Monthly CEDA breakfast to focus on energy

Three speakers involved with the future of energy in Nevada will be the guests at this month’s Churchill Economic Development Authority breakfast meeting at 6:45 a.m. Oct. 17 at Stockman’s Steakhouse.

RSVP to Sara Champneys at sara@cedaattracts.com by Oct. 16 at 2 p.m.

Carolyn Barbash is the vice president of energy market policy for NV Energy where she is leading efforts to develop policies for Nevada’s electric market. Prior to her current position, she was a vice president for PacifiCorp, leading efforts to explore creating a regional independent system operator and energy market with the California ISO. Barbash has 29 years of energy delivery and policy experience and has held various executive positions at NV Energy including compliance, transmission and electric and gas operations.

Mike Roberson is the Northern Nevada outreach coordinator for the Coalition to Defeat Question 3. If passed, Question 3 would allow the state Legislature to create a competitive energy market in place of NV Energy’s monopoly by July 2023.

Prior to joining the “No on 3” campaign, Roberson spent the past 17 years traveling the globe as a sales executive in the aerospace industry. He is originally from Houston and holds a bachelor’s in engineering and a master of business administration from Texas A&M University.

Mary Simmons is vice president of Business Development and Community Strategy. She has worked in the utility industry for more than 30 years and has held a variety of executive positions with NV Energy. Simmons previously served as a board member of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada and as chair of the Go Red for Women event in 2015.