks in over 30 countries. Prior to joining Sparkmeter she worked for Capital One, Nokia - Microsoft, Sourcefire - Cisco, and General Dynamics. Wendy loves to explore the world with her family, read, geek out and drink coffee.
Morayo Osiyemi
Director of Utility Business Development
About Morayo
With over 20 years’ experience working in the technology space across diverse industries including energy, health and banking, Morayo now calls the power sector home working with a broad section of power sector stakeholders in emerging economies to bring enabling technologies to utilities. She hopes to see an increase in the participation of women in the power sector. Morayo is a “techie” at heart, loves travelling and a good coffee.
Patrick Nkombua
Director of Microgrid Business Development
About Patrick
Patrick has 10+ years of global energy sector experience. Prior to joining SparkMeter he held various sales and business development roles in Africa, working for ABB, Aberdare and Honeywell. Patrick is an Electrical Engineer and is completing his Masters in Business Administration (MBA). He is passionate about the circular economy, emerging markets & technology and in developing the African energy sector. Patrick enjoys vintage cars and outdoor adventures especially off-road trails and likes to travel with his family.
Marcelle Huizenga
Director of Technical Product and Customer Experience
About Marcelle
Marcelle has a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia. Before joining SparkMeter, Marcelle worked on product management, development, and design at a startup. Marcelle was born and raised in DC and she is half Peruvian. She loves hot chocolate and live music.
Michael Isika
Market Manager
About Michael
Michael has Sales and Account Management experience in solar PV and cookstove manufacturers, PAYG software providers, telecoms and last mile distributors in Subsaharan Africa. lastly at Angaza. He is currently completing his thesis for an MBA in Strategic Management. When he is not working Michael loves travelling and spending time with his family.
Chinedum Ekechukwu
Market Manager
About Chinedum
Chinedum is an astute business professional with a sound technical background and a flare for improving processes. He has over 12 years experience spanning across the Power & Utilities and Manufacturing industries, providing B2B support in Account Management, Sales and Technical role capacities. He has an MSc in Electrical Engineering from Karlstad University, Sweden. Prior joining SparkMeter, he worked with ABB in the capacity of Account Manager supporting distributor Channel Partners in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon. In his spare time, Chinedum would either see a movie, play golf, and throw some shots on the court. He loves traveling and spending time with his family
Dan Bungey
Technical Compliance Manager
About Dan
Dan Bungey has extensive experience in the fields of smart metering, renewable energy and energy management. Prior to Joining SparkMeter, Dan worked in a number of energy projects in the C&I and Microgrid spaces across Africa. He holds a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He is also a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) with the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), Atlanta, USA. AEE named him the Young Energy Professional Sub-Saharan Africa in 2018. In his free time, Dan loves to travel, read and run.
Simon Wandanda
Product Expert
About Simon
Simon holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from The Technical University of Kenya. Prior to joining SparkMeter, Simon worked for micro-grid developers in different capacities where he managed the construction of mini-grids in Eastern Africa. Simon is a big fan of Tiqui-taca football and loves watching FC Barcelona.
Caroline Wahu
Product Expert
About Caroline
Caroline has a Bachelor's degree in Business and Information Technology and has five years of Customer Support experience. She was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, and she loves traveling and adventure!
Moses Njoroge
Product Expert
About Moses
Moses has experience in technical support and client relationship both in IT and in the microgrid sector. Before Joining SparkMeter, Moses worked for PowerGen Renewable Energy leading various projects. Moses holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology from Multimedia University of Kenya. During his free time, Moses likes having coffee with friends.
Sam Padreddii
Marketing Manager
About Sam
Sam has been working in the clean energy and sustainability space for over 3 years. She's done marketing and communications for solar developers, nonprofits, activist groups, and political campaigns. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Strategic Communications from the University of Miami. In her free time, she likes running outside, doing yoga and hanging out with her pals in the sun.
Dan Rice
Senior Infrastructure Engineer
About Dan
Dan has extensive experience delivering SaaS solutions to electric utilities and building the cloud platforms to do so at scale. While he calls DC home, he is a Pennsylvanian at heart. Dan loves fixing things, spending time outdoors, and eating good fruit.
Mike Waud
Senior Software Engineer
About Mike
Mike started his career designing power and safety systems for weather balloons but then got distracted by a few mobile, health, and IoT startups. He's happy to return to his roots building reliable devices that can handle challenging conditions. Mike's interests include American economic history, Montreal-style bagels, and his bocce team's W/L record.
Aru Sahni
Senior Software Engineer
About Aru
Aru acquired a love for computing from an early age when he taught himself to modify the BASIC games on his first computer. Over the past decade, he has developed solutions to make government agile, more efficient, and open, and is excited to tackle the challenge of energy access. When he's not using Vim, Aru enjoys spending time with his dog, Motley, attending concerts, and sampling craft beer.
Hisham El-Sheshtawy
Software Engineer
About Hisham
Hisham is originally from Cairo Egypt. He has more than 5 years of experience working on large scale systems in various industries; From cloud infrastructure, to fintech, social data analytics, and healthcare. He believes in “Engineering for good” which makes him excited to be part of SparkMeter, tackling the challenge of energy access. For fun, he learns new ways to make and enjoy coffee with his wife.
Parangat Shukla
Product Support Engineer
About Parangat
Parangat joined SparkMeter after receiving his Master of Science degree from Carnegie Mellon University, where he focused on decision-making in the energy sector. Born and raised in India, he worked at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) before moving to the US in 2016. He spends most of his free time hiking, traveling, and teaching people how to pronounce his name.
Martin Wagner
Solutions Engineer
About Martin
Martin has 8 years of experience in power and renewable energy systems. He joined us at SparkMeter after completing his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University, where he developed a power system simulator based on circuit simulation algorithms. Before that, he worked on improving thermal imaging of PV modules with the Austrian Institute of Technology. Martin is a snowboarding instructor and passionate windsurfer.
John Bozzella
Manufacturing Engineer
About John
John joined SparkMeter full time after completing his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Olin College, however he has been working with us in internship and consulting capacities since 2016. This is John’s second stint in DC, after moving around a few times while growing up. John is a big baseball fan, but he’s not picky about sports.
Dan Berliner
Firmware Engineer
About Dan
Dan started programming at age 11 and has loved writing software ever since. He has a B.S. in Computer Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has experience from Intel, Qualcomm and Lockheed Martin. When he's not writing code, Dan is usually outdoors or checking out the newest brewery in Chicago.
Joan Ngoizi
Office Administrator
About Joan
Joan has 2 years experience in client relationship management, admin and Underwriting. Previously, I worked for Optimus Insurance Agency Mombasa. Also, worked for community radio and TV stations in Kenya. Holds a Bachelor's degree in Electronic media (first class honours) from Mount Kenya University. During my free time, I love planning events, hiking and instructing Aerobic classes.