SPEAKER: John R Grizz Deal

CEO of Hyperion Power Generation

John R Grizz Deal is CEO of Hyperion Power Generation. Grizz has over twenty years of experience in technology commercialization and fast growing ventures, in both product development and chief executive roles. Grizz was previously Entrepreneur in Residence at Technology Ventures Corporation for the Nuclear Energy division of the U.S. Department of Energy and was the managing director at Purple Mountain Ventures (PMV), serving a dozen international firms on product development, capital expansion, and marketing. Grizz also serves as a director of the U.S. National Lab Seed Fund, a venture capital fund focused on innovations developed by the U.S. Department of Energy laboratory complex. Grizz is the former TVC entrepreneur in residence with the U.S. Department of Energy/NNSA, visiting entrepreneur at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), chief marketing officer for Space Imaging, the founder and former CEO of LizardTech, and a consulting scientist at LANL.

Grizz is a frequent speaker and writer on energy technology and policy, starting and growing advanced technology-based ventures, and issues in raising capital for such ventures. He is a member of the board of directors for the International Clean Energy Alliance, and serves on the boards of several PMV portfolio firms. Grizz has raised over $200 million in risk capital for his ventures and holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in geography from Texas A&M University.

MODERATOR: Mike Cote

Editor of ColoradoBiz Magazine

Mike Cote is the Editor of ColoradoBiz Magazine. He has spent more than 20 years in the media industry as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Florida and Colorado, and now at ColoradoBiz magazine in the metro Denver area. He has also taught reporting and editing at the University of Colorado, where he earned his master's degree in journalism.

Before joining the team at ColoradoBiz, Mike served as both the City Editor and the Business Editor at the Boulder Daily Camera.

PANELIST: Jeffrey King

Assistant Professor - Nuclear Science and Engineering Program, Colorado School of Mines

After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1994, Jeff King joined the Department of Energy at the Savannah River Operations Office as a Mixed Waste Engineer. In that position, he worked on public participation and compliance efforts related to the Savannah River Site’s RCRA Mixed Waste Installation Work Plan.  A year later he transferred offices to become a Facility Representative at the Savannah River Site’s High-Level Waste Tank Farm.  DOE Facility Representatives are somewhat similar to NRC on-site inspectors and are responsible for monitoring the day-to-day activities at their assigned facility.  This involves a mixture of technical and regulatory oversight, as the Facility Representative must be familiar with the governing DOE regulations and how they are applied at the operating and reporting level.  After three years as a Facility Representative, Jeff decided to return to school and pursue a Master’s and PhD in Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Mexico, starting in 1998.

Jeff finished his Ph.D. with distinction in 2006 and decided to remain in academia as an Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly the University of Missouri – Rolla).  His primary teaching interest is reactor physics and design, along with the social, economic, and political aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle.  In 2009, Dr. King left Missouri S&T to become the first tenure track faculty hire in the newly created Nuclear Science and Engineering Program at the Colorado School of Mines.  The CSM Nuclear Science and Engineering program is in its third year and is focused on studying all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium mining and processing, to reactor design and operations, and finally to waste management and disposal.

Dr. King has published several papers related to the design and safety of innovative nuclear reactors and is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the American Nuclear Society, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.  Dr. King's research interests include reactor modeling and control, nuclear system simulation, nuclear materials, and the computational modeling of radiation damage and material aging effects.

PANELIST: Jerry Peterson

Professor of Physics

Jerry Peterson is a Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  His research career has taken him into many arenas of nuclear science, based mostly upon beams from particle accelerators, at energies for 65 keV to 120 GeV.  His recent teaching has emphasized spanning the boundaries between science and public affairs, including classes in Environmental Studies, Journalism and International Affairs, as well as Physics.  He is a faculty associate of the UCB Centers for Asian Studies and for Science and Technology Policy Research.  He recently served as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the US Department of State, as a senior science analyst on energy matters.  He is a Fellow of the American Physical society and a Foreign Member of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences.

PANELIST: Les Juhasz

President of Liberty International Development

Les Juhasz is the President of Liberty International Development, a business development and consulting services in the areas of energy and technology services. With more than twenty years of experience in the nuclear power industry including that of Navy Nuclear Reactor Operator/Instructor, and Client Program Manager for seven nuclear utilities, Les brings a diverse perspective and wealth of experience to his projects.

As one example of his work, during the late 1980s, Les was on special assignment at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Ohio. In this role he conducted an audit and overview of the Control of Measuring and Test Equipment Program in response to an NRC OSTI report. This overview consisted of personnel interviews, observations, record audits, management discussions, and program reviews.  Once completed, recommendations were submitted for client management review and were successfully implemented to support Perry’s first refueling outage.

Les is a certified Nuclear Reactor Operator with extensive training in radiation protection, contamination and decontamination procedures.

HOST: Thomas Frey

Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute

Thomas Frey is Executive Director and Senior Futurist at the DaVinci Institute as well as Google top rated futurist speaker.

As part of the celebrity speaking circuit, Tom continually pushes the envelope of understanding, creating fascinating images of the world to come.  His keynote talks on futurist topics have captivated people ranging from high level government officials to executives in Fortune 500 companies including NASA, IBM, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent Technologies, First Data, Boeing, Capital One, Bell Canada, Visa, Ford Motor Company, Qwest, Allied Signal, Hunter Douglas, Direct TV, International Council of Shopping Centers, National Association of Federal Credit Unions, Times of India, Leaders in Dubai, and many more.

Because of his work inspiring inventors and other revolutionary thinkers, the Boulder Daily Camera has referred to him as the "Father of Invention".  The Denver Post and Seattle Post Intelligencer have referred to him as the "Dean of Futurists".

Because of his work inspiring inventors and other revolutionary thinkers, Tom has been referred to as the modern "Father of Invention" and the "Dean of Futurists."  Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Tom spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer.