The Management Team Behind GridPoint Intelligence

Derek Booth, Chief Executive Officer, brings a wealth of experience to GridPoint, boasting a distinguished career that spans over two decades in service delivery and transformational leadership, with a notable tenure at Johnson Controls. He is an accomplished professional, recognized for his strategic prowess in operations management. Throughout his career, Booth has exemplified a remarkable ability to yield exceptional results in terms of revenue, net income, and customer expansion. Esteemed for his leadership and mentoring skills, he has a well-documented history of fostering talent and spearheading high-performance teams. Booth’s steadfast commitment to excellence and his capacity to inspire his colleagues are perfectly aligned with the ethos and values of the company. Prior to becoming CEO, Derek served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Customer Officer.

Doug Markle, Chief Revenue Officer for GridPoint, is responsible for driving acquisition and growth of strategic accounts. Mr. Markle sets go-to-market strategy within this charge, and oversees the execution of the executives on the Go-To-Market team. Mr. Markle brings over 30 years of sales leadership experience to GridPoint. Prior to joining, he served as the CEO for Allocation, Managing Director for Simfoni, SVP of Sales for PRGX, President for HICX Solutions, SVP of Global Sales for CVM Solutions, VP of Sales at Quest Diagnostics, and more.

Mr. Markle’s experience includes the rapid growth of five start-up companies, six “turn-around” projects, sales leadership within multiple publicly held organizations, C-level leadership in four European companies, and seven companies successfully sold.

Prior to GridPoint, Mr. Markle spent over twenty years in the supply chain and procurement solutions space. In this time, his companies did business with over 350 of the Fortune500. Mr. Markle was a regular speaker at The CPO Conference, EEI, Procurement Leaders, ProcureCon, ISM and others. He also created and authored the popular blog, SupplierPedia.

Mr. Markle studied Architecture at Colorado University, followed by Industrial Management within Purdue University’s Krannert Graduate School of Management. He serves on several board of directors, actively volunteers to serve his community, and treasures his time with his wife, Sandy, and two daughters, Sophia and Isabella.

Thomas Kloster, Chief Financial Officer, is a strategic finance executive with over three decades of experience enhancing the performance of tech-enabled businesses. As CFO of Gridpoint, Mr. Kloster is responsible for partnering with and supporting the company’s leaders to drive growth of our industry-leading intelligent network while directly overseeing all financial matters. He is focused on optimizing GridPoint’s financial structure to support the company’s rapid growth, driving cost initiatives, evaluating corporate and business development opportunities and managing investor relationships.

Throughout his career, Mr. Kloster has successfully enhanced the performance of multiple SaaS based tech-enabled businesses resulting in strategic sales or public equity offerings. He also has extensive experience leading corporate finance functions, raising debt and equity capital, and negotiating and integrating mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Kloster holds a B.B.A in Accounting from the University of Texas and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Thomas Nelson is General Counsel and Senior Vice President for GridPoint and is responsible for the company’s legal affairs. Previously, Mr. Nelson was Of Counsel at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he represented clients on a variety of intellectual property and litigation matters. Prior to that, Mr. Nelson performed engineering, sales, and marketing roles at organizations in the electronics sector. Mr. Nelson holds a B.S in Electrical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law. He is a member of the New York, District of Columbia and Virginia bars and is a registered patent attorney.

With nearly two decades of experience in energy management and building automation, Shawn has worked across retail, quick service restaurants, and other commercial sectors, helping organizations optimize their facilities through intelligent automation and data-driven decision-making. He has deep expertise with EMS platforms and firsthand experience both working with and competing against top industry providers, giving him a unique perspective on what sets GridPoint apart. He has led teams across the industry and has worn nearly every hat, from business development, sales, and account management to operations, product, and support, giving him a comprehensive understanding of the customer journey. As Vice President of Customer Success, he is committed to helping customers maximize the impact of GridPoint solutions to achieve their energy and business goals.

With over 20 years leading teams at GridPoint, Jennifer Faulkner is uniquely positioned in her current role as VP of Strategic Initiatives to lead the development and execution of strategic projects that enhance customer satisfaction and improve scalability. Ms. Faulkner is driven by the mission of empowering customers to optimize their energy consumption and values continuous learning and innovation in that endeavor.  Ms. Faulkner holds an MBA from Radford University Davis College of Business & Economics.

Alex has spent the last fifteen years in the Facilities industry, where he built and led large multisite maintenance and managed service programs for brands like 7-Eleven, ExxonMobil, McDonalds, Michaels, and more. Alex has been instrumental in streamlining processes, driving program value, expanding relationships, growing revenue, and saving his customers millions of dollars.   Prior to the Facilities world, he owned and operated several successful entrepreneurial start-up ventures and worked in the advertising and print marketing world. Alex is an industrial engineer by trade and a passionate process improvement enthusiast. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University and is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt.

Roger Layette is Vice President of Sales at GridPoint, where he drives sales strategy, team excellence, and revenue acceleration. With over 20 years of leadership experience in Software/SaaS sales, Roger has a strong track record of delivering results, cultivating high-impact client relationships, and building top-performing teams.

Prior to GridPoint, Roger held key leadership roles at Allocation Network, HICX Solutions, and Levante/PRGX, where he spearheaded revenue growth and market expansion initiatives. A strategic and customer-focused leader, he is passionate about aligning sales execution with business objectives to drive sustainable success.

In his spare time Roger enjoys spending time with his family and friends.

Greg Morehead is the VP of Hardware Engineering at GridPoint, a leader in building energy management and optimization technology that decarbonizes commercial buildings and drives grid modernization. In this role, Greg is responsible for the design and manufacture of the systems deployed to building sites and ensuring their successful implementation into the grid and GridPoint’s energy management solution. Prior to GridPoint, Greg developed and deployed utility scale battery storage solutions based on flow battery technologies. Greg has decades of experience developing system automation solutions for the industrial, manufacturing, defense, and energy sectors.

Yury Velikanau, Vice President of Software Engineering at GridPoint, brings over two decades of experience in software engineering. With a humble approach to leadership, Yury has guided high-performance teams, contributing to innovative projects in e-commerce, real estate and fintech sectors. Yury holds an M.S. in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science.

Jason Ruiz is a strategic finance leader with over two decades of experience valuing businesses and building financial, management, and investor reporting and analytics. At GridPoint, Mr. Ruiz leads FP&A activities including budgeting, financial and management reporting, and strategic financial analysis.

Mark Danzenbaker has been with GridPoint since 2009 in several leadership positions. As CEO from 2016 to 2025, Mr. Danzenbaker was responsible for the development and execution of the company’s mission to accelerate the world’s transition to a sustainable future by creating an intelligent energy network of grid-interactive buildings. Prior to GridPoint, Mr. Danzenbaker was with Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Mr. Danzenbaker holds an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and a B.S. degree from James Madison University.