Brian Foster is a Lead OT Security Architect at Southern California Edison. He is a highly experienced OT security leader but started his career as a classically trained controls engineer. After many years he found himself drawn back to his passion in OT security and now specializes in the Energy Utility vertical.

In his roles with SCE, he has led and advised teams of cyber security engineers and architects to improve the security posture on multiple Grid Modernization projects, overseen sharing of threat intelligence for the Grid Modernization Generation Management System program Security (OT/ICS, IT), and worked with Risk Management to measure and socialize identified risks and associated compensating controls.

Overall, in his efforts to secure critical infrastructure, Brian has overseen and advised on the security of next-generation control systems using state-of-the-art technologies, and he has pushed some not-so-state-of-the-art systems towards a modern security posture.

Pam Sporborg is the Director of Transmission and Market Services at Portland General Electric (PGE). Pam oversees PGE’s advocacy work on wholesale markets, transmission and interconnection rates and policy, market analytics, and operations technical training. Pam is an experienced regional leader, repressing investor-owned utilities on the CAISO’s Governance Review Committee. She has previously served as the Chair of the EIM Nominating Committee and the Chair of the EIM Regional Issues Forum. In her eight years at PGE, she has held positions in the Transmission Services, Power Operations, and FERC Compliance departments.

Prior to her work at PGE, Pam was an Analyst in the Office of Energy Policy and Innovation at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC. She was also a Presidential Management Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the Demand Response Team Lead at the Bonneville Power Administration.

Pam lives with her husband, Jeff and daughter, Adele. Pam earned her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a Masters in Public Administration from the Mark Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. She is also on the Board of Young Audiences, a nonprofit that brings arts education into classrooms and the Advisory Board of the Portland Youth Philharmonic.

Ms. Edmonds was selected in 2022 to be President and CEO of WPP.  WPP is a nonprofit corporation that helps coordinate electric grid operations for the western United States and Canada. The WPP supports the activities of the Northwest Power Pool, which includes major utilities, generators, and energy managers who together work for increased grid efficiency and reliability, including WPP’s administration of the regional resource adequacy program (WRAP), which seeks to enhance and increase reliability for entities across the footprint.   Prior to joining WPP, Ms. Edmonds spent nearly 11 years with PacifiCorp, starting as legal counsel, moving to director of transmission, before being named VP and general counsel. She moved to PGE in 2018 where she served as director of transmission and reliability. In these roles, she was responsible for development of strategy and policy recommendations relating to market expansion, regional resource adequacy development, emerging regional and national wholesale policy initiatives, and transmission expansion and cost recovery.