Our Team

Tony is a proven leader with over 30 years in the retail and wholesale energy markets. He has served in various roles in Executive Management, Sales, Regulatory and General Management. As a result, he has dedicated his career to assisting utilities, industrial and commercial customers manage energy requirements enabling them to reduce costs and mitigate risk.

Throughout his career, Tony has held senior executive roles at several leading energy companies. He has in-depth experience on both the supply side as well as brokerage side of the business. Tony helped co-found and grow a retail energy supplier that was acquired by a larger supplier. He also helped build an energy brokerage company as a member of the leadership team. Consequently, he tripled the company’s energy procurement revenues while broadening its service offerings as well as later positioning the company for acquisition at 18x EBITDA. More recently, Tony helped lead an Australian energy software company’s US entry by establishing organic sales while acquiring an energy efficiency rebate management firm. Under his leadership, the firm went from negative to positive earnings in less than a year.

Tony holds a Bachelors in Business Administration from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. He is also a past board member of TEAM (Texas Energy Association of Marketers).

Nicole “Nikki” Brown joined the EnerConnex team in June 2021, from Electrasource Advisors, where she was the Director of Pricing and Operations. She has over 12 years’ experience within the energy industry.  She began her career back in 2008 with Gulf States Energy (GSE), as a Sales Coordinator and Pricing Analyst. Her extensive knowledge and experience within ERCOT markets have helped her excel in various way throughout her career.  Nicole’s highly committed, adaptable, organized, and energetic personality have helped her possess an extraordinary skill for results and success in her career.

Brian is a retail energy sales leader with over 22 years of experience. As a result, he has worked a lot of roles for energy suppliers as well as brokerage firms. He helped found, build, oversee and also sell an energy brokerage company. Furthermore, the company had over 10M in annual sales. Additionally, Brian is involved in energy procurement and efficiency, as well as experience in sustainability services for large commercial and industrial customers since California, deregulated in 1998.

Brian started his career in a sales role at Reliant Energy in 1998. Afterward, he worked with Enron and Shell Trading. Then he helped launch GSE Consulting in 2002 where he served as President for over nine years. GSE Consulting was eventually sold to World Energy Solutions in late 2011.

He was one of the founding members of TEPA formed in 2005. TEPA is a 501 (c) organization specializing in providing market knowledge to energy consumers. It also upholds the integrity of the deregulated retail energy markets. He helped develop a standardized code of conduct as well as bylaws. Finally, Brian received his Bachelors at CU Boulder.

Tom Dufraine joined the SJI family in mid-2019. He has a background in education administration, where he managed charter schools and earned two Masters degrees, all while raising twins. Tom was part of Applied Energy Partners for 9 years prior to transitioning over to the EnerConnex team in his current role. Tom’s technology savvy, organizational skills and natural affinity for other people have made a huge contribution to the company’s remarkable growth. He is one of the client-facing keystones of our successful auction process.

As an Account Executive for EnerConnex, Megan Fry assists customers in the management of their energy consumption as well as cost reduction programs. Megan’s primary focus is serving commercial customers in the Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio areas. She joined the EnerConnex team in February of 2021.

Outside of work, Megan enjoys spending time with her family on the lake and watching her three children play sports.

Rick Gallagher, (Vice President, Sales & Business Development) has served in various capacities throughout his 16-year career at SJI including, solar and renewable development, energy efficiency, marketing, retail energy, and utility sales. Rick has experience negotiating and contracting with large industrials, universities, hospitals and municipalities.

These experiences shaped Rick’s belief that the best way to service a valued customer base was to act as their agent in finding the most cost effective, reliable energy opportunities. As a result, he initiated SJI fully acquiring EnerConnex in 2020 to grow SJI’s energy consulting business.

Rick graduated from Denison University and later received his Juris Doctor from Syracuse University College of Law. His charitable involvement includes, Meals on Wheels, Covenant House, Harvey Avenue Super Bowl Food Drive, and keeping the considerable ego of his daughter Mackenzie in check. Physically residing in Doylestown, PA, Rick enjoys live music, backpacking, snowboarding, mountain biking and considers the entire country his home.

