Jesse Berst is one of the pioneering thought leaders of the smart grid, and the Founding Editor of SmartGridNews.com, the Internet's oldest, largest and highest-ranked smart grid site. Jesse provides strategic consulting to corporations, startups and investment firms looking to target their smart grid activities. Clients include Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Department of Energy, Global Environment Fund, the GridWise Alliance, Avista Utilities, the State of New Mexico, the Province of British Columbia, Prize Capital and many others.

Jesse devotes a portion of his time to efforts to grow the industry as a whole. He is the acting Executive Director for the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative, a nonprofit that unites utilities, vendors, and consumer advocates with the goal of accelerating the adoption of a consumer friendly smart grid. He serves on the Advisory Council for the Energy and Environment Directorate of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which conducts some of the nations most advanced grid research. And he was the keynote speaker at the Department of Energy 's original Grid Vision 2030 planning meeting in April, 2003.

Jesse has keynoted dozens of energy-related events in the U.S. and abroad. In the '80s and '90s, Jesse was one of the country's most well-known technology analysts. He was a featured columnist at leading magazines, including Computerworld, Computer Reseller News, InformationWeek and PC Week, authoring more than 700 columns and articles analyzing technology and business trends. He authored or coauthored ten books on personal computing and software, and one on high-tech business concepts, titled The Magnet Effect. His analysis and commentary were featured widely on national radio and television, including CNNfn, Good Morning America, ABC Nightly News, CBS Radio News, Business Talk Radio and NorthWest CableNews. During this period, Jesse founded or co-founded three high-tech publishing companies, New Riders Publishing (acquired by Macmillan), Micropublishing (acquired by Cygnus Business Media), and CompuTh!nk (acquired by Ziff-Davis). He then became a Vice President and "intrapraneur" at Ziff-Davis, where he conceived and founded "AnchorDesk," which became the company's most popular and profitable Internet property, reigning for many years as the world's largest email newsletter with nearly 3,000,000 daily subscribers.

Jesse was born in eastern Washington and graduated with highest honors from the University of Puget Sound with a degree in business administration.

E-Commerce, Alternative Energy & Technology, Science & Technology, Business & Economics, Internet & Technology Industries