Keynote Session Details

John D. McDonald, P.E., is Founder & CEO of JDM Associates, LLC. John has 52 years of experience in the electric utility transmission and distribution industry. John received his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. (Power Engineering) degrees from Purdue University, and an M.B.A. (Finance) degree from the University of California-Berkeley. John is a Life Fellow of IEEE (member for 55 years), member of IEEE-HKN (inducted 55 years ago) and Tau Beta Pi (inducted 53 years ago), member of the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity, and was awarded the IEEE Millennium Medal, the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Excellence in Power Distribution Engineering Award, the IEEE PES Substations Committee Distinguished Service Award, the IEEE PES Meritorious Service Award, the 2024 CIGRE US National Committee (USNC) Philip Sporn Award, the 2016 CIGRE Distinguished Member Award, the 2016 CIGRE USNC Attwood Associate Award, the 2021 CIGRE Honorary Member Award, the 2025 CIGRE USNC VP of Technical Activities Emeritus Award, the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity Career Achievement Award. John is Past President of the IEEE PES, Past Chair of the IEEE PES Substations Committee, IEEE Division VII Past Director, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. John was on the Board of Governors of the IEEE-SA (Standards Association), is IEEE Foundation President, is Governor At-Large on the IEEE-HKN Board of Governors and is a Founding Board Member of the SECC. John received the 2009 Purdue University Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award and the 2023 Purdue University Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award. John teaches Smart Grid courses at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Smart Grid courses for various IEEE PES local chapters as an IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer (since 1999). John has published one hundred fifty papers and articles, has co-authored five books and has one US patent.