Hanna Grene, Chief of Commercial Development of PXiSE
Hanna is the Chief of Commercial Development of PXiSE (pronounced ‘pice’), a company offering grid management technology, primarily software, to integrate and manage renewable and distributed energy resources. She directs corporate strategy and commercial development for this growing technology company by overseeing business development, sales, marketing, and global partnerships.
FINDING A PURPOSE
Hanna grew up in Wichita, Kansas, where the cycle of life can be seen in its endless prairie and blue skies. Life in the Midwest is seen as iconic American living. One can conjure up images of renewable energy out there being windmills and anaerobic digesters in the middle of fields. After high school, Hanna attended American University, where she completed a degree in International Relations with a specialty in global environmental politics, which merges the concepts of economics, international relations, and environmental policy.
During college, Hanna conducted research in Cameroon for six months. It was then that she seriously considered the field of renewable energy as a career choice. In Cameroon, she learned there were concerns among the Cameroonians over the Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Pipeline that had been built through the jungles and villages and out to the coast for tankers. Cameroon did not have enforced environmental protections and construction standards. Residents complained of finding oil on the beach, large drops in fishing productivity, and thousands of jobs promised to the people that did not materialize. This experience brought her to dedicate her career to finding market-based strategies to fight climate change by supporting clean energy innovation and energy access as a consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, and becoming a subject matter expert in distributed energy resources.
After having lived in Washington, DC for nine years, she was ready for a change. Her mentor told her that she would need to go to New York, Massachusetts, or California if she wanted to be a part of a leading cleantech community. She moved to San Diego in 2014 and joined the Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE) serving in various roles including Director of Policy. CSE runs many of the largest incentive programs across the country for energy efficiency, solar, storage, EV rebates, and EV charging. In 2017, Hanna began an MBA program at the University of California San Diego, Rady School of Management while working full time at CSE.
ROLE IN A NEW AND GROWING TECHNOLOGY COMPANY
Hanna’s choices in education and career have always kept a bigger picture in mind on how she could influence the world around her. “My career is centered on energy and the transition to an increasingly renewable, distributed, digitized grid. I don’t expect to run out of fun problems to tackle in this space anytime soon. We have a once-in-a-hundred-year opportunity to shift a foundational component of our society to be more equitable, resilient, and sustainable, and that makes me excited to come to work every day.”
PXiSE, founded in 2016, brings unique sensor-based technology to control and overcome the intermittency problems of an increasingly renewable and distributed grid. Its largest customers are developers with solar, wind, and storage portfolios for whom PXiSE provides power plant controls to operate renewable assets. In addition, PXiSE works closely with utilities seeking to increase hosting capacity, ensure system balance and power quality, and integrate DERs and EVs into their systems. They are a growing team headquartered in San Diego and working globally.
In October 2018, Hanna joined PXiSE to lead go-to-market strategy and scale a commercial organization. She works with global partners, executes sales, and manages a growing sales, business development, and marketing team, which means she must be adept at communicating about the fast-changing industry.
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH PASSIONATE PEOPLE AND GIVE BACK
Even outside of her work activities at PXiSE, Hanna is focused on communications and bridging gaps. She contributes some of her time to The Truman National Security Project, a nonprofit that helps shape national security solutions. Its members include individuals in the armed forces, academics, officials, and private and public companies’ executives. She coordinated and co-chaired the local San Diego Chapter’s 2017 Energy and Water Security and Resilience summit, where the members established goals and priorities for policy suggestions on critical energy and water security issues.
She also volunteers at the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and is Chair of the Sustainability and Industry Committee. This Committee provides education and a venue for regional leaders to make policy recommendations with the mission to support economic development, enable job creation, and protect San Diego’s natural resources.
Before the pandemic, she connected with busy industry colleagues by scheduling and attending walk-and-talks, where she could keep up to date with her network by walking before the business day started.
ADVICE TO WOMEN
As a communicator by nature and profession, Hanna’s biggest advice to women in the field is to not be shy about reaching out to people. She encourages those seeking information on companies, jobs, or the industry to make connections and, when you get a meeting, come prepared and do your homework in advance. Also, if you’re interested in working with or for another company, don’t take any rejection, passive or active, as a setback saying, “It’s a growing industry and a tight-knit community. Stay in touch and develop relationships – there will be more opportunities in the future.” The advice she gave which resonated most with me was to not only make sure you have a seat at the table, “but make sure you’re not the one considered the note-taker”. As a natural note-taker, she makes sure these responsibilities are shared among teammates.
Having been in the industry for thirteen years and holding different roles, Hanna has deepened her technical and business knowledge. A lot of her work has been about understanding the technologies she was supporting. In her previous positions, she learned about utility resilience and battery technology. Working at PXiSE has helped her understand more about grid operations and software.
Hanna believes strongly in developing one’s knowledge base and skill set, and if she had unlimited resources, she half jokes that she would obtain at least two more degrees. “There is a need for every type of skill set in the renewable energy space, from creative to strategists,” she says. She enjoys learning from others and then sharing such experiences and knowledge with colleagues and the community. Receiving her management degree helped her understand investment principles, finance, and growing companies from the start-up phase.
WHAT THE NEW YEAR HOLDS
As with everyone else in business development, because of the pandemic, Hanna has gone from traveling 30-60 percent of the time to working at home. Most days are filled with video meetings, conference calls, little in-person connection and collaborations, and little down time for deep strategic thinking. But in the New Year, Hanna has set her sights, once again to the bigger picture, by building teams and companies with the advancement of clean energy innovation in mind.