The Council Bolsters its Board's Diverse Expertise and Knowledge in Energy, SaaS and Professional Development

PHOENIX - Feb. 2, 2022 - PRLog -- The Arizona Technology Council today announced it has appointed Jeff Burke, director for resource planning, APS; Nathan Harris, CEO, Ease; and Robin S. Reed, co-founder and principal, EmFluent, to its board of directors. All three executives were elected unanimously to serve three-year terms at the Council's quarterly board meeting held on January 27, 2022.

"Jeff, Nathan and Robin are excellent additions to our board, bringing critical experience that will help us continue to serve our members' needs," said Steven G. Zylstra, the Council's president and CEO. "Their mix of entrepreneurial, public service and corporate technology experience will prove key to supporting the continued growth in many areas of innovation here in the Valley."

The board of directors serves an advisory and fiduciary role by representing the interests of the state's technology industries in the Council's strategic planning and ongoing operations. The current board consists of 35 members representing a diverse set of organizations.

The biographies of the new board members are:

Jeff Burke, director for resource planning, APS

Burke has been in the energy industry for over 20 years during which time he has held various technical and leadership roles. His background includes resource planning, market analysis, forecasting, ratemaking and regulatory policy. In his current role as director of resource planning, Burke is responsible for ensuring adequate electricity supplies are available for APS's broad service territory and developing plans to transition the electric grid to 100% clean energy. Prior to his role in resource planning at APS, Burke held leadership positions in resource planning and load forecasting at Dominion Resources. Burke holds undergraduate degrees in physics and economics from Illinois Wesleyan University, a Master of Science degree in economics from Illinois State University and has completed all coursework for a Ph.D. in economics at Louisiana State University.

Nathan Harris, CEO, Ease

Harris is a technology founder and restaurateur with over 10 years of experience in building brands that create experiences inside and outside the office. His desire to make an impact in all aspects of people's lives has drawn him to make a positive impact on the workforce first through his technology company, Ease, which connects diverse and highly qualified candidates, at scale, with organizations looking to hire. The Ease technology and processes reduce hiring bias by providing companies with an AI-enabled way to attract, vet and upskill often-overlooked talent. As CEO, Harris has led the company to become the

Phoenix Minority Business Development Agency's Minority Emerging Technology and Industries Firm of the Year in 2021. He also led the company through the nationally ranked accelerator program gener8tor, the world's largest corporate innovation accelerator Plug and Play Tech Center, becoming backed by CSA Partners Venture fund and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures fund to co-develop the future of enterprise talent experiences. In the past year, Ease has grown by over 600% on its mission to redefine the future of work while supporting companies like NM, Dell, American Express and more. Harris is also the founder and chairman of LLUX that came up with the vision to create a luxury private member club that connects the world's leading professionals through experiences.

Robin S. Reed, co-founder and principal, EmFluent

Reed is the co-founder and principal with EmFluent, a corporate coaching and consulting company that focuses on leadership strategy, talent optimization and sales arbitrage. He is also president and CEO of the Black Chamber of Arizona, and president of Occam Sustainability Partners (OSP), an international sustainability solution consulting firm that provides energy-saving strategies. Reed is also recognized as a professional speaker and has spoken nationally and internationally on the topics of business development, strategy execution, talent optimization, sales arbitrage, and mergers and acquisition. Prior to starting OSP and EmFluent, Reed was a financial advisor with two major wire houses. During his time in the financial services industry, he specialized in restricted and estate stock transactions. An entrepreneur at heart, Reed has started, acquired, operated and sold several companies over his 40-year career. He is originally from Northern California and current lives in Phoenix with his wife and has an adult son and twin daughters in college.

Companies represented on the Arizona Technology Council board of directors include:

Arizona Commerce Authority; AccountabilIT; Alerion Capital Group; Alliance Bank of Arizona; American Express; APS; ASU; Avnet; Ballard Spahr; Benchmark; Ease; EmFluent; Encora; Ernst & Young; Honeywell Aerospace; IBM; Ideas Collide; Illume Advising: Insight; Intel; Iron Mountain; Keap; KEO Marketing Inc.; Lyft; MSS Business Transformation; PADT, Inc.; PayPal; Phoenix Business Journal; Quarles & Brady; Rincon Research; Solugenix; Tech Parks Arizona; TGen; University of Advancing Technology and Vonage Business.