2016 Hall of Fame Inductees Announced

The Association of Energy Engineers announced the induction of two individuals into the AEE Energy Managers Hall of Fame on Friday, September 23, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC during the Keynote Luncheon of the 39th World Energy Engineering Congress.

Since 1990, the AEE Energy Managers Hall of Fame has honored outstanding leaders in the energy industry who over their lifetimes have made significant contributions in the field of energy management. The Energy Managers Hall of Fame is the highest honor bestowed by the Association of Energy Engineers. The 2016 inductees are Laurie Wiegand-Jackson and LJ Grobler.

Laurie Wiegand-Jackson is a successful executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the energy industry.  Ms. Wiegand-Jackson brings a broad range of national experience in wholesale and retail energy markets, demand response, utility rates and regulation, demand side management and renewable energy and storage project development.  She regularly speaks at industry and public sector programs on the importance of sound energy policy, energy management strategies and the benefits of energy programs. Ms. Wiegand-Jackson served as the President of the International Association of Energy Engineers in 2007. She received the prestigious Distinguished Service Award from AEE in 2009 and she received the Executive Women of New Jersey award as a leading Policy Maker.  She is a founder of the Council for Women in Energy and Environmental Leadership (CWEEL) and serves as Chairman of the CWEEL Board to support the success of women in the energy industry. In 2003, Ms. Wiegand-Jackson founded Utility Advantage a boutique energy consulting business to support the government sector to implement energy efficiency and procurement strategies.  Ms. Wiegand-Jackson formed North America Power Partners (NAPP), a leading demand response company, in 2006 and completed a successful sale of that business to IPKeys Technologies in 2014.  She currently serves as the Senior Vice President of IPKeys Power Partners combining the Demand Response aggregation and Auto DR solutions to provide turnkey programs that generate significant client revenues and savings to commercial, industrial and national account customers and utilities.  Previously, Ms. Wiegand-Jackson held senior management positions with Praxair Energy Solutions; eNERGYSolve; PG&E Energy Services, an affiliate of the California utility Pacific Gas & Electric; Energy Source, Inc., a Houston based natural gas wholesale supply company, and Elizabethtown Gas Company, a NJ based natural gas distribution utility company. Ms. Wiegand-Jackson is a certified Energy Procurement Professional (CEP) and is a graduate of West Virginia University with a BS degree in Chemical Engineering.  She also is a member of the Gospel Ensemble, a singing ministry at her local church. Watch Laurie’s acceptance speech. 

LJ Grobler currently holds the position of Dean, Faculty of Engineering at the North-West University, South Africa.  He was born and matriculated in Ermelo, Mpumalanga, South Africa.  He obtained his BEng (Mech), MEng (Mech) and PhD from the University Pretoria, South Africa. He is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM), a Certified Measurement and Verification Professional (CMVP) and a Registered Professional Engineer (Pr.Eng).  He has gained extensive experience in all facets of energy management and has audited and assessed many commercial and industrial energy systems with hands-on involvement in over 300 projects. As a trainer he has trained over 650 CEMs for the Southern African region. During 2007/8 he was the President of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) based in Atlanta, USA and was the first non-American to become president.  He founded the Southern African Association for Energy Efficiency (SAEE) in 2002 and was president of the SAEE from 2002 till 2012. He is founding member of the companies Energy Cybernetics, Veritek and CFAM Technologies (director). Prof LJ Grobler received the eta Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 in South Africa for his extensive involvement in energy efficiency through measurement and verification, his visualization program to show energy consumption in buildings, and for setting the benchmark for training and development of energy engineers. Watch LJ’s acceptance speech.