AEE SoCal Chapter Leadership
AEE SoCal Officers / Board of Directors / Committees
The AEE SoCal Chapter is led by volunteers that serve as elected Officers and members of the AEE SoCal Chapter Board of Directors.
Board of Directors members also serve as Committee Chairs, with various Standing Committees overseeing key Chapter activities such as Memberships, Scholarships and the Chapter's Annual Conference. Ad Hoc Committees are formed on an as-needed basis to address emerging issues and opportunities not covered by the various Standing Committees.
AEE SoCal is a dynamic organization focused on the hot topics of energy efficiency and energy security in Southern California. Volunteering to assist the Chapter is fun and rewarding on personal and professional levels. It can also greatly enhance your efforts to network with other Chapter members.
Chapter members are encouraged to be active participants in helping lead, manage, staff and promote the wide variety of ongoing Chapter activities and events.
The easiest way to volunteer to determine which Committee help is to contact the Committee Chair, who is a Board of Directors member that has been appointed by the Chapter President to lead a particular Standing Committee.
Current Committees include:
- Awards
- Publications/Communications
- Membership
- Education Outreach & Internship
- Scholarship
- Annual Conference
- Professional Development
Officer and Board member profiles below include current Committee Chair assignments.
AEE SoCal Chapter Officer Profiles
AEE SoCal Chapter President
Cynthia Martin, BEP, CSDP, MBA
Southern California Edison
Served the Southern California Aee local Chapter (Aee SoCal) over a 4 year span as Director at Large, Annual Conference Co-chair, Vice President, and President in 2018 and 2019. Ms. Martin has 39 years of marketing and business development experience beginning her career in the rapidly moving computer industry from 1980 to 1992. She held the position of Regional Manager at Enable Software, Albany New York, as well as Senior Account Manager at Ashton Tate in Torrance, CA. While working on a Master’s in Business, Ms. Martin joined the Southern California Edison Company in 1994. She graduated in 2001, achieving her MBA degree from the University of Phoenix and obtained her Bachelor’s degree from Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles in 1979. During her 25 years of experience with Southern California Edison, Ms. Martin managed key customer portfolios valued over $156,000,000 and has driven attainment of individual, team and company goals, deliverance of excellent customer satisfaction, and successful resolution to complex regulatory customer impacts and projects.
AEE SoCal Chapter Vice President
Nolan Sambrano
ADEPT Group, Inc.
Nolan Sambrano is a Director and Senior Project Engineer at the ADEPT Group, Inc. where he manages operations and business support functions. He consults on business development and strategy; and leads energy and engineering projects for public and private sector clients involving R&D, technology transfer and commercialization, and project management. His experience in the energy industry includes work in alternative fuels, geothermal power, high altitude wind, PV, and energy efficiency. Nolan is a Certified Energy Manager and has a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from UCLA.
AEE SoCal Chapter Treasurer
Mike Martin
Lockheed Martin
Mike has more than 40 years of experience in gas and electric utility management, marketing, program design, system analysis & integration, customer service, project management and program implementation. He currently serves as a Project Manager for Lockheed Martin Energy’s Heavy Industrial Energy Efficiency Program, providing energy efficiency services to large industrial customers served by PG&E and SCE. Mike has a B.S. in Industrial Technology from California State University, Fresno.
AEE SoCal Chapter Secretary
Ricson Chude, P.E., CEM, CEA, CMVP
Southern California Edison
Ricson Chude is a professional engineer who currently works for Southern California EDISON, where he supports the development of “next generation” Energy Efficiency, Demand Response programs and the integration of Distributed Energy Resources to help local grid reliability. His previous experiences in the energy field comprises engineering work under both electric and gas utility demand side management programs, as well as independent consulting with energy service companies and environmental firms to solve customer energy, environmental and compliance challenges. In previous roles at SCE, he supervised engineers who performed the technical analysis of customer submitted energy efficiency projects, managed HVAC equipment emerging technology field studies, and authored white papers detailing energy savings best practices. His areas of interest are in industrial/commercial building energy assessments and clean tech innovation. Ricson is committed to shaping the policies and standards impacting energy sector and the built environment. He currently leads the Energy Management Subcommittee of ASHRAE’s Building Energy & Water Performance Technical Committee and teaches an introductory course in Energy Management at Citrus College. Mr. Chude holds a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the California State Polytechnic University of Pomona, and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the California State University of Los Angeles. He is a licensed Mechanical Engineer in the State of California and is recognized as a Certified Energy Manager (CEM), Certified Energy Auditor (CEA), and Certified Measurement and Verification Professional (CMVP) from the Association of Energy Engineers.
