Brad joined Irth Solutions first as a board member in 2020 and now serves as CEO. Prior to his role as CEO at Irth Solutions, Brad was Global Managing Director of IBM’s Energy, Environment and Utility Industry. Brad’s formal education includes a BA in Political Science and an MBA in Finance. Brad has testified in front of the US Congress on Energy issues and has been featured in articles in Forbes, Business Week and numerous industry and business periodicals. Brad is also considered a thought-leader on Energy and Utility issues and is a frequent speaker and panelist at industry events. Before joining IBM, Brad served as a Captain in the United States Air Force where he held positions in Strategy and Planning and as a Flight Crew member on the B-52.

Since joining Irth Solutions in 1996, Rod Ball has been instrumental in defining best practices in development and has been a key leader in the design, development and testing of our solutions. Rod and his team are responsible for the creation of all Irth Solutions products and works closely with Irth Solutions staff and customers to ensure the products deliver required functionality. Rod holds several industry certifications and has a B.S. degree in Software Engineering from The Ohio State University.

Brian Jones has over 35 years of experience in the energy and utilities industry. He started his career holding leadership positions for an investor-owned electric and gas utility for 11 years. Brian has helped build three software and services companies serving in a CRO role at two of those companies. Brian also served nearly a decade with global software giant SAP, helping to build the SAP Utilities practice as a leading provider of industry-focused solutions. Before joining Irth, Brian was the Energy and Utilities practice head for Cognizant Technology Services leading a team of over 7,000 professionals. Brian has a B.S. in Business from Wright State University.

Amanda is a Senior Technical Analyst at Consumers Energy and is responsible for continuous improvement and automation within the Damage Prevention group. Amanda ensures that accurate data is coming in from the field and then can be reported out as needed. She works closely with the UtiliSphere team to drive updates and changes needed within the system and has an internal IT team that takes the data to create visuals through Power BI. She also manages the Gold Shovel program for Consumers Energy to promote safe digging practices among all contractors.

Amanda has been an employee of Consumers Energy for 17 years with a wide range of experience including: customer service, reconciliation, supervisor, planning, scheduling, and transmission/storage. Joining the Damage Prevention Team has been a highlight of my career and I thoroughly enjoy learning about the industry and best practices.

Thomas N. Lord is Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for UGI Corporation’s Natural Gas businesses (UGI Utilities, UGI Energy Services, and Mountaineer Gas Company). He is responsible for the strategic direction and overall management of all information technology functions, including data management and security, help desks, communications networks, program development, and computer system operations.

Thomas contributes more than 40 years of experience and a breadth of knowledge in information technology to UGI. During the past 7 years, he established, led, and guided key initiatives and projects within UGI’s UNITE Program, including the implementation of Customer Relationship and Billing (CRB) [2017], Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) [2019, 2020], Fieldglass (Contractor Management) [2019], Capital Planning and Budgeting [2020], support for Renewable Natural Gas [2021], and Asset Data Collection [2022].

Thomas holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from Queen Mary College, University of London.

Jordyn Petersen joined MDU in 2021. As a Public Awareness and Damage Prevention Coordinator, Jordyn is the lead for external stakeholder communications, supplemental outreach, and community events. Jordyn graduated from Boise State University with a bachelor’s in communications and Marketing. Outside of work, Jordyn enjoys hiking, baking, traveling, and spending time with friends and family, her husband, and her dogs.

Dennis started working as a utility line locator in the Damage Prevention industry in 2000. Later he was promoted into management and worked his way into the Nevada / California State Director position for ELM until 2015. Dennis moved on to work for the City of Mesa in Arizona, overseeing the city’s locating program. A short year later, in 2016, Dennis was selected by Southwest Gas to fill the first Damage Prevention Administrator position within the company. Dennis joined as a Board Member with the Nevada Regional Common Ground Alliance in 2016 and is currently the Chairman of the Board. Dennis also serves as Vice-Chair on the USAN 811 Board of Directors.

Over the past 2 years Melissa has lead the Outside Plant Damage Claims team, for Charter Communications. Melissa oversees the protection of approximately 800,000 existing miles of network infrastructure, which comprise of 41 states. Prior to this role with Charter, Melissa spent 4 years in Field Engineering working directly with construction and design.

Pascual “Paco” Alvarez was born and raised in Southern California. Alvarez started with Chevron in October of 2013 as a Facility Inspector, locating pipelines in the Los Angeles Basin. His last role in the field was as a Senior Facility Inspector before moving to Houston and taking on the role of Damage Prevention Coordinator. He is a member of the Damage Prevention Workgroup, Public Awareness Workgroup and Dredging Pipeline Taskforce with American Petroleum Institute (API). He has been with Chevron for 9 years.

Jason Adams has had an extensive career in Damage Prevention. With over 25 years of experience working with some of the largest stakeholders in the industry, Jason has become an expert in building and creating solutions that promote safety. Jason started his career in the Damage Prevention space by joining Irth Solutions in 1997. During his time with Irth Solutions, he worked directly with multiple clients in his role as Director of Sales. As he continued his career with Irth Solutions, he focused on working with One Call Notification centers in building some of the most advanced tools for increasing safety and reducing risk. In 2010, he was promoted from President to Chief Executive Officer. In 2012, Jason exited the company after a successful acquisition. Jason formed 4iQ Solutions in 2013 and helped create a company whose focus was leveraging data to help reduce risk and promote better education. 4iQ Solutions quickly became one of the largest providers of One Call Notification software and training and certification for the Damage Prevention Industry. With the recent acquisition of 4iQ Solutions, Jason returns to his roots and looks forward to building tools that will help in the journey of making the world a little safer.

Jeff Law has more than 26 years of experience in the Damage Prevention Industry. He started his career as a software developer, creating applications for the damage prevention industry for KorTerra. He later became Vice President of KorTerra, running all company operations and building processes and procedures needed to run a software company. Jeff recently joined the 4iQ Solutions team and was named President of the organization soon after joining. Jeff has worked with numerous industry experts attending trade shows and belonging to industry organizations, helping build efficiencies with software design. Jeff chaired the Technology Committee for the CGA for two years and later helped launch the technology report the industry produces annually. Jeff has a B.S. in Management Information Systems and a Bachelor of Accounting degree from the University of Minnesota-Duluth.