Six Distinguished Utility & Data Center Leaders Join Mainspring as Strategic Advisors
Mainspring Energy, the leading provider of fuel-flexible, local power generation, today announced the formation of its Strategic Advisory Board, welcoming six distinguished utility and data center industry leaders: ChristianBelady, Phyllis Currie, John DiDonato, Joe Kava, Dave Schleicher, and Steve Sheppard. This move reflects Mainspring's accelerating partnerships and growing role in the critical data center and utility power sectors, further solidifying its commitment to delivering reliable, low-emissions, local power generation through its innovative linear generator design.
Mainspring's linear generator offers a unique solution to the evolving demands of modern power infrastructure. Its innovative design allows for seamless operation on a variety of gaseous fuels, providing unparalleled flexibility, high efficiency, and near-zero NOx emissions. This adaptability, along with its ability to handle both baseload and fully variable power, positions Mainspring as a key enabler for data centers and utilities seeking to rapidly add new power capacity, enhance energy reliability, reduce costs, and meet ambitious sustainability goals in an increasingly dynamic energy landscape.
“The establishment of our Strategic Advisory Board marks a pivotal moment for Mainspring,” said Adam Simpson, Mainspring's Chief Commercial Officer. “This accomplished group brings an extraordinary depth of experience and strategic vision from the utility, data center, and financial sectors. Their insights and leadership give us a major advantage as we advance Mainspring's growing business in these markets, driving innovation and expanding our reach.”
Meet the Inaugural Mainspring Strategic Advisory Board Members:
Christian Belady is a widely recognized pioneer in the data center industry, with over four decades of experience in global data center and infrastructure development and management. He retired from Microsoft in 2023 as Vice President of Data Center Research and Development for Microsoft's Cloud Infrastructure Organization, where he led efforts developing transformative technologies for scaling cloud and AI infrastructure. Prior to that role, he led Microsoft's Datacenter Development globally, including energy, site selection, engineering, construction and operations. Since then, he serves as an advisor and/or a board member for many infrastructure companies including DigitalBridge, Vantage and others. Mr. Belady is credited with creating the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric used by the industry and has contributed significantly to industry standards and organizations like ASHRAE and The Green Grid. His industry recognition includes the 2017 DataCloud “Data Center Thought Leadership” Award, the iMasons “2020 Industry Luminary” Award, the 2023 Interglobix Titans List and the 2024 Northern Virginia Technology Council Data Center Icon Award. Recently he also was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE). In 2025, Christian received the Data Center World Lifetime Achievement Award.
Phyllis Currie is a prominent figure in the public power industry. She served for 14 years as the General Manager of Pasadena Water and Power, following a distinguished 30-year career with the City of Los Angeles, where she held roles including Chief Financial Officer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Ms. Currie has also held significant leadership positions on national and regional utility boards, including as Board Chair of the American Public Power Association (APPA), Board Chair of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and President of the California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA). She brings deep understanding of and expertise in utility operations, financial planning, and regulatory environments in the utility sector.
John Di Donatohas over 25 years of experience in renewable energy development and origination. He retired as the National Vice President of Renewable Origination and Development for NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, having previously led the exponential growth of their wind development business from 2012 through 2017. He and his teams are responsible for over $30 Billion of renewable projects in the United States and Canada. John has served on the boards of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and Rocky Mountain Electric League (RMEL), and is a current member of the board of directors of LandGate Corporation. He has also served as an advisory board member for Texas Christian University's Ralph Lowe Energy Institute and is currently a member of multiple not-for-profit boards focused on youth development and education.
JoeKava is a seasoned engineering and operations executive known for dramatically scaling Google's data centers to create a global infrastructure at the cutting edge of sustainability and innovation. Named a titan of the digital infrastructure industry by Interglobix, he is currently an active advisor and board member. Most recently, Joe served as Vice President, Data Centers at Google for seventeen years. Under his leadership, Google's data centers surpassed, and continue to surpass, industry averages for sustainability while driving record-setting business results. Previously Joe was an engineering and business operations executive in the semiconductor industry, including serving as a member of the leadership team at Applied Materials for more than a decade. He has been named an Industry Titan by Interglobix, as well as an Industry Luminary by Infrastructure Masons; the Infrastructure Masons also included him on their list of the 100 most influential industry leaders and the recipient of the “Outstanding Commitment to the Data Centre Industry” Award at DataCloud Global Congress 2025.
