CAISO California Independent System Operator Cor : California ISO Announces VPs for Market Policy and Operations

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For immediate release | May 10, 2021	Media Email ⏐ [e-mail]
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California ISO announces VPs for market policy and operations

Appointments complete organizational restructuring begun late last year

FOLSOM, Calif. - After an extensive and highly competitive search, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) today announced the appointments of two vice presidents, filling out the senior management team and completing an organizational restructuring begun in October 2020.

The ISO's new vice president of market policy and performance is Anna McKenna, who has been serving in that position on an interim basis since November 2020. McKenna stepped into the role to take the place of Mark Rothleder when he was promoted to serve as the ISO's Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

Dede Subakti, previously the ISO's director of operations for engineering services, has been named vice president of operations, filling the position left vacant since the retirement late last year of Eric Schmitt.

McKenna, an attorney and economist, brings extensive knowledge and experience in the ISO's market design, along with a strong commitment to stakeholder engagement and creative problem solving. While in her interim role, McKenna leveraged her economic, legal and policy expertise to lead the division in development of this year's summer readiness policy initiatives.

"Anna is deeply committed to the ISO's mission and is poised to take our market policy and performance team to new levels of excellence," said Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the ISO. "Anna's market expertise and interpersonal skills will help us prioritize and focus on our most important initiatives, bring solid economic and technical analysis to policy development, and further strengthen our internal culture and working relationships with our many stakeholders."

McKenna started working at the California ISO in 2005, serving as senior counsel, and most recently as assistant general counsel for regulatory issues. She has developed specialized expertise in market development, operational enhancements, regional market expansion, and tariff amendments. Prior to joining the ISO, she was an attorney for a Washington, D.C. law firm, with a practice focused on energy market development and transmission congestion management policies.

She holds a bachelor's degree in industrial relations and economics, and a master's degree in economics, both from McGill University in Montreal, Canada; and a law degree from American University in Washington, D.C.

Dede Subakti has been selected to serve as the ISO's new vice president of operations. Subakti joined the ISO in 2010, and in his most recent position, he was responsible for operational engineering and support functions.

Subakti first served as manager for operations planning in the operations engineering services department. In 2012, Subakti was promoted to his most recent position as director, operations engineering services. In this role, he oversaw various functions, including resource adequacy assessments, seasonal operating studies, outage coordination studies, day-ahead reliability analyses, and real-time operations engineering analyses, as well as the development of operating procedures and tools to support system operations. In addition, he supported the onboarding and day-to-day operations engineering function for the Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM), and RC West, the ISO's reliability coordinator function for balancing authorities and transmission operators in the Western Interconnection.

"Dede brings deep technical knowledge and transformational leadership capabilities to this very important role," Mainzer said. "From developing innovative control center tools to supporting the efficient integration of new clean energy resources, Dede will play a key role in the ISO's efforts to help California and the broader West meet their clean energy goals in a reliable and cost-effective fashion."

Prior to joining the ISO, Subakti worked with OATI, Inc., a global energy solutions and software company, managing project development for various transmission system applications for transmission service providers in both the Western and Eastern Interconnections. Before that, he served as Manager of Regional Operations Engineering at the Midwest ISO (now Midcontinent ISO) where he managed real-time operations engineers providing control room operations support. Subakti also has worked with representatives of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) to develop reliability standards and support operation of the Western Interconnection.

He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Minnesota and a certified NERC System Operator. Subakti received a master's degree in business administration from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State University, with an emphasis in power systems. He received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State University.

Both positions report to the ISO's Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Mark Rothleder, as part of a redesigned executive team that brought together market policy, planning, operations, technology, and program management under the COO, enabling better coordination and integration across these key functions.

The restructuring was at the direction of Mainzer, with the aim of allowing him to focus on corporate strategy, culture, and stakeholder engagement, at a critical juncture in the energy industry's transition to cleaner and more efficient systems.

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The California Independent System Operator (ISO) is a nonprofit public benefit corporation dedicated, with its partners, to continuous

improvement and secure operation of a reliable grid operated for the benefit of consumers. It provides comprehensive grid planning, open and

nondiscriminatory access to one of the largest networks of high-voltage transmission power lines in the world, and operates a $9 billion

competitive electricity market. Recognizing the importance of the global climate challenge, the ISO is at the forefront of integrating renewable

power and advanced technologies that will help provide a sustainable energy future efficiently and cleanly.

The Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) Governing Body is the governing authority designed by regional stakeholders with delegated

authority from the ISO Board of Governors to resolve rules specific to participation in the Western EIM.