Our Leadership Team
Chris Wissemann – Chief Executive Officer
Chris Wissemann is CEO of NPS and an energy industry executive with 40 years of development experience in domestic power generation projects, from cogeneration and distributed generation to utility-scale wind and solar. Chris is conversant in multiple generation technologies, construction, permitting, financing, and regulatory affairs, having developed projects at companies such as Turner Power Group (Turner Construction), RealEnergy, Northern Power Systems, Enron, Deepwater Wind, Innogy, and most recently Diamond Offshore Wind (DOW). Chris has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University.
David Deutsch – Chief Operating Officer
David Deutsch is COO of NPS and a long-time veteran of the U.S. power industry. Throughout his career, he has taken on roles with increasing levels of responsibility in areas ranging from power trading and scheduling to developing, acquiring, and financing utility-scale and behind-the-meter power projects. Prior to NPS, David was COO at DOW and SVP of Development at Diamond Generating Corp. Before joining the Mitsubishi family of companies, David held leadership positions at a C&I solar company, Engie, and Duke Energy, where he led 15 transactions totaling over $4.5 billion. David has a BA in economics from Lehigh University, an MBA in finance from The University of Texas at Austin, and passed multiple parts of the Casualty Actuarial Society’s Fellowship Exams.
Kelly O’Brien – Vice President, Development
Kelly O’Brien is VP of Development at NPS and has 30+ years of experience in the energy industry. Kelly began her career in natural gas and capacity trading and supply optimization with Florida Gas Utility and Duke Energy before moving on to develop an impressive portfolio of natural gas-fired power plant projects for Duke. After Duke, Kelly focused on developing renewable energy projects and amassed considerable experience in wind and solar with FPL Energy, BP Alternative Energy, SunEdison, UPC Renewables Indonesia, ConnectGen, and DOW. Kelly and the teams she directed have been responsible for 5+ GW of natural gas-fired, wind, and solar projects that have been built in the U.S. and around the world. Kelly has a BS in Business Administration from the University of Florida.
Dave Karpinski – Vice President, Development
Dave Karpinski is VP of Development at NPS and most recently led development of DOW’s utility-scale projects in the Great Lakes. Before DOW, Dave led development of the Icebreaker Wind project, where he successfully obtained all permits to construct the first-of-a-kind Great Lakes offshore wind project through the Ohio Power Siting Board. Prior to his work in offshore wind, Dave served as Vice President of NorTech where he launched and went on to lead their advanced energy work in northeast Ohio. Before that, he was head of engineering for a multi-national plastics injection molding machinery company. Dave has a BS in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University.
Tom Shields – Vice President, Utility Infrastructure
Tom Shields is VP of Utility Infrastructure at NPS, managing physical power and gas connections. Tom has 30+ years of experience in the U.S. power industry and most recently, managed DOW’s electrical interconnections, subsea transmission, and inter-array cable connections. Prior to joining DOW, Tom was responsible for managing transmission and interconnection for wind, solar, and battery storage projects at Avangrid Renewables. Before Avangrid, Tom led transmission and interconnection at Duke Energy where he was responsible for connecting 10+ GW of gas-fired projects. His engineering background includes power systems planning and analysis, power distribution and transmission, power systems reliability studies, and project management for facility construction at voltage levels up to 765 kV. Tom has a BS and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Clarkson University.