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Dan Waddle is senior vice president of NRECA International, leading efforts that promote cooperative development and designs programs that offer access to modern electric service in developing countries. He directs programs in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South Asia. The programs focus on low-cost electric service expansion through establishing and strengthening rural electric utilities using conventional and off-grid solutions.
With more than 30 years of experience, Dan is an expert in electric power supply and demand-side efficiency and in the design and implementation of renewable energy projects. He has hands-on experience in designing small and micro-hydro projects; biomass combustion and gasification for power applications; solar photovoltaic applications; and wind-diesel hybrid projects. He has managed numerous projects for the U.S. Agency for International Development; U.S. Dept. of Energy; the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and Asian Development Bank.
Dan has a B.S. and M.S. in agricultural engineering and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University.
Contact: dbwaddle@nreca-intl.org
Nicholas Allen is the Ethiopia country director and senior engineer supporting NRECA International’s electrification projects. Nick has worked for NRECA for 12 years as an electrification engineer, project manager and electrification expert on a series of projects in South Sudan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Liberia and Ghana. He led integrated electrification planning tasks for the Uganda Accelerated Rural Electrification Program and was a key participant in the electrification planning activities in South Sudan and Liberia.
Nick is currently leading a massive data collection and geospatial planning project in Ethiopia. This effort is digitizing more than 20 million household structures, over 60,000 kilometers of MV infrastructure and evaluating electrification expansion planning (grid and off-grid) throughout Ethiopia. Nick is an expert in geographic information systems applied for electric power distribution systems and off-grid energy solutions. He also has extensive experience in technical, financial and sustainability analysis of grid and off-grid rural utilities.
Nick has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University and an M.A in International Environmental Policy from Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
Contact: nhallen@nreca-intl.org
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Contact: pclark@nreca-intl.org
David Gibson is the Uganda country director. He leads NRECA International’s activities in Uganda in the areas of service territory master planning, productive uses of electricity, cooperative strengthening, national distribution network condition assessment, national distribution network loss assessment, affordable house wiring design, and off-grid electrification public policy.
In addition to his work in Uganda, his 34 years of experience includes contributing to projects in Ghana, Ethiopia, and Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Philippines, and Haiti. David’s experience includes serving as the project coordinator for Ghana’s Northern Electricity Distribution Company’s Financial and Operational Turnaround Project and the Malawi National Electrification Strategy. In Ethiopia and in Ghana, David was the survey team leader for willingness-to-pay/energy consumption surveys in support of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Beyond the Grid project and the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Market Access project.
In addition to his experience in rural electrification, David has a solid foundation in utility energy efficiency program implementation and the design and construction of high-performance facilities like data centers and university research laboratories.
David has a Masters in Liberal Arts in Sustainability from Harvard University, and serves as the head teaching assistant for the Harvard Extension School’s Introduction to Sustainability course.
Contact: DGibson@nreca-intl.org
Aceline Rene is the Volunteer Program and Fundraising Associate and coordinates all operations to support the organization’s fundraising and volunteer programs. Aceline brings with her communications, advocacy and fundraising experience working in political campaigns, advocacy groups and non-profit organizations. Her experience includes creating and managing fundraising campaigns, organizing fundraising events, monitoring social media accounts and conducting donor research.
Aceline has a B.A. in Political Science from American University, and is working toward a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Certification in Nonprofit Management from Villanova University.
Contact: Aceline.Rene@nreca.cop
Jim is the director of engineering, overseeing the construction of 110 substations in Bangladesh, and updating construction standards and material specifications for the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board. Jim also is playing a key role supporting projects in Ethiopia and Mozambique and Liberia.
Jim began his career almost 50 years ago as a Peace Corps volunteer working in planning, design and construction of rural electrification projects in Ecuador. He continued to work in rural electrification with electric cooperatives in the United States, as well as utilities in Africa, Latin America and South and Central Asia. His area of expertise includes system planning, loss reduction, low cost distribution technology development, integration of distributed generation, and design and construction of transmission and distribution lines and substations. Jim at one time also managed a transmission and distribution research group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Jim holds a Master of Engineering degree in Electric Power Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
Contact: JVancoevering@nreca-intl.org
Jim Walsh is the director of business development, responsible for securing funding for new projects to fulfill NRECA International’s mission to increase electricity access in developing countries. Jim is an experienced project manager with expertise in project planning, risk evaluation, and business development. He has extensive experience in project conceptualization, mobilization, and international contracts and grants for a variety of development interventions, including electrification projects.
He started his career more than 25 years ago as a project development officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development and has lent his expertise and work experience in countries across all continents. In addition, Jim has received specialized training in a variety of areas including environmental assessment, new cooperative start-up, and project finance.
Jim has a BA in Political Science from the University of Chicago and attended graduate-level classes in economics from the George Washington University.
Contact: James.Walsh@nreca.coop