AEE SoCal Chapter Director at Large
John McCabe
MEHS Consulting
John McCabe, Managing Principal with MEHS Consulting, has over 30 years’ experience in national and international environmental management and safety risk working in industry and consulting. Mr. McCabe started his career in 1979 with large oil and gas exploration and production companies and transitioned to global pharmaceutical/medical device organizations (Baxter Healthcare and Grifols Biologicals) where he managed Corporate and Division EHS programs and teams. He joined AECOM (Retec) in 2005 where he supported Fortune 50 oil and gas organizations in their risk reduction and regulatory compliance assurance for downstream, midstream, and upstream sectors. In 2009, he formed GHG Climate Team LLC, a partnership that focused on implementing California’s new climate change programs and requirements for oil and gas, manufacturing, and utility clients. He holds degrees in biological sciences and environmental engineering from SDSU and USC and holds accreditations in energy management (CEM), safety (CSP), and environmental areas (QSP).
AEE SoCal Chapter Director at Large & Annual Conference Chair
Tony Teng
Southstar Global
Tony is a mechanical engineer with a 30+ year career in power generation and T&D, including senior executive positions at several world-renowned power system equipment OEM’s, as well as operating his own successful technical consulting and industrial supply export businesses. His broad range of experience in conventional, nuclear, and renewable energies include project management, manufacturing, product development, sales & marketing, O&M, retrofit & upgrades, strategic planning, M&A, change management, innovation, safety and continuous improvement. Tony is a certified Six Sigma Master Blackbelt, ISO9001:2015 QMS Lead Auditor, and Agile & DMAIC Project Leader. He is a member of the Association for Strategic Planning and a Registered Representative of the Securities Exchange Commission. Tony is bilingual in Mandarin Chinese.
AEE SoCal Chapter Director at Large
Serge Adamian, MS, MBA, PE, CEM
President of Ecotrade, Inc.
Serge Adamian currently manages Ecotrade, Inc, a consulting company with focus on commercial-scale renewable energy projects. Previously he managed SunChiller, Inc a company that marketed solar thermal systems and collectors for industrial, commercial, and residential applications. In that capacity he initiated multiple large-scale solar thermal and energy efficiency installations in the United States.
Prior to SunChiller he started and managed companies in diverse fields of solar thermal collector manufacturing, hydrogen fuel cell R&D, software development, and wind-farm development.
Adamian’s work experience includes US Export Council for Renewable Energy, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and Parsons.
Adamian has been retained as consultant by US Agency for International Development, US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. He has advised foreign governments on strategies and policies for deployment of renewable energy.
Adamian has BS degree in civil engineering, MS degree in engineering with focus on renewable energy, and MBA. He is registered as Professional Engineer (PE) in the State of California. He is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM).
He has authored multiple technical papers and reports. He is a past president and current board member of the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers. He has been a member of the board of directors of ArmElNet, an electric utility company.
AEE SoCal Chapter Director at Large
Sona Coffee
City of Irvine
Sona Coffee is a sustainability manager that is passionate about transforming local governments into environmentally sustainable communities. Prior to joining the City of Irvine as the Environmental Programs Administrator in 2017, she served in a similar role at the City of Manhattan Beach for eight years. Sona leads programs that promote environmental stewardship, with an emphasis on moving communities towards clean energy. In addition to energy programs, she oversees the City of Irvine’s solid waste management and recycling programs, and civic engagement efforts. Sona is a proud USC alum with undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Price School of Public Policy, with an emphasis in environmental policy. She is also a member of the Council on Women in Energy and Environmental Leadership, focusing on career development of women in the energy and environmental fields.
Designer & Digital Strategist & Annual Conference Co-chair
Beatrice Aispuro
Begrafic Design
As the first webmaster at Caltech, Beatrice Aispuro has extensive experience in the digital space: Design, Development, Usability, Data Aggregation, and Branding & Marketing. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from CSULB in Journalism, Public Relations, and Spanish in 1991 and completed coursework at Art Center College of Design in 1997.
Throughout her twenty-year career, she has been involved in the planning and management of hundreds of outstanding design and development projects for companies such as Caltech, Fox Sports, SFUSD, Disney, dot-com startups, and fast-paced agencies. She is currently co-chairing the 2019 AEE SoCal annual conference: Energy Safety, Security and Sustainability.
