Director, Construction

Clint Abrams

Clint is our Director of Construction who oversees all of Urban Grid’s construction projects from Pre-Development to the hand over to the Asset Management team. With over 20+ years of experience in the solar industry across the United States and Canada, Clint brings a wealth of knowledge in constructing solar projects. Prior to Urban Grid, Clint served in the same role for one of the largest IPP’s in the nation as well as for the largest utility in Arizona working in their renewable energy department building some of the largest utility scale solar projects in the nation.  

In his spare time, Clint enjoys spending time with wife and children and traveling abroad with his wife. 

Director, Project Controls

Sudie Bhat

Sudie (Sudarshan) heads the Project Controls team, overseeing the development of cost estimates, planning & scheduling, budgeting & cost control, and project risk management. His team collaborates closely with project delivery and development teams to ensure setup of project controls for ongoing and upcoming projects. 

With nearly two decades of experience in capital project management, Sudie has worked extensively in project controls across a wide spectrum of energy projects, including oil and gas production, refineries, solar, and wind farms. He brings expertise in developing project controls strategies, large scale implementation of tools, building teams, and establishing competency development plans for the function. Recently, Sudie pioneered the establishment of the project controls function for Shell’s onshore renewable group from scratch. His deep expertise is in innovative application of probabilistic quantitative risk analysis techniques for better decision making.   

Educationally, Sudie holds a B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA with concentration in Operations Management. Outside of work, Sudie enjoys traveling and spending quality time with his family. His recent passion is endurance biking, and he aspires to revive his former hobby of theater acting sometime soon. 

Director, Treasury

Opal Desaire

As Urban Grid’s Director of Treasury, Opal leads the Treasury and Accounts Payable Departments and is responsible for liquidity, payment strategy, bank account optimization, and debt management. Opal has 20+ years of Treasury experience across several industries including solar, insurance, and finance. 

A Certified Treasury Professional, Opal holds a Master’s in Organizational Leadership from the University of Denver, and a BA in Business Administration from Fort Lewis College located in beautiful Durango, Colorado. Outside of work, Opal enjoys yoga and spending time with her sisters, family, and friends. She looks forward to more adventures traveling the globe with her husband. 

Director, Power Delivery

Peter Grobbelaar

Peter is responsible for the Project Control team’s focus to serve as an assurance function, monitoring and reporting on projects from development to delivery to assure that they remain on schedule and within budget, while identifying potential risks and latent issues.
Peter’s expertise spans the energy industry, with a focus on renewable generation, utility operations, grid integration, EPC & Construction Management. Prior to joining Urban Grid, Peter spent several years in Duke Energy’s Resource & Project Management department.
Peter holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, a Professional Project Management certification from PMI, as well as an MBA from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. In his spare time, he and his wife enjoy spending time with his family, and pursuing opportunities on ski slopes and coral reefs.

Sr. Director, Engineering

Jim Halley

Jim is responsible for leading the engineering team that designs the solar projects developed and constructed by Urban Grid. The engineering work begins with a conceptual design in the early development stage and concludes with a detailed design and energy model. Jim has led the development and final design plans of approximately 230 solar farms from entitlement through erosion control to close-out; 1.4 GW constructed; 10.7 GW actively in design. Work experience includes 10 years in renewables, 12 years in stormwater design and permitting, and 6 years in geotechnical engineering. Jim is a licensed Professional Engineer and holds a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech and a master’s from NC State University. During his free time, he enjoys exploring new areas on day hikes with his family (two and four legged), traveling out west, and mountain biking.

Vice President, Asset Management

Jeff Hudson

Jeff oversees operations and maintenance activities, leading the team who ensures our projects are run safely and reliably while increasing their performance and profitability. In addition, Jeff’s team is responsible for project compliance, contract oversight and the agrivoltaics program.
Previously at Urban Grid, Jeff was the Director of Interconnection where he established the transmission, interconnection and innovation teams and oversaw strategy development for Urban Grid’s 15 GW solar PV pipeline. Prior to Urban Grid, Jeff worked in the interconnection and renewables operations departments at Duke Energy where he led process improvement projects and managed the CPRE projects in the DEC territory. In Duke’s renewables operations team, he performed analysis and modeling of development and operational wind and solar projects.
Jeff holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University as well as an MBA from NC State University.

Vice President, Human Resources

Bianca Krukiel

Bianca brings extensive HR expertise to Urban Grid and focuses on accelerating team-focused priorities such as career coaching, training and leadership development.
Bianca’s background spans all aspects of HR working for large corporations with over 2800+ employees, where she supported leadership with compensation planning, workforce development and organizational alignment for growth. Most recently she worked for Battalion Oil Corporation, a small independent oil and gas company, where she was HR Director.

VP, Technology & Innovation

Shaun Murphy

Shaun is responsible for leading the Technology & Innovation department that drives the adoption of technology to optimize execution and business performance. The team focuses on deploying leading technology solutions to streamline and optimize data integration, analysis, automation, and reporting.

Before joining Urban Grid, Shaun worked at PJM Interconnection for approximately nine years. Shaun has worked in all major divisions of PJM including system operations, planning, and wholesale markets. Most recently, Shaun was a member of PJM’s R&D and was responsible for managing various grid enhancing technology projects.
Outside the office, Shaun enjoys spending time with his wife and two young children, and working on DIY projects around the house.

Vice President, Economic & Community Development

Val Newcomb

Val leads the team focused on local engagement, coalition building, corporate giving and local government affairs, while creating and delivering project campaign strategy and messaging throughout the lifecycle of our projects. 

She previously led Marketing and Communications for the company, leveraging her 20-year background activating marketing programs for top brands and global non-profits in the public education space. Her passion for startups and doing good work for good causes led her to renewables in 2016, heading up marketing for solar IPP Coronal-Panasonic. Before Urban Grid, Val spent two years as part of the launch team at Lumin, an energy management venture, as VP of Marketing and communications. 

In addition to holding a BA in Communications from Pennsylvania State University, Val is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Strategic Communications at Penn State. Gardening, canning and cooking consume her spare time in the (seasonally) empty nest she shares with her husband and two Yorkies in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Senior Director, Land Acquisition

Stewart West

Stewart is responsible for co-leading the Acquisition team in the identification and acquisition of greenfield projects while also supporting the supplemental land team. His expertise in mineral ownership has helped identify and cure risk across the UG projects.
Prior to joining Urban Grid, Stewart’s worked in land acquisition in the mid-stream and upstream energy sectors for more than a decade with a primary focus on mineral leases, right-of-way, and surface use agreements to support operations.
Stewart holds a BA in Political Science from Allegheny College, as well as a Masters in Energy and Natural Resource Law from the University of Oklahoma, College of Law. Stewart is also a Certified Professional Landman through the American Association of Professional Landmen.
Outside of work, Stewart enjoys the great outdoors and building new memories with his wife and two kids.