Dave Schleicheris a seasoned electric utility executive with more than 40 years of experience in both investor- and member-owned electric utilities. In April 2025 he retired as President and CEO of Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC), where he served for eight years. During his tenure, NOVEC became the largest electric cooperative in the nation based on retail energy sales, helping the organization navigate exceptional load growth driven by nearly every data center operator in the nation entering NOVEC's service territory. He provided both strategic and tactical leadership in serving large data centers, managing power supply issues within Virginia and PJM markets, and ensuring financial strength for NOVEC members. Upon retiring, he left the company as the lowest-cost and most reliable electric delivery company in Virginia. Prior to NOVEC, he held technical and executive roles at EnergyUnited EMC in North Carolina and PPL Electric Utilities in Pennsylvania.
Steve Sheppard is an accomplished senior-level energy industry professional with more than 40 years of experience in the power sector. Throughout his career, he has held pivotal roles at leading investor-owned utilities and their affiliated trading and origination organizations and other significant industry organizations. He has developed deep relationships across the industry, collaborating with trading companies, public power utilities, merchant generation developers, and industrial end-users. His extensive expertise encompasses wholesale power origination, energy procurement, regulatory strategy, sales team leadership, market planning, and strategic account management. Steve's in-depth industry knowledge is rooted in his tenure at renowned organizations such as DTE Energy Trading, Constellation, Exelon Energy – Constellation, DTE Edison America, Detroit Edison, AXPO U.S. LLC., and the North American Energy Markets Association (NAEMA). Recognized for his strategic vision and results-driven approach, Steve has consistently delivered value in complex market environments, earning the respect of peers and stakeholders through his leadership and commitment to excellence.
Mainspring Energy is actively engaged in a variety of large-scale projects within the data center and utility sectors. For data centers, the company's linear generators provide reliable, flexible, onsite power that can circumvent grid constraints, reduce reliance on traditional backup diesel generators, and support the rapid deployment of compute capacity, especially crucial for the demands of AI workloads.
In the utility space, Mainspring's solutions offer flexible,dispatchable generation that can support grid modernization, enhance resilience, and integrate with renewable energy sources, enabling utilities to meet growing load demands and achieve decarbonization goals. Examples include partnering with municipal and cooperative utilities to provide local, dispatchable capacity for rapidly growing communities and managing exceptional load growth from data centers.
About Mainspring Energy
Mainspring Energy manufactures and delivers innovative, flexible, low-emissions, modular and scalable power that rapidly adds new capacity and delivers reliable, affordable electricity. The Mainspring Linear Generator is fully dispatchable and scalable from 250 kW to 100+MW. It is uniquely fuel-flexible, operating on any gaseous fuel including hydrogen, biogas, natural gas, propane, and others. The company began commercial shipments of linear generators in 2020 and to date has hundreds of megawatts in field operations and advanced development for leading Fortune 500 companies, data center developers, and utilities. mainspringenergy.com.
“While Mainspring's linear generator offers efficient, on-demand power with near-zero emissions and fuel-flexibility – in itself a game-changer – what excites me most is opportunities and solutions for powering datacenters that will emerge as a result of the shift to onsite generation. This will drive a more reliable, lower cost and sustainable future for digital infrastructure.” – Christian Belady
“Mainspring's commitment to fuel flexibility and sustainable power generation aligns perfectly with the evolving needs of the utility sector, and particularly public power. I am excited to contribute to a company that is truly providing a transformative solution for grid resilience and decarbonization.” – Phyllis Currie
“Mainspring represents a compelling investment in the future of scalable, strategically-sited, flexible capacity. Their unique product and strong market position offer significant opportunities for growth and value creation in a rapidly expanding industry.” – John Di Donato
“The flexibility of Mainspring's linear generators to tackle the constraints of fuel availability, air permitting, scalability, and reliable power supply are critical for this moment to power the economy of the future. – Joe Kava
“Virgina is ground zero for accommodating unprecedented load growth from data centers while meeting strong environmental mandates. What the Mainspring product can do on either the DC side or the utility side of the capacity crunch is exactly what the industry needs in this state – and by extension, any market experiencing unparalleled load growth from data centers and stakeholder expectations for increasingly clean energy sources.”- Dave Schleicher
“I am incredibly impressed by Mainspring's innovative approach to power generation. The linear generator offers unparalleled adaptability and efficiency, making it a vital component for building a more resilient and sustainable energy future.” – Steve Sheppard
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SOURCE Mainspring Energy, Inc.
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