Colorado State University Administrators Named to Smart Grid, Venture Capital Legislative Boards

Note to Reporters: Photos of Mark Wdowik and Wade Troxell are available with the news release at http://www.news.colostate.edu/.

Colorado Legislators have named two Colorado State University administrators – Mark Wdowik and Wade Troxell – to advisory boards on venture capital and smart grids, respectively.

Wdowik will serve on the Venture Capital Authority Board, which is housed in the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade. He is president and CEO of CSU Management Corp. and executive fund director for CSU Fund I, a private equity investment fund to help advance early-stage companies associated with CSU.

The Colorado General Assembly in 2004 established a Colorado Venture Capital Authority to invest in early-stage companies as a way to create new business opportunities and stimulate economic growth. In 2005, the Venture Capital Authority established its first fund of roughly $25 million known as Colorado Fund 1; a second fund is expected to be created in 2010.

Authority board members have experience in venture capital, investment banking, institutional investment, fund management, or banking. Wdowik served as the executive director of the technology transfer office at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte before joining Colorado State’s technology transfer offices in the Colorado State University Research Foundation in 2006.

Troxell, associate dean for research and economic development for the College of Engineering, has been named to the Smart Grid Task Force, which is expected to “recommend legislative and administrative measures to encourage the orderly implementation of smart grid technology in Colorado.”

The state generally defines smart grids as systems for electric distribution that can, among other things, optimize efficiency, monitor and diagnose power quality and enable consumers to participate actively in managing their electric consumption.

By January, the task force is expected to produce analysis of the feasibility, cost and timing of transitioning to a secure and technologically advanced electric grid in Colorado. The report is also expected to include information on consumer metering protocols, cyber security and workforce and economic development issues.

Other members of the Smart Grid Task Force represent smart grid technology providers, consumer protection organizations, utilities, and cooperative electric associations.

Troxell studies "intelligent control of distributed energy" applications that are necessary for improving the critical U.S. electric power infrastructure. Through his research, he explores networked distributed energy resources related to the environment and renewable technologies providing for secure and reliable power systems that integrate renewable energy such as wind and solar into a real-time power market.

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