Mr. Gary W. Dorris, PhD has been the Chief Executive Officer of Ascend Analytics, LLC since September 15th 2015. Mr. Dorris Co-Founded Ascend Analytics, LLC and served as its President until September 15th 2015. Mr. Dorris has been involved in the energy industry for over 20 years. He has developed over ten analytic software products used by 30 of the top 100 energy companies including PowerSimm, CurveDeveloper and AcuPower. He lectures and serves as adjunct faculty at the Leeds Business School of the University of Colorado. He served as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Model Architect for e-Acumen, Inc., a 60 person energy consultancy and software analytics firm, where he developed a suite of applications for modeling energy risk and the complexities of competitive energy markets. He has also provided independent expert reports and structured financing of over $5 billion in electric generating assets. He directed the development of the analytic infrastructure and risk management policies for the launching of the trading floors of Entergy Solutions, Duke Solutions, The Energy Authority and ConEdison. He founded and directed the energy practice at Stratus Consulting and was a manager at Hagler Bailly. He traded power and structured power sales contracts at Citizens Power & Light and performed one of the first above cost market transaction in 1988 at UNITIL Power Corp. He was a faculty member at Cornell University, where he taught a doctoral-level course in modeling competitive energy markets. Dr. Dorris actively publishes research articles and speaks on portfolio management, risk analysis and modeling of competitive energy markets. He has been honored in 2001 by the International Petroleum Exchange for his innovations and contributions to the field of energy risk management. He has written and delivered expert testimony regarding: risk management, energy procurement, trading practices, asset valuation, market power, rate design and emissions trading. Dr. Dorris holds a PhD in applied economics and finance from Cornell University and both a BS in mechanical engineering and a BA in economics with Magna Cum Laude distinction from Cornell University.