Meet Our Team

Gary W. Dorris, PhD

Co-Founder and CEO

Founder and executive chairman of Ascend Analytics, the industry-leading, 170-person energy analytics software and consulting firm he led as CEO for two decades. Gary developed pioneering approaches to modeling power markets in support of real-time operations, portfolio management, and resource planning, and provided the analytic vision that bridged physical production-cost models with the financial models of risk management – work that has produced more than a dozen software applications used by over 200 energy companies.

Gary’s independent market assessments have supported over $100 billion in project financing, and his work finding new pathways to lower-cost, cleaner energy supply has resulted in the financing of over 100 gigawatts and $100 billion of clean power generation. He led Hawaiian Electric’s first 100% renewable electric resource plan, and his expertise has been sought as expert testimony on risk management, asset valuation, and resource planning, including as lead expert witness for Merrill Lynch in the famous Enron proceedings. He holds a PhD in applied economics and finance from Cornell University, and a BS in mechanical engineering and a BA in economics, magna cum laude, also from Cornell.

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Paul Saferstein, CFA

Co-Founder and CFO

More than 25 years as a digital infrastructure, telecommunications, and utilities specialist at institutions including AllianceBernstein, Morgan Stanley, and Ascend Analytics. Most recently, Paul served as a Senior Advisor to Ascend Analytics and previously, a contract Chief Strategy Officer for a digital infrastructure provider, where he spearheaded its data center launch.

Previously, Paul was a portfolio manager and senior analyst at First New York focused on global capital markets and specializing in the digital infrastructure, telecom, and utility industries – the investor’s vantage on how data center assets are structured and financed. He graduated from Cornell University with a BA, holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, studied at the Stanford University Center for Japanese Studies, and is fluent in Japanese.

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Victoria Meadows

Head of Community Engagement

Victoria Meadows has spent more than 25 years helping public-serving organizations communicate with greater clarity, alignment, and trust. Across higher education, public libraries, economic development, workforce partnerships, and community initiatives, her work has centered on making complex decisions understandable, credible, and useful to the people affected by them.

At Lansing Community College, Victoria led library communications, designed stakeholder research, and built programs around shared learning, belonging, and student support. As Chief Strategic Officer at the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP), she led strategic communications and equity-focused initiatives, including COVID-era grant programs that distributed more than $20 million to local small businesses. At Capital Area District Libraries, she focused on reaching people who were not already using the library and supporting community-facing programs. These experiences shaped her approach to development and public trust: engage early, understand community history, welcome scrutiny, and align project promises with what residents ultimately experience. Victoria holds an MS in Communication from Purdue University and has received six IEDC Excellence in Economic Development Awards.

At Lighthouse, Victoria leads community engagement, bringing an outside perspective grounded in decades of public-serving work. She helps Lighthouse understand local context, listen to residents and stakeholders, and communicate clearly throughout the project. Her role is to support a transparent process in which questions and concerns are taken seriously and commitments remain connected to the community’s experience.

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Carl Pechman, PhD

Senior Advisor, Energy

Dr. Pechman is a nationally known electricity economist. He has served as senior staff at the New York Public Service Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Pechman led the review and release of the ENRON trader tapes, that revealed ENRON’s manipulation of the California electricity markets. He facilitated the complex multi-party processes for restructuring New York’s electric system. He has served as an expert witness in siting electric generation, transmission and gas pipelines.

As a designer of power markets, Dr. Pechman was the first to point out the importance of reliability value of locational capacity in his book, Regulating Power: the Economics of Electricity in the Information Age. He invented the “net benefits test’ relied on by the Supreme Court in its findings in FERC v EPSA. As Director of the National Regulatory Training Institute, he initiated a number of programs designed to educate regulators and stakeholders about various aspects of utility regulation, including the first training program provided to the regulatory community on energy equity. His current focus is on methods of achieving affordable electric rates, the changing nature of the distribution utility and electric reliability.

Dr. Pechman has his BS, M.S. and PhD from Cornell University.

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Kerry C. Duggan

Senior Advisor, Sustainability

Kerry is a nationally recognized policy leader and strategist with over two decades in environmental stewardship and economic development. She founded ESP.earth, advising on energy, resilience and complex systems. Her corporate boards include Perma-Fix (NASDAQ: PESI), One Detroit Credit Union and Aclima; advisory boards include clean tech companies, Arctaris Impact Investors and Commonweal Ventures. She was previously a partner at Hon. Tom Ridge’s firm.

At the White House, she advised Vice President Joe Biden on energy, environment and climate and served as deputy of President Obama’s Detroit Federal Working Group, helping coordinate 20+ federal agencies with new initiatives that emphasized community engagement and benefits. Her U.S. Department of Energy roles included Director of Legislative, Regulatory & Urban Affairs and Secretary of Energy Advisory Board service under Secretary Granholm. A three-time Governor Gretchen Whitmer appointee, she serves on the Michigan Council on Climate Solutions and the Alliance for the Great Lakes and Moe Norris Foundation boards, and served on Detroit’s inaugural Women’s Commission.

A former Division I basketball player at St. John’s and the University of Vermont, she holds a B.S. from UVM and an M.S. from the University of Michigan, where she holds a faculty appointment at the School for Environment and Sustainability.

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