Wind Lake Solutions-Leveraging technology for utilities, telecommunications & municipal government

		Senior Management WLS' Senior Management has close to 100 years of combined utility IT experience. Best known for the quality and durability of the partnerships they’ve established with their customers, the principals of Wind Lake Solutions have reaffirmed their long standing commitment to helping utilities unleash the capacity of information to provide business solutions. With careers spanning the last 26 years, WLS principals' expertise has been developed and refined by personal involvement in more than 50 utility client projects.
		David R. Coates - President & Chief Executive Officer Mr. Coates has consistently demonstrated his ability to fashion win/win initiatives that address “real world” business challenges while positioning the enterprise to manage emerging demands. Dave’s long standing belief is that the only measure of our success is the positive impact our services have on the success of our customers. Mr. Coates’ 24 years of diversified business experience within the Utility IT services industry includes roles in executive management, operations management, strategic planning, project implementation, and project management. Dave’s exceptional analytical skills and diverse knowledge of utility data systems uniquely qualify him to develop customized, client-centric business solutions. Mr. Coates has extensive experience directing multi-faceted project teams challenged with reengineering business processes in response to dynamic utility IT demands.
		Gary S. Miller -Vice President, Solutions Development Mr. Miller is widely acknowledged for his especially demanding quality standards, as well as his ability to bring both unique insight and order to complex business challenges. His reputation for being able to think outside the box uniquely qualifies him to help organizations challenge the status quo. Gary’s passion for providing concrete, measurable, impacting strategies makes him an invaluable director of WLS’ Solutions Team. Mr. Miller has over 20 years experience in providing consulting services in support of planning, design, development, and deployment of information systems for utility operations. He is also a skilled analyst and communicator with wide-ranging insights into utility business processes and the underlying applications and integration. Areas of analysis and design include core, extended, and integrated functionality of utility operations systems and applications including GIS, OMS, WMS, MWM, and network design, and analysis.
		Susan M. Smith-Lee -Vice President, Consulting Practice Ms. Smith-Lee provides WLS with an exceptionally broad and diverse range of utility IT expertise. Her experience as a software development manager, a utility IT consultant and a project manager provides a strong understanding of our clients’ operational challenges as well as a credible familiarity with solution improvement alternatives. Susan’s strong communication and organizational skills, coupled with her insights and energy, are especially valuable for WLS’ clients. Ms. Smith-Lee has over 20 years of experience within utility IT service corporations. She has diversified experience in strategic planning, process design, software systems, and multiple utility industry sectors. Susan has provided management consulting services addressing business process evaluation, data processing, and quality control and assurance, supporting a number of enterprise-wide IT initiatives.
		Diana DeGroot - Director – Software Services Ms. DeGroot is an especially strong project manager with excellent organizational and communication skills. She is widely respected for her ability to understand a client’s functional business requirements and her capacity to facilitate the development of solutions. Diana has a particular aptitude for the data and data quality related aspects of successful utility IT systems. Ms. DeGroot has over 15 years of technical and management experience in the geospatial information technology industry. She has expertise in requirements gathering and analyzing client specifications for project development and implementation. Diana has considerable experience managing complex data conversion and migration projects and has also developed and taught numerous technical training courses within domestic and international venues.