Our Team
Ted Ko
Founder, Executive Director
Chief Architect
Ted Ko is an internationally recognized expert on energy policy. He has provided testimony on the role of distributed energy resources in building an equitable, resilient energy system to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, U.S. Congress, and more than a dozen U.S. states. His unique ability to bridge the technical, business and policy domains comes from his diverse background in nonprofit and private sector energy ventures, as well as more than a decade at Yahoo! and other Internet companies as a software engineer and product manager for tens of millions of users.
As the global lead for policy and government affairs at energy storage market leader Stem, Ted led the company at the forward edge of nearly every major storage policy development in North America, from deployment targets and incentives to interconnection and aggregation. Ted also authored Stem’s “Clean Resilience Roadmap,” a policy framework to help utility commissions structure their approach to building resilient grids. Ted also co-founded the nonprofit Clean Coalition and wrote and influenced dozens of bills and regulatory decisions across a range of distributed energy topics.
Ted earned a B.S. and M.S. in computer science from MIT and an MBA in sustainable management from Presidio Graduate School. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his family.
Tyler Wakefield
Systems Designer
Founder, Associate Executive Director
Tyler Wakefield brings to EPDI comprehensive experience in energy policy processes, market development, and complex systems design from a career spent engaging with energy and economic systems transformation from diverse perspectives and contexts.
From researching energy access in developing countries; to helping energy storage pioneer Stem establish new markets and use cases across the U.S.; to leading a community-based climate organization; to facilitating the design and implementation of Web3 tools that support communities in stewarding collective resources, Tyler has carefully studied how policy design can make or break systems in an age of rapid transformation.
Tyler graduated with a B.A. in public policy from Duke University, where his academic work focused on the nexus of energy policy, economics, technological innovation, and socio-environmental impact. He’s thrilled to be leveraging his professional and educational background to help states successfully navigate their energy policy design challenges.