Energy Executive Moves: NY Smart Grid Consortium, Renewable Resources, World Energy Solutions, Covanta Energy, BuildingIQ

Here are the latest energy executive moves:

The New York State Smart Grid Consortium, a public-private partnership devoted to statewide implementation of the smart grid, chose James Gallagher (pictured) as executive director. Gallagher, who has served as a member representative to the NYSSGC for two years, will fill the vacancy created by former Executive Director David Manning’s appointment as special envoy to Washington DC for the Province of Alberta, and will continue to lead the NYSSGC’s long-term vision of facilitating and enabling smart grid development for the state of New York. As part of his new responsibilities, Gallagher will also provide Brookhaven National Laboratory with managerial and technical assistance in the implementation of its Smarter Electric Grid Research, Innovation, Development and Deployment Center.

UK solar company Renewable Resources has appointed Mariano Costa as its business development director. Costa was recently corporate accounts manager (UK and Spain) at Sunpower. Prior to that, he was Country Manager UK and Ireland, Spain/Portugal for Solyndra.

World Energy Solutions has named Martha Danly as its chief operating officer, promoting her from chief product officer. As COO, Danly will oversee company-wide operations, product strategy, product marketing, software development, IT and the ongoing delivery of the company’s online energy platform, the World Energy Exchange. With 30 years in the high-tech industry, Danly has held leadership positions at a wide range of Silicon Valley startups focused on online trading, cloud computing, cleantech, social media, consumer video and ad networks.

Covanta Energy has appointed Howard Titus as new facility manager for the Durham York Energy Centre, a waste-to-energy facility currently under construction in Clarington, Ontario, that will begin operations in 2014. Titus is a trained 1st Class Stationary Engineer with a background that includes construction, operation and major maintenance for a variety of utility plant processes, including waste-to-energy. He spent seven years at the Algonquin Power Energy-from-Waste Facility in Peel Region, and worked in a variety of roles before becoming plant manager of the facility. His most recent position was with Greenfield Ethanol in Chatham, Ontario, as chief engineer.

BuildingIQ, a building energy management company, added four new members to the team – Greg Brewer, vice president of sales; Adam Benson, vice president of engineering; Cindy Anderson, senior director of marketing; and Chris Tomasini, director of sales. Brewer brings more than 20 years of experience, including mergers and acquisitions, having led the sale of Philips Global Controls to Philips Lighting and Controls as well as the acquisition of Cooper Industries by Eaton Global. Benson joins BuildingIQ with a background in developing and commercializing technology from embedded systems to cloud based services, having held leadership positions at Oracle, TowersWatson and OpenTV. Anderson comes to BuildingIQ with more than 15 years combined experience in the technology and building management systems space, including work with Honeywell, Global Energy Partners, EPRI and Clean Urban Energy.

Dan Fitzgerald, a specialist in the development and siting of renewable energy projects in the Northeast, has joined the public affairs firm Behan Communications as a senior project manager. Fitzgerald previously worked for EDP Renewables, formerly Horizon Wind Energy, where he managed a cross-disciplinary team of environmental, legal, meteorological, engineering and finance professionals in the development of wind farm projects in Maine and New York. At Behan Communications, he will provide strategic communications, public affairs strategy and crisis communications support to the firm’s energy and environmental clients and will be based in Behan’s Albany, NY, office.