Aaron Smallwood

Experience

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  Allen, Gibbs & Houlik, L.C.

  Jan 1997 - Jan 2001

  Consultant

  Network design and installation; systems implementation and integration. Technology consulting for mid-sized organizations.

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  Aquila, Inc.

  Jan 2001 - Jan 2005

  Manager, IT Strategy and Utility Alignment

  Reporting to the corporate CIO and working with utility operating company leadership, developed strategic and tactical technology implementation roadmaps for electric transmission, distribution, generation and natural gas distribution utilities and justify investment strategies in regulatory proceedings in several states.Managed a portfolio of small IT projects (<$1M) for operating companies, including the IT elements of moving, installing, and turning up a 110MW gas turbine peaking plant. Show less

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  ERCOT

  Jan 2005 - Jan 2015

  Led the integrated IT systems and operational launch and stabilization of the ERCOT Texas Nodal market. Ran IT operations in two 24x7 mission critical data centers with 99.999% availability requirements hosting ERCOT’s energy and market management systems (EMS and MMS), web presence, retail customer choice systems, application middleware/information bus, massive market data warehouse, market settlement operations, and supporting software infrastructure including Oracle Real Application Clusters, AIX, Linux and WindowsStrategic planning and management for all IT Operations functions including Release Management, change and configuration management, multi-data center IT application operations with 99.999% multi-site failover capabilities (the plane that never lands), Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, end user computing, internal/external facing service desk, and Identity and Access Management Managed IT compliance with NERC CIP, SSAE 16, and internal operating controls Show less Held multiple concurrent roles. Directed relationship management and stakeholder alignment activities. Management of operating budgets to $25M, capital budgets to $642M, and a major data center expansion and equipment budget of $64M. Responsible for leading the IT Divisional Project Office, Enterprise Architecture, IT Business Services and IT Finance teams. Developed and maintained technology roadmaps for key platforms to communicate future investment needs. Led the development and socialization of the IT strategic plan aligned with ERCOT and ERCOT market needs. Presented reports to the ERCOT Board of Directors and successfully developed and championed a Texas Nodal Market Implementation budget approval of $642M. Program Controller for the Texas Nodal Market Implementation program. Assessed, reorganized and relaunched the budget and financial management of the program. Show less Negotiated and implemented the first Information Technology service level agreement between ERCOT and competitive retail electric providers in the ERCOT market. Implemented Activity Based Costing and transparency and visibility of IT investments and expenses through implementing a ‘Business within a Business’ model of IT services. Achieved annual savings of $1.5M through consolidating and renegotiating software and hardware license and support agreements. Built positive, collaborative and trusting relationships between ERCOT Information Technology and ERCOT market participants by listening to them and implementing technology solutions that met their needs. Centralized IT audit activities and established the framework for NERC CIP and SSAE 16 information technology compliance within ERCOT. Show less

  • Director, IT Operations

    Jan 2010 - Jan 2015

  • Director, IT Strategy and Finance

    Feb 2007 - Jan 2010

  • Manager, IT Business Planning and Relationships

    Jan 2005 - Feb 2007
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  SGIP

  Dec 2015 - Mar 2017

  Led electric power sector interoperability focused technical initiatives and pre-standardization activities working with a wide representation of industry stakeholders to advance grid modernization. Focused on Grid Architecture, Cybersecurity, Customer Grid Edge, Testing and Certification. Led the finalization activities and tech transfer of Open Field Message Bus (OpenFMB). Led the stakeholder engagement, requirements development, use case development and industry outreach efforts for the Department of Energy's Orange Button Initiative. Show less

  • Vice President, Technology

    Feb 2016 - Mar 2017

  • Director of Technology Operations

    Dec 2015 - Feb 2016
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  Smart Electric Power Alliance

  Mar 2017 - now

  • Vice President Industry Solutions

    Apr 2017 - now

  • Vice President Technical Services

    Mar 2017 - Apr 2017