Brad Person is the President/Owner for Sustainable Energy Expense Reduction and Refrigeration (SEER2), a family operated business focused on facilitating key customer objectives, including asset retirement, environmental compliance, operations, energy efficiency, controls, and performance. Brad is a third-generation commercial refrigeration industry professional and entrepreneur. 

Prior to his role at SEER2, Brad was the owner of a family refrigeration contracting service business, which he helped grow to employ over 175 people and establish a strong industry presence in the southwest US region. After the business was acquired by Carrier/Tyler in 1999, Brad held various general management, strategic, operational, financial, technical, and sales roles for Carrier/Tyler before becoming the Senior Vice President of Operations for Source Refrigeration, where he led a team of approximately 2000 service/installation employees and subcontractors responsible for the maintenance, construction, development, and deployment of refrigeration, HVAC, and energy solutions for grocery retailers.

Brad has been with SEER2 since 2014, and utilizes his industry knowledge, experience, and relationships to support the objectives, initiatives, and goals of his commercial refrigeration customers. Brad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business/Finance from Arizona State University.

Todd Washburn, Secretary

True Manufacturing - Director of Sales and Marketing, Retail and Display Division

Todd has been with True Manufacturing for over twelve years and currently leads a team of sales and marketing professionals to drive continuous value to True’s ever expanding global customer base. In addition to achieving sales objectives, Todd is responsible for product portfolio expansion and successfully launching new technologies into the commercial refrigeration market. Todd’s engineering background along with eighteen years of refrigeration industry experience, has allowed him to drive value through technology and support True’s leadership position in the industry related to implementing energy efficient technology and environmentally responsible products like natural refrigerants. Todd is a member of True's Leadership Steering Committee, providing leadership, vision, and support to the future of True’s overall organization. Growing up in Maine, Todd developed a passion for the outdoors and enjoys any activity related to water and snow, as well as the occasional relaxing day playing golf. Todd also enjoys traveling with his wife and children. Todd earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering at the University of Maine.

Keilly witman, Chief Governance Officer

Keilly Witman is the Department Lead of the Refrigerant Management Solutions Group at DC Engineering. She works to help refrigerant end-users transition to environmentally friendlier refrigerants, implement best practices to reduce refrigerant emissions across their facilities, and comply with the increasing number of refrigerant regulations in the US. Prior to working at DC-Engineering, she was H-E-B's Director of Refrigerant Management and Sustainability, where she created their refrigerant management program and implemented it across all of their facilities.

Keilly started her career in refrigerant management 15 years ago when she launched the EPA’s GreenChill Partnership – the organization widely credited with changing the way the supermarket industry approaches refrigerant management. During her tenure the partnership grew to include over 12,000 supermarkets nationwide. Keilly created the NASRC in 2015 and served as the organization’s Chairman of the Board of Directors for its first 2 years. She has a law degree and a master’s degree in environmental policy.   

Dean Groff

Danfoss - Services Contractor Manager, Danfoss Food Retail Sales & Services North America

Dean Groff is Food Retail Service Contracts Manager for Danfoss and has over 30 years of experience in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry in a variety of functions, including Materials Management, Global Product Management and Program Management.

Dean currently serves on the Technical Committee for the North American Association of Food Equipment Manufactures (NAFEM) and is a member serving AHRI working groups dealing with regulatory issues in Commercial Refrigeration. Over the past ten years, Groff has represented the industry at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency.

James McClendon

Walmart Stores Inc. - Director of Energy Efficiency

James McClendon is Director of Energy Efficiency for Walmart Stores, Inc. Mr. McClendon joined Walmart in 2005 in a leadership position to develop new energy efficient designs and identify retrofit strategies to reduce the total energy consumption in new construction and the existing building portfolio.

Mr. McClendon leads a team in response to Walmart’s publicly stated goal to reduce their GHG emissions in alignment with the Paris accord. Components of this goal include installing 7 Billion kW of renewable energy and reducing their building energy intensity footprint (in kWh/sq-ft) by 20% which encompasses over 750 million square feet of existing buildings. Efforts towards this goal have led to many new industry developments including LED lighting, refrigeration system technologies and cooling applications.

Prior to joining Walmart, Mr. McClendon accumulated over 20 years of experience in the HVAC/R industry in both owning and managing companies from service & contracting to design & engineering. He has worked in the commercial, industrial, institutional and governmental sectors representing the contractor, designer, supplier and owner perspectives.

Mr. McClendon is a registered Mechanical Engineer, as well as a CEM, CEA, IPMVP, LEED, & NEBB.

Dustin Searcy

Parker Hannifin-Sporlan Division, Refrigeration Business Unit Manager

Dustin Searcy is the Refrigeration Business Unit Manager for Parker Hannifin’s Sporlan Division.  Parker is the world leader in motion and control technologies and manufactures refrigeration flow control solutions under the Sporlan, Parker, Refrigerating Specialties and Micro Thermo Alliance brands. 

Since joining Parker in 2006, Dustin has worked in a variety of sales and marketing roles, including application engineering, training, and business development.  In these roles, much of his focus has been on new products that meet the needs of our changing world and promote sustainable refrigerant solutions for the future.

Dustin holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri and a Master of Business Administration from Missouri Baptist University.

Kathy Loftus

Retail Business Services. - Vice President of Strategic Construction Projects, Energy and Facility Services

Kathy Loftus is the Vice President of Strategic Construction Projects, Energy and Facility Services at Retail Business Services which is the services company of Ahold Delhaize USA. In this role, Kathy leads several teams all engaged to optimize productivity and operationalize our business’ Race to Zero commitment.

Among previous roles in Business Development, Kathy was also Vice President of Sustainability for Whole Foods Market, leading strategic ESG programs and together with teams innovated in many areas within the built environment, including waste & packaging, responsible sourcing, education, marketing & communication.

She was a founding Steering Committee member for U.S. DOE’s Better Buildings Alliance and was a founding member of EPA’s Green Chill Program. She is immediate past Chair of the Board of Green Building Initiative, and member of the Ratio Institute’s and WPI’s’ Center for Sustainability in Business and Mechanical Engineering External Advisory Boards. She is also former Chair of the Board of Clean Air-Cool Planet and Waste Cap of MA.

Her education includes a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Mike Ellinger

Whole Foods Market, Inc. - Global Store Development, Principal Program Manager: Engineering, Compliance & Sustainability

Mike Ellinger is the Global Principal Program Manager of Engineering, Compliance and Sustainability for Whole Foods Market, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, Inc. Mike joined Whole Foods Market back in 1997 as part of the Sustainable Facilities Team and currently works to develop and implement MEPR programs aligning with the company’s sustainability goals as the industry’s leading Natural and Organic Supermarket. 

Mike has over 20 years in the HVAC/R industry, developing, implementing and maintaining HVAC and refrigeration solutions. Prior to joining Whole Foods Market, Mike worked as a Service Manager on the OEM side of the business focused on transport refrigeration with Carrier Transicold, a United Technologies Company.

Todd Ernest

Climate Pros - Founder & CEO

Todd Ernest is the Founder and CEO of Climate Pros, a commercial refrigeration and HVAC service contractor. Todd began his career in the refrigeration industry at 19 years old and founded Climate Pros just 9 years later. Growing Climate Pros from one to now over 900 employees, he is disrupting the industry with their cutting edge technology, integration software, and a customer focused business model. Under Todd, Climate Pros has committed significant resources to training technicians, contributing to an adequately trained technician workforce. Prior to founding Climate Pros, Todd worked as a service technician, field service engineer, and lead service technician.

Derek Gosselin

Hillphoenix - Director Technical Product Specialist Group

With more than 30 years of HVACR industry experience, Derek Gosselin currently serves as Director of the Technical Product Support team for Hillphoenix, a Dover Food Retail Company, located in Conyers, GA. Derek began his career as a store planner at Associated Grocers of New England in Manchester, NH, before joining Tyler Refrigeration as its New England district sales manager. After logging more than 10 years in the position, he was eventually promoted to national account manager there, where he worked for another 10 years. In 2009 as part of the Hillphoenix acquisition of Tyler, Derek joined Hillphoenix as a National Account Manager before moving into operations as a systems division Product Manager with a focus on business and product development. With the recent trends in the industry, he has moved into the lead position on a team to support the promotion and education for the application of new technologies.

Amber Hardy

ALDI USA - Director of Facilities, Systems and Sustainability

Amber is the Director of Systems & Sustainability at ALDI USA. She has nearly a decade of experience working with supermarket refrigeration and HVAC mechanical systems.

Amber has a collective 15 years of experience with ALDI. Prior to her current role, Amber was a District Manager working in retail operations before transitioning to energy management. She oversees the facilities management department with an emphasis on refrigeration, energy efficiency and sustainability. Dedicating more focus now to refrigeration, HVAC and building management systems, she and her team continue to drive optimization of resources in the store footprint.

Michael Dellecave

The Kroger Co. - Manager of Mechanical Services

Michael Dellecave is the Manager of Mechanical Services for The Kroger Co.  Kroger operates nearly 2,800 stores in 35 states under two dozen banners with the purpose of Feeding the Human Spirit.  He has over 20 years of experience in retail grocery facility engineering.  Currently, Michael manages a team with core responsibilities including refrigeration, HVAC and controls.  His focus in these areas is on developing and implementing cost effective and efficient technologies, designs and applications.  Prior to this role, Michael developed and implemented renewable energy and conservation projects for Kroger.  Michael has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

Joe Sanchez

BITZER US, Inc. - Vice President of Engineering

Joe Sanchez is the Vice President of Engineering for BITZER US, Inc. an independent subsidiary of BITZER SE, the largest independent semi-hermetic piston and screw compressor manufacturer globally with revenues exceeding 900 million Euro.

 Over the course of 18 years with BITZER, Joe has helped develop the US subsidiary through various operational and technical roles.  He currently manages Application, Value Add, and Pressure Vessel engineering teams. 

 Joe is an active member of ASHRAE, IIAR and RETA and former chair of AHRI Compressor section (2019 recipient of the AHRI Richard C. Schulze award).

 He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA from University of Florida.