The PAC community is saddened by the passing of Pat Ryan, a good friend and supporter of our magazine. He courageously fought cancer while still participating in different IEEE PES events and activities.
Pat became the third PES Executive Director in 2007 and was a driving force in transforming PES into the second-largest society within the IEEE. He had a relentless focus on the IEEE and PES Mission & Vision and a strong belief that there needed to be significant volunteer engagement to pursue anything new. Pat was recently selected as the 2020 recipient of the IEEE Eric Herz Outstanding Staff Member Award “for leadership in creating a successful model for IEEE and Society memberships by fostering member value and partnerships with volunteers.”
Under his leadership as Executive Director, Pat drove several significant achievements for PES, including:
- Changed the name of the society from IEEE Power Engineering Society to the IEEE Power & Energy Society to better reflect the PES Mission & Vision
- Increased PES membership from 22,000 in 2006 to more than 40,000 by the end of 2019
- Developed business processes which helped increased PES Reserves which enabled the society to create and establish humanitarian programs
- Founded the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative which has distributed more than 1,500 scholarships to undergraduate students
- Launched the IEEE PES Resource Centers which provide practical content and educational courses to industry professionals
- Supported the development of the IEEE Smart Village program which integrates sustainable electricity, education, and entrepreneurial solutions to empower off-grid communities
- Established four new publications to meet the growing demand of PES membership – The Transactions on Smart Grid; The Transactions on Sustainable Energy; Electrification Magazine; and The Open Access Journal of Power and Energy
- Expanded the portfolio of PES Conferences to a global audience and inaugurated Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conferences worldwide
- Fostered the development of the IEEE Smart Grid and IEEE Smart Cities programs
In March 2019, Pat was interviewed by Alan Ross from the Electric Power Reliability Alliance. The complete interview is available online:
https://transformer-technology.com/download/pdf/TTissue5_Pat-Ryan-Interview.pdf
