Mr. Rawson is an internationally recognized expert in energy technology innovation and commercialization. He helped initiate the decentralization of the electric power system back in the 1990s through his technology and policy development work for the California Energy Commission (CEC), followed by development and deployment of distributed energy resources for the 6th largest municipal utility in the U.S. - the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). Most recently, he was responsible for efforts to reduce commercialization and market entry challenges for energy startups and incumbent utilities through creating market-driven strategic partnerships between SMUD and early stage companies bringing new products and services to market. This culminated in Mr. Rawson leading an international effort to create a new public private partnership - California Mobility Center - whose mission is to accelerate commercialization of zero emission mobility products, services and charging infrastructure.Previously, Mr. Rawson served as SMUD’s principal research technology officer responsible for research strategic planning and portfolio management where he leveraged his 25+ years of experience in energy research and policy development. He led millions of dollars worth of federal and state-funded demonstration projects in microgrids, photovoltaic and energy storage technologies. He was a founding board member of the industry association Modular Energy System Architecture (MESA) Standards Alliance whose mission is to accelerate the interoperability of distributed energy resources and utility-scale energy storage systems through the development of open and non-proprietary communication specifications, based on standards.Previous to joining SMUD, Mr. Rawson served as the Energy System Integration Research Program Manager with the CEC’s Public Interest Energy Research Program. He was responsible for a $40 million program in the areas of distributed generation, storage, transmission and distribution, and demand responsive load control in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and national energy laboratories.Mr. Rawson also coauthored the CEC’s 2005 Integrated Energy Policy Report policies for promotion of combined heat and power and other distributed generation in California. He served on the National Electric Transportation Infrastructure Working Council’s Health and Safety Committee which was charged with the development of standardize electric vehicle changing equipment.