Janet is an energy industry veteran with 36 years of experience in the electricity and natural gas markets. She has been involved in utility rate/tariff design, energy efficiency program implementation, de-regulation rule setting, regulatory compliance and most importantly electricity and natural gas procurement.

Janet began her career working for Boston Edison (now known as Eversource Energy) where she learned the intricacies of the retail energy markets including; pricing design, regulatory compliance, energy efficiency programs along with the workings of unregulated subsidiaries. In 2001, she joined SmartEnergy, an electricity supply leader in the early days of deregulation. It was here that Janet became versed in electricity and natural gas procurement. In 2004, Janet joined World Energy Solutions as a Market Director. During her 12 years with World Energy Solutions, Janet procured energy for customers in the NY, New England, PJM, Texas and Canadian markets. She handled one of the largest back office operations books in the industry while implementing a proactive, educational, and customer-centric procurement practice.

Kelly Mallin has been in the sales/account management field for the past ten years and has worked in the energy consulting world for the past 5. Her current role is Senior Account Executive for EnerConnex. Kelly earned her bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Louisville. After graduation, she worked for a small national intermodal management company, traveling throughout the nation and working with many different customers.

This experience helps her in working with the many industry sectors available, as she has a broad knowledge of them. Kelly has customers that are based in the restaurant and hospitality, manufacturing, printing, paper, concrete, transportation and chemical fields. She helps them to manage energy budgets, establish and maintain buying strategies, and improve energy efficiency. Kelly currently resides in Monmouth County, NJ with her four-legged animals and husband, Andrew, and believes in supporting local businesses.

Kyle Mason has been with EnerConnex since 2019 and has been in the Energy Advisory services field for almost 10 years prior.  His role with EnerConnex as a Market Manager allows him to provide critical market insight to help customers navigate the ever-changing electricity and natural gas markets.  Kyle also produces EnerConnex’ weekly Market Update commentary and manages the team’s data and forecasting models.  Outside of work, Kyle enjoys playing golf, flag football, and basketball and staying active with his 5-year-old black lab.

Vitana is an established leader in the retail energy industry with 20 years of experience. She has marketed energy commodity products and services to large C&I customers. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies in developing customized strategies for energy procurement, demand side management, along with energy efficiency planning and implementation.

Prior to joining EnerConnex, Vitana worked in various roles at World Energy Solutions. Since beginning here, she was an integral part of World Energy’s evolution into one of the largest energy brokerage companies in the country. Vitana directed the company’s new market entrance program, while transacting over 50 TWh in energy contracts. As a Market Director over the PJM, MISO, NYISO, CAISO and ERCOT markets, her extensive market expertise enabled her to drive customer success by taking advantage of market opportunities while advocating on behalf of the client.

Eric is an accomplished retail energy sales leader with 26 years of experience in developing long-term business-to-business relationships. Additionally, he has worked in numerous leadership roles for energy suppliers as well as brokerage companies. All while maintaining one of the largest books of business in the industry. Areas of expertise include; electricity and natural gas procurement, energy conservation, demand response, and distributed generation.

Eric began his career at Enron Energy Services working in various sales roles. As Director of Sales, he was responsible for growing new and emerging markets as well as maximizing electricity & natural gas market share. Eric joined Energy Gateway in 2002 where he was a Managing Partner & Vice President. Eric was instrumental in helping to build the company. He also contributed to creating one of the first online exchanges for electricity and natural gas transactions. In 2007 Energy Gateway was acquired by World Energy Solutions. During his 8 years at World Energy Solutions, Eric was VP of Sales where he continued in developing relationships with his customers – some of whom he had worked with for over a decade and a half.

Eric firmly believes in taking care of the customer which has translated into firm and longstanding relationships over the years. He has brought this same customer-centric approach with him to EnerConnex.

Susie Shannon joined the SJI family in mid-2019. Susie’s role is supplier-facing, and her challenge is to manage our substantial Supplier network, ensuring that they are informed about and engaged in our Clients’ auctions. Operating seamlessly with the entire team at EnerConnex, Susie has perfected an auction process that we consider to be the most effective and efficient in the industry.