Our Advisory Board

Dr. Omar Isaac Asensio is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. He directs the Data Science and Policy Lab at Georgia Tech, where he collaborates with the private sector and city governments on data innovations in policy research. Dr. Asensio’s research focuses on big data and policy analysis, with applications to energy systems and consumer behavior, smart cities, vehicle electrification and machine learning in transportation and mobility. Dr. Asensio’s research has been published in leading journals such as Nature Energy, Nature Sustainability and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) 40-for-40 Fellowship, and the ONE-NBS Research Impact on Practice Award by the Academy of Management, Organizations and the Natural Environment Division. Dr. Asensio is a faculty affiliate at the Institute for Data Engineering & Science (IDEaS), the Machine Learning Center (ML@GT) and the Strategic Energy Institute. He holds a doctorate in environmental science and engineering from UCLA, with dual training in engineering and economics. For more information, visit datasciencepolicy.gatech.edu

Jeff Hart has served as President of Mike Albert Fleet Solutions since January 2017, working to align the organization around the full suite of products and services, with the goal of making fleet management easy for clients.

Jeff Hart brings a wealth of technology, utility, telecom, automotive, software development and business process experience. A fifteen-year veteran of Reynolds and Reynolds, Hart served there in a variety of management roles, including leading numerous e-commerce and product development initiatives. Jeff then spent eight years, as President and as CEO, of Cadence Network, Inc., a web-based utility, telecom and lease expense management firm. While at Cadence Network, Inc. he led the company into profitability, sustained 30% year-over-year growth, and supported an acquisition by Advantage IQ. At Advantage IQ, Jeff served as COO where he led both the successful integration of Cadence into the organization, and the redesign of its sales and operational areas. In 2009, Jeff Hart was hired as the President of OneCommand, named CEO in 2011, and led the company to a market leadership position, delivering automated marketing and loyalty solutions to the automotive industry.

After retiring from Procter & Gamble, Gary pursued his interest in accelerating Cincinnati’s transition to sustainable transportation as President of the Drive Electric Cincinnati chapter of Drive Electric Ohio and co-founder of Tesla Owners of Southwest Ohio. These groups support electric vehicle (EV) owners, break down barriers to EV adoption and reach out to the EV-curious with “drive electric” experiences and electric vehicle education. We believe adopting sustainable energy solutions and electric transport is an important step toward breathing cleaner air and taking better care of the planet and ourselves.

During Gary’s 30-year career in Information Technology at P&G, he worked with diverse technologies. He led groups creating new “smart” devices such as floor cleaning robots and leveraging biotech “gene chips” to use bioinformatics to find breakthrough new ingredients for formulated P&G products. He managed Product Design IT services used by thousands of R&D staff. He led a group developing image analysis systems, which gave him a huge appreciation for the challenges in machine learning and real-time image processing for self-driving cars.

A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Minnesota, Gary lives in Cincinnati with his wife Marcy Taylor, who is also active in EV education.

Deirdre has been committed to finding ways to mitigate global climate change since the early 1990s. In the late 1990s, she began focusing on bringing great products to large energy users in deregulated energy markets. Throughout her career, Deirdre has sought to provide superior service and transparent information to commercial and industrial customers so that they can manage energy cost and risk and cost-effectively invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

She is President and Co-Founder of The Megawatt Hour, a software-as-a-service business that saves businesses money and time by transforming utility data into energy intelligence. Prior to founding The Megawatt Hour, Deirdre helped build, run and operate two other retail energy businesses, including one of the leading C&I retail suppliers in the country.

She also serves on the Board of CleanChoice Energy, a company whose mission is to make clean energy available to everyone and advises StationA, an AI-powered clean energy marketplace.

Alex Tosolini is a seasoned executive who brings significant experience in business strategy, sales, marketing, supply chain, e-Commerce, and M&A. A 30-year veteran with a proven track record in the consumer goods and retail space, Alex most recently served as CEO of PDC Brands, one of the fastest growing wellness and personal care companies in the world.

Previously, he was an Officer at the Kroger Company where he served as Senior Vice President of New Business Development. In this role Alex focused on creating strategic opportunities and led Kroger’s partnerships with Ocado and Walgreens as well as working on company-owned businesses like Health and Wellness and brands like Simple Truth. He was on the Board of 84.51, Kroger Personal Finance and the Kroger Foundation.

Before Kroger, Alex worked at Procter and Gamble where he served in numerous global leadership roles over a 24-year career, including as Senior Vice President Global eBusiness, Senior Vice President Fabric Care North America, and CEO and Chairman of the Board P&G Central Europe North. He lived in 5 different countries and worked on multiple categories and brands. As head of eBusiness, he worked on partnerships with then ‘startups’ Google and Facebook, P&G’s direct to consumer businesses, and all major online retailers around the world.

Alex is an Adjunct Professor of Strategy at Miami University for the Executive MBA program and a frequent speaker at consumer and retail events. In Cincinnati, he serves on the Strategy Committee Board at UC Health and the Marketing Committee at the CROWN.

Alex earned a degree in Business Administration at Bocconi University in Milan and he is a member of the Aspen Institute’s Italian Talents Abroad Community.