Bobbi Harris is a recognized leader and expert in the smart water and smart city industries, with over 20 years of experience driving innovation and transformation within the utility sector. As the founder of Smart Water Smart City, Bobbi has built a reputation for her deep knowledge of market analysis, strategic intelligence, and cutting-edge marketing strategies, positioning her as a visionary in the field.

Throughout her distinguished career, Bobbi has specialized in addressing the evolving challenges of the utility industry, with a particular focus on smart water solutions, energy management, and telecom infrastructure. She has played a pivotal role in identifying key business and technology drivers that shape the future of water and energy utilities. Her work has spanned across the development of innovative technologies and strategic initiatives aimed at optimizing resource management and enhancing operational efficiency within the utility sector.

In addition to her entrepreneurial endeavors, Bobbi led the creation and successful launch of the Utility Broadband Alliance (UBBA), a pioneering effort aimed at improving broadband connectivity within the utility industry. Currently, she serves as UBBA’s Executive Director, where she continues to shape the future of broadband and utility integration.

Bobbi’s leadership and contributions to the smart energy sector have been recognized globally, with her being named one of the 2019 Global Smart Energy Elites by ESI. Her passion for the utility industry and its critical role in shaping sustainable cities and communities remains a driving force in all of her work.

A summa cum laude graduate from Campbell University, Bobbi further honed her expertise with an MBA from the same institution, cementing her foundation for continued leadership and innovation within the smart water and smart city sectors.

Mat is a Wireless Consultant with Burns & McDonnell and provides consulting to help utilities investigate, define and implement their future wireless network strategy. His recent focus has been on wireless security and mission critical services (3GPP MCPTT). Mat has 30+ years experience representing a blend of wireless carrier experience and network strategy and planning experience at a large U.S. investor owned utility where he championed the spectrum investigation and planning effort that resulted in the initial private LTE deployment. Mat is active in the utility industry and led the first three UBBA "Plugfest" events.

Victor Atkins is the Director of Security Strategy & Risk Advisory Services for Industrial Cybersecurity in 1898 & Co., a part of Burns & McDonnell, where he consults with executives across critical infrastructure sectors on strategies and initiatives to reduce risks to control system environments posed by advanced cyber threats.   

Atkins was previously the Associate Deputy Director for Operations within the Cyber Intelligence Directorate of the Department of Energy’s Office of Intelligence & Counterintelligence (DOE/IN), where he led and managed the Department’s cyber intelligence mission to deliver all-source intelligence products and services relating to foreign cyber threats to the DOE Enterprise and U.S. sector networks. In this role, Atkins led initiatives at the National Laboratories to develop unique capabilities that discover and characterize sophisticated foreign cyber threats with the potential to disrupt energy sector operations, which required collaboration with stakeholders across the Intelligence, National and Homeland Security, cybersecurity, and private energy sector communities.

Since joining the Department of Energy in 2009, Atkins also performed key roles in counterterrorism and counterproliferation. Assigned to the White House National Security Council in 2011, he served three years as the Director of Countering Nuclear Terrorism where he led multiple policy coordination efforts to respond to WMD-Terrorism threats to U.S. interests at home and overseas. He also served three years on detail at the Central Intelligence Agency’s Weapons and Counterproliferation Mission Center leading Community Engagement efforts. 

Atkins holds a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of California at San Diego, and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, graduating with distinction from the University of Virginia.

Mr. Spratt serves as the Manager of Cybersecurity Business Liaisons at Southern Company and leads the Cyber Security Program at Southern Communications. With a background in cybersecurity within the government and military contracting sectors, he has dedicated the past 13 years to safeguarding Southern Company’s telecommunications networks. Mr. Spratt is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional and holds a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity & Information Assurance from Western Governor’s University. Outside of work, he is a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and enjoys traveling with his wife and two children.

Richard Donaldson serves as vice president and chief information officer for Duke Energy. He is responsible for the company’s digital strategy, including technology initiatives, reliability, vulnerability and life cycle management, as well as oversight of infrastructure operations and telecom. His current focus is on leveraging digital capabilities and artificial intelligence to transform the company’s internal operations, modernize customer experiences and help the company achieve its energy transition goals.

Donaldson joined Duke Energy in 2001 as an engineer in enterprise applications. He took on progressively expanding roles, including leading application infrastructure/architecture for the corporate applications domain until 2010, when he joined the telecom organization. While in telecom, Donaldson had responsibility for the company’s wireless communications systems, including land and plant mobile radio systems used by Duke Energy's operations fleet. In 2013, Donaldson joined the Program Management Office (PMO), where he was named division manager in 2014. After leading the PMO through the Progress Energy merger integration projects, Donaldson assumed the role of leading the digital transformation function.

Before joining Duke Energy in 2001, Donaldson spent four years practicing civil and environmental engineering at a consulting firm in Charlotte. He earned a Master of Science in environmental engineering and a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of North Carolina.

Donaldson currently serves as vice chairman of the board of directors for Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont. He is also an active former board chair of Apparo, a nonprofit in Charlotte that assists local nonprofits with leveraging technology to improve business processes to expand their social change in the community.

He and his wife, Aimee, along with their three daughters, live in Huntersville, N.C. In his spare time, Donaldson enjoys coaching and cheering on his daughters’ sports teams, hiking and skiing in the Banner Elk/Sugar Mountain area, and visiting Holden Beach.