Maria Duaime Robinson is VP of Business Development for Hitachi Energy’s North American Market where she leads and incubates new business model development for Hitachi Energy’s market-leading electrification equipment, including transformers, high voltage equipment, and grid automation equipment. Prior to working at Hitachi Energy, Maria served as the inaugural Director of the Grid Deployment Office in the U.S. Department of Energy, tasked with implementing $26B of new federal funding to catalyze the development of new and upgraded electric infrastructure across the country. Previously, Maria was the first Korean-American elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, where she served in the House of Representatives, leading the bicameral Clean Energy Caucus, was the Massachusetts state lead for the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators where she also served on the board, and was the only state legislator on the U.S. EPA Clean Air Act Advisory Committee. She also served on faculty at Tufts University’s Graduate School of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy. Prior to her election in 2018, Maria led Advanced Energy Economy’s (now Advanced Energy United) Wholesale Markets Program, including engagement at FERC and the regional transmission organizations. She began her career at Navigant Consulting in the renewable energy practice, supporting the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in analyzing and procuring contractors for statewide renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.