Board of Directors

Philip Shapiro, Board Chair

Philip Shapiro joined the ISO New England Board in 2010 and was named chair in April 2014. Mr. Shapiro was Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Babson College from 2005-2014. Before that, he was a Managing Director of Standard and Poor’s Rating Group, where he established and supervised their offices in Boston, Chicago, and Dallas. In addition, he was the CFO of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Director of Investor Relations for the Bank of New England, and a former Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Council. He was also an Assistant to former Maine Governor James B. Longley. Mr. Shapiro is a graduate of Amherst College and holds master’s degrees in Education from the University of Maine and Business Administration from Boston College. He was a Selectman in Westwood, Massachusetts, from 2008-2014, and is Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority.

Kathleen Abernathy

Kathleen Abernathy joined the ISO New England Board in 2012. Ms. Abernathy has three decades of experience in the telecommunications industry, working in both the private and public sectors. In April 2017 Ms. Abernathy retired from her position as Executive Vice President, External Affairs at Frontier Communications and returned as Special Counsel to the law firm of Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP. Ms. Abernathy’s career at Frontier commenced when she joined the Board of Directors following her term as Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission from 2001 to 2005. In 2010 she joined Frontier as Chief Legal Officer and Executive Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and was part of the senior team that oversaw a number of strategic acquisitions. Ms. Abernathy is a graduate of Marquette University and holds a Juris Doctorate from The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law.

Roberta S. Brown

Roberta S. Brown’s electricity industry career spans three decades. Ms. Brown is the President of Sassafras River Associates, LLC, an energy consulting and investment firm. In 2005, Ms. Brown spearheaded the effort to form a new single regional reliability entity, ReliabilityFirst, from three previously separate reliability councils. Prior to this, Ms. Brown spent 24 years with Pepco Holdings, Inc. subsidiaries Delmarva Power, Pepco, and Conectiv, Inc., ultimately serving as Vice President, Transmission. She currently serves as Board Chair of the American Red Cross of the Delmarva Peninsula.

Brook Colangelo

Brook Colangelo is Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Waters Technologies Corporation. He previously served as Executive Vice President and first-ever Chief Technology Officer for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), where he led the transformation of K-12 learning at one of world’s leading education companies. He designed HMH’s technology enterprise and led the creation of the company’s new online teaching and learning platform. Before HMH, Mr. Colangelo was Chief Information Officer of the White House under President Barack Obama. In this senior role, he was responsible for modernizing, securing, and managing all aspects of the technology platforms and infrastructure supporting the first-ever digitally connected President of the United States and branches of the Executive Office of the President. Earlier in his career, he led technology for the American Red Cross’ Hurricane Recovery Program, as well as for other organizations. Mr. Colangelo is a founding member of the Boston Chief Information Officer Council and is a graduate of The George Washington University.

Roberto R. Denis

Roberto R. Denis has more than 40 years of experience in the electricity industry. He retired as Senior Vice President for NV Energy in 2013, where he was responsible for the company’s system dispatch, transmission, distribution, engineering, and project management functions. While in this role, he developed and built the One-Nevada Transmission line, creating a single balancing authority for the state. Previously, Mr. Denis was with Florida Power & Light (FPL), where he served in various positions for more than 30 years. His last role was Vice President of Market & Regulatory Affairs for FPL Energy, where he directed regulatory strategy for the construction and operation of independent power projects throughout the US. He also analyzed emerging market structures and participated in stakeholder forums within various ISO/RTO footprints. He holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Raymond Hill

Raymond Hill joined the ISO New England Board in 2010. Mr. Hill has taught Economics and Finance at the Emory University Goizueta Business School since 2003. Before joining the Emory faculty, Mr. Hill was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Mirant Corporation and its predecessor company, Southern Energy International. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers, where he was responsible for the investment banking practice in Asia outside of Japan. Mr. Hill holds a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University.

Barney Rush

Barney Rush is on the Board of Directors of Azure Power Global, a NYSE-listed company developing solar plants in India, and serves as Senior Representative for Fieldstone, a regional investment bank focused on raising capital for power plants and infrastructure in Africa and other emerging markets. Previously, Mr. Rush was an Operating Partner at Denham Capital Management from 2010 through 2013. Before that, he was CEO of H2Gen Innovations, Inc., and Group Chief Executive Officer, Europe, for Mirant Corporation. While at Mirant, Mr. Rush was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bewag, the electric utility serving Berlin, Germany, and was Chairman of the Board of WPD, the regional distribution company serving southwest England and southern Wales. Mr. Rush also served as Executive Vice President of Oxbow Corporation, and was Senior Vice President of Lehman Brothers. Earlier in his career, he served as a special assistant in the US Department of State and was a research assistant at the World Bank. He holds a master’s degree from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College. Mr. Rush is currently the mayor of the Town of Chevy Chase, MD.

Gordon van Welie

Gordon van Welie is President and Chief Executive Officer of ISO New England Inc., having previously served as the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. He joined ISO New England from Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution LLC, where he served as Vice President and General Manager of the Power Systems Control Division and was responsible for managing information technology solutions for electric companies. Before coming to Siemens, Mr. van Welie held several positions at ESKOM, South Africa’s electric utility based in Johannesburg. Mr. van Welie is a member of a number of industry groups, including the National Academy of Engineering, the Executive Committee of the U. S. National Committee of CIGRE, the Member Representatives Committee of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the ISO/RTO Council, and the IEEE Power & Engineering Society. He is a recipient of 2017 Utility Variable-Generation Integration (UVIG) Achievement Award and, in 2016, was awarded the IEEE Power & Energy Society Leadership in Power Award.

Vickie VanZandt

Vickie VanZandt runs VanZandt Electric Transmission Consulting, Inc., based in Washington State, and is also the Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s Program Manager for the Western Interconnection Synchrophasor Program. In 2009, she retired from Bonneville Power Administration after 35 years of service. As Bonneville’s Senior Vice President of Transmission Services, Ms. VanZandt was responsible for planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, marketing, and management of the 15,000-circuit-mile, high-voltage transmission system covering four states in the Pacific Northwest. She served as Bonneville Power’s Chief Engineer for a decade, holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Washington, and is a senior member of the IEEE.

Christopher Wilson

Christopher Wilson has over three decades of experience in the financial sector. He began his career at Fidelity Investments, working in a number of operational roles. He then spent 10 years at Scudder, Stevens & Clark, developing its marketing and sales organizations, as well as its support structure. He was Principal there from 1992 to 1997. After Scudder, he joined CDC IXIS Asset Management Services, Inc., becoming President and CEO in 1998. From there, Mr. Wilson became President and CEO of Columbia Funds at the Bank of America, where he was responsible for the entire operational nondistribution segment of the mutual fund business. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from Lake Forest College and is currently a private investor working with start-up firms. He also serves on the Board of Invesco Funds.