Management Team

John P. Yeros, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member
Jeffrey Schumacher, Executive Vice-President, COO
James M. Gumina, Ph. D., Director of Strategic Planning
Deanna D. Soulis, Director Human Resources and Recruiting
Kenneth E. Wirt, P.E.,  Senior Program Manager

John P. Yeros, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member

Mr. Yeros was named CEO of IGSolutions in June of 2009 after successfully completing a comprehensive business/market analysis of the Smart Grid market sector on behalf of both FirstEnergy (FE) and First Communications, Inc. (FC). After a thorough review of the findings, implications and assessment of the potential market scope for smart grid-related products and services, FE and FC decided to establish IGSolutions under Mr. Yeros’ strategic leadership.

For the past twenty years Mr. Yeros has devoted his business energies to various segments of the high technology arena, including healthcare, Internet-related software development and computer hardware manufacturing and service delivery. He was Founder, Chairman& CEO of Medix Resources from 1988 until 2000; in this capacity he transformed a start-up healthcare software development firm into a public entity with a market cap of $450 million. With a similar entrepreneurial flair, Mr. Yeros founded HyperSpace Communications in 2001 and completed a public offering in 2004; during his tenure the company acquired Idaho-based MPC Computers, Gateway’s Professional Services Division and, as the MPC Corp., eventually had more than a thousand employees and $500 million in revenue by 2007.

Prior to undertaking these varied entrepreneurial ventures Mr. Yeros had a highly successful career in the securities industry starting as a account executive with Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith in New York in 1977 and culminating in key management roles with E. F. Hutton, Hanifen Imhoff Inc. and B. C. Christopher Securities where he last served as Regional VP was overseeing three offices in the Rocky Mountain Region before launching Medix Resources in 1988.

Academically, Mr. Yeros has a B. S. degree in education from Wichita State University.

Jeffrey Schumacher, Executive Vice-President, COO

Mr. Schumacher, former COO of Power Grid Communications and IDACOMM, has an extensive array of technical, operational and executive experiences within the telecommunications and electric utility industries. In his current role, he is responsible for IGSolutions’ North American Smart Grid deployments where he has worked closely with First Energy, Center Point, Entergy and Austin Energy, and also has served as project manager for CELG Brazil, CFE Mexico and other international development and design projects. His team developed an integrated utility applications platform and customer portal known as “GridEYE” which supports Automated Meter Reading and Demand Side Management applications.

In concert with his technical and operational underpinnings, Mr. Schumacher’s career has also been characterized by working closely with customers, suppliers and retail end-users. Toward that end, “PBL Today,” a trade publication, praised his work by saying “(Their) Smart Grid demo in Austin shows real value. (It) may be the widest collection of application(s) anywhere.” His demo included working AMI for electric, water and gas meters; alternative energy and demand side management; smart thermostats, home security, surveillance and VOIP; and broadband kiosks, street light controls and grid automation applications.

Prior to devoting his professional energies exclusively toward Smart Grid applications and issues, Mr. Schumacher had a wide range of accountabilities within the telecommunications, software and manufacturing industries. He served as the VP of Client Services & Testing at Qwest Communications, Inc., where he was responsible for IT integration for seven mergers and acquisitions. Likewise, during his tenure as Qwest’s CIO and VP of Worldwide Network Applications, he assumed major responsibility for the deployment and management of Qwest’s global Fiber, ATM and DSL network monitoring and trouble management applications. Earlier in his distinguished career, he also managed the deployment of major projects and key systems across 12 business units for the General Electric Corporation.

Mr. Schumacher’s academic credentials include a degree in Electrical Engineering, with a minor in power engineering, from Lehigh University. He is also a graduate of GE’s Manufacturing Management Program and has attended numerous advanced leadership courses while at GE as well. As a member of IEEE, he has developed numerous relationships within various industries and has been a sought after speaker at conferences on a closed loop process consisting of testing, automation and software control and management.

James M. Gumina, Ph. D., Director of Strategic Planning

Dr. Gumina began his career in organization consulting in 1971 during a post-doctoral fellowship in community/consulting psychology from the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York. After several years of serving on the faculties of three major medical schools early in his career, he focused his professional energies toward full time organizational consulting in 1979 when he was recruited to join an international management consulting firm.

Thereafter, from 1984-1992 he was President of Gumina & Anthony, Inc., a Colorado-based organization consulting firm, and in 1992 he formed Gumina Consulting, Inc., and concentrated his professional efforts toward serving a wide variety of industries, functions and organizational structures. In general terms, the range of assignments has run the gamut from smaller entrepreneurial ventures to larger, multi-national Fortune 500 companies. Specific experiences include: Comprehensive organizational analyses; leadership development and executive coaching; strategic and organizational planning facilitation; mergers and acquisitions planning and implementation; team development; and special projects linked to strategic, structural and staffing dynamics.

After having a very successful consulting career, he was recruited to become an executive at J. D. Edwards, at the time a large Colorado-based international software development company. From 1998-2000 he held two executive positions (VP of Organization Development and VP of Cultural Accountability & HR) and sat on the company’s Executive Committee which focused on strategy development and planning. During his tenure as the chief HR officer, J. D. Edwards twice achieved recognition as one of Fortune Magazine’s “Top 100 Companies To Work For.”

More recently Dr. Gumina was the Chief Culture Officer at HyperSpace Communications, Inc., a Denver-based software company where he was also a member of the Board of Directors from 2001 until late 2005. He also served as a Strategic Planning Advisor for MPC Computers, Inc., a Boise based computer hardware manufacturer before returning to full time consulting in 2007; and then in August, 2009 he was appointed Director of Strategic Planning for IGSolutions where he works closely with the executive team and Board to ensure effective, comprehensive and systematic business- and organizational-planning.

His academic credentials include a B. S. in Psychology from Carroll College; an M. S. and Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and a post-doctoral fellowship from the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Deanna D. Soulis, Director Human Resources and Recruiting

Ms. Soulis was appointed Director of Human Resources and Recruiting for IGSolutions in August, 2009 after a very successful 25-year career in Human Resources with various companies, including Land Title Guarantee Company, the Warwick Hotel and the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau. Although she is highly sophisticated within the broad realm of Human Resources, her passion has revolved around a special emphasis in the talent acquisition arena.

Within the recruitment domain at IGSolutions, she is responsible for designing detailed needs assessments; writing job descriptions; developing systematic job selection criteria; interviewing candidates for both technical and managerial positions; coordinating with all IGSolutions hiring managers/leaders; interfacing with functional and line managers; and participating in IGSolutions’ organizational planning efforts.

In addition to her primary recruiting role, Ms. Soulis also participates actively in other HR-related activities such as training, staff development, performance management and organizational cultural enhancements as needed. Academically she is pursuing a B. S. in Human Resource Management at Regis University in Denver, Colorado.

Kenneth E. Wirt, P.E., Senior Program Manager

Mr. Wirt joined the Intelligent Grid Solutions executive team in January 2010 after having a distinguished managerial and operational career at FirstEnergy Corporation in Akron, Ohio. During his 35-year tenure at FirstEnergy, Mr. Wirt’s responsibilities spanned all aspects of managing and operating the electric grid for this major electric utility; his specific roles revolved around technical, managerial, project/program management and internal consulting activities which focused on engineering, deploying and maintaining communications, and designing control and risk management systems. In some respects, Mr. Wirt can be viewed as a “smart grid pioneer” since he was on the forefront of facilitating and developing FirstEnergy’s original smart grid strategy, relevant road maps and various communications and information flow architectures that are all designed to support smart grid deployments.

Mr. Wirt also served as an advisor for EPRI’s (Electric Power Research Institute) Intelligrid activities; in this capacity he was deeply involved in the management of a major project that focused on the implementation of defense-in-depth security for wireless technologies used in a sub-station environment. His impressive background covers all aspects of engineering, maintenance of utility communications and control systems, and a strong familiarity with a panorama of smart grid technologies – All of these skills are important and central to providing expertise and support for Intelligent Grid Solutions’ clients.

Academically, Mr. Wirt holds a B. S. degree in Accounting, a B. S. in Electronics Technology and an
M. S. in Technical Education from the University of Akron. Also, he is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Ohio; served in the U. S. Navy before launching his technical and managerial career; taught at Wayne College at the University of Akron; and held various technical positions at Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Borg-Warner Corporation early in his career before joining First Energy Corporation.