LUMINA DECISION SYSTEMS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Consultant Analyst
Ben Filstrup is an Associate Consultant Analyst at Lumina. His main responsibilities are model development and client satisfaction. This can include converting models to be cloud ready (ACP), implementing feature requests, and facilitating conversation between clients and the development team. He is also responsible for helping improve Analytica through library development, assistance in bug tracking, and the creation of training materials and documentation. Some of his current improvements are related to SQL and interactive map feature libraries.
Ben holds an MA in Applied Economics from San Jose State University and a BS in Computer Science from UC Santa Cruz. Ben is always learning new technologies and is always excited to learn more! In his spare time, Ben enjoys rock climbing.
Job Titles:
- Senior VP, Business Development
Daniel Violette, PhD, runs Lumina's energy consulting practice. He has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, and industry leader in the electric power and gas industry. Prior to joining Lumina, Dr. Violette was a Managing Director in the Energy Practice at Navigant Consulting (NYSE: NCI) for 10 years; the Founder of Summit Blue Consulting (acquired by Navigant Consulting); and Founder of Tesser Inc. (acquired by TreDesign). He was also an EVP at Hagler Bailly, Inc. and EDS Management Consultants.
Dr. Violette is widely recognized as a visionary leader in the energy industry. He received the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Energy Program Evaluation Conference (IEPEC), and the 2018 "Industry Leader" award from Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP). He has served as Chair of the AESP and on the Smart Grid Advisory Council of the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and has published over 100 papers. Dr. Violette received his PhD in economics from the University of Colorado, receiving a Regents Fellowship and honors in econometrics and industrial organization.
Job Titles:
- Senior Consultant
- Senior Consultant at Lumina
Hadi Eshraghi is a Senior Consultant at Lumina and has nearly a decade of experience developing energy models in both the academic and consulting settings. Hadi joined Lumina in June 2021 after leaving his prior role at PA Consulting Group as a consultant. Throughout his professional career, Hadi has had the opportunity to work with many energy models such as LEAP, MESSAGE, OSeMOSYS, Temoa, Aurora, and Analytica. For the most part, Hadi's work has been focused on using energy models in the context of clean energy transition.
Hadi holds a BS in mechanical engineering and a MS in energy engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. He received his Ph.D from North Carolina State University in 2020. Before leaving academia, Hadi was a post-doctoral research scholar at North Carolina State University. Hadi's most favorite activities are playing soccer and long-distance road trips.
Job Titles:
- Director of Consulting Services
James Milford heads Lumina Consulting Services. James has more than fourteen years of experience using Analytica for energy and environmental modeling research and consulting. Most recently, James was Cofounder and Director of Technology at Lumidyne Consulting. Before that he was a Managing Consultant in Guidehouse's (formerly Navigant) Energy Practice. At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, James led a multi-million-dollar project with 6 other National Labs and Lumina to build the Stochastic Energy Deployment System (SEDS), an Analytica model to help the US Department of Energy manage its portfolio of R&D projects and project their long-term effects on energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
James holds an MS in Engineering and Technology Management from the Colorado School of Mines and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado. Outside of helping clients design and build the best analytical tools, James is often searching for outdoor adventures…or simply trying to keep his lawn mowed.
Lonnie Chrisman, PhD, Lumina's Chief Technical Officer, heads engineering and development of Analytica®. He has authored dozens of refereed publications in the areas of machine learning, Artificial Intelligence planning, robotics, probabilistic inference, Bayesian networks, and computational biology. In 1977, when he was in the eighth grade, he had his first paid programming job and built his own personal computer. In 1987, he was awarded the Alton B. Zerby award, "Most outstanding Electrical Engineering Student in the USA".
Lonnie has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of California at Berkeley. And he really trusts Analytica calculations - he used Analytica for seismic structural analysis of an extension that he built onto his own home where he lives with his wife and four daughters!
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- CEO of Lumina
Max Henrion, PhD, is the CEO of Lumina, and the originator of Analytica, Lumina's flagship software. He has extensive experience as a researcher, educator, software designer, consultant, and entrepreneur. Max has conducted decision analyses and lead teams on a wide variety of projects in energy, environment, R&D management, healthcare, telecommunications, aerospace, security, and consumer choice. Max was previously a Professor in the Department of Engineering & Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon. He has been a Consulting Professor at Stanford, and a member of the Science Advisory Board of the US EPA. At Ask Jeeves, he was Vice President for Decision Technology, leading a team to provide online consumer advice.
Max lead a decision analysis of decommissioning offshore oil platforms that won the 2014 Decision Analysis Practice Award from the Decision Analysis Society (DAS). He received the 2018 Frank Ramsey Medal the highest award from the DAS. Max has an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, Master of Design from the Royal College of Art, London, and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon.