The KGS Team
Stephen Samouhos, PhD - Chief Rain Maker
A Partner and Co-Founder at KGS Buildings, Stephen earned his BS ('04), MS ('06) and PhD ('10) all in mechanical engineering at MIT, with a full scholarship to pursