Meet our Co-Chairs

Guillaume Paradis is the Chief Operating Officer at Hydro Ottawa, responsible for the planning, design, operation, construction and maintenance of our electrical power distribution system. In his role, Guillaume leads a team directly accountable for ensuring the safe, efficient, and reliable delivery of electricity to Hydro Ottawa customers, and oversees portage power and its generation portfolio. Guillaume has nearly two decades of industry experience in progressive leadership roles ranging from research program management to distribution planning, asset management, design, and construction.  

As Co-Chair and founding member of the TGO Alliance, Guillaume will represent utility members of the alliance, providing leadership and guidance over the strategic direction and objectives of the Alliance. Guillaume is passionate about grid orchestration issues and hopes the alliance will bridge traditional boundaries of Generation, Transmission, and Distribution in the power sector to ensure we reduce system inefficiencies as we work to support and deliver the energy transition. 

"I am heartened to see the enthusiasm demonstrated by the Alliance’s founding members, and look forward to working with our colleagues across the industry to ensure we continue to deliver value for our customers in this rapidly evolving energy landscape."

Joe Zhou is the Vice President of Digital Advisory at Black & Veatch with over twenty-five years of experience in applying information technology for business transformations. He is a thought-leader in the utility industry, driving technology standards and innovations for the digital utility of the future. Having worked on consulting and systems integration projects with over thirty-five different utilities, he has gained a comprehensive understanding of the utility businesses from people, process, data, and technology perspectives. 

As Co-Chair and founding member of the TGO Alliance, Joe will represent associate members of the alliance, providing leadership and guidance over the strategic direction and objectives of the Alliance.  Joe's work with utilities to address challenges of grid resiliency, reliability, and innovation led to the development of 'Total Grid Orchestration'  concepts and formation of the TGO Alliance. 

" It is a privilege to work with leading utilities and technology partners to charter a new course for our grid of future. With the rapid volatility increase of the power supply and demand across the entire grid value chain, the industry needs a paradigm shift and new solutions to ensure we continue to enable energy transition while deliver reliable, resilient and affordable services."