Speaker Biographies
Jason Blake - SERC Mr. Blake is President and CEO for SERC and serves on its Board of Directors. As President and CEO, Mr. Blake leads SERC in its essential mission to reduce risks and ensure a reliable and secure electric grid across 16 southeastern and central states. This area covers approximately 630,000 square miles, a growing population in excess of 91 million, and a broad and diverse range of more than 275 electric utilities and power companies. Mr. Blake leads SERC’s essential mission with a commitment to operational excellence, innovation, inclusivity, and deploying resources in manner that makes a positive difference. Before being named President and CEO in 2018, Mr. Blake spent almost nine years serving as the Vice President and General Counsel for SERC’s northern neighbor and sister region, ReliabilityFirstCorporation. During that time, he helped lead RF through its start-up phase and into a sustainable risk-based organization focused on ensuring a reliable and secure electric grid across the Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes regions of the U.S. Prior to this, Mr. Blake developed broad business and regulatory experience through his private practice with large, corporate law firms located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and then in Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Blake is a graduate of the Ohio State University and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He served on the Board of Directors for the American Heart Association for the Cleveland Metropolitan Area. He also enjoys the outdoors, a wide variety of music, and spending time with his wife, son, and daughter. Ted Franks - SERC As Director of Reliability Assurance, Mr. Franks is responsible for all aspects of SERC’s Compliance Monitoring, Registration, and Certification activities. This includes developing and implementing the strategy and vision for these responsibilities and ensuring that all Reliability Assurance activities are appropriately balanced by risk based processes and policies. He ensures that proper controls and procedures are in place to drive consistency, professionalism, and effective implementation of organizational strategy. Previously,Ted was theSeniorProgramManageratNorthAmericanTransmissionForum(NATF), where heprimarilyfocusedontheSystemOperationsandOperator TrainingPracticesGroupsandtheirsub-groups.Ted was alsotheManagerofTechnicalResourcesatSERC, where he ledtheSERC TechnicalCommittees,Operator Training, and Member Outreach. Priortohis firstpositionatSERC, Ted spentnineyears with theFederalEnergy RegulatoryCommission(FERC) where he servedas theDeputyDirectorin theOfficeof ElectricReliability. PriortoFERC, Ted worked atPJM for10 years inoperationsplanningandreal-timeoperations. Ted holdsaBachelorofSciencedegreeinIndustrial Engineeringanda Master’sof BusinessAdministration,bothfromPennStateUniversity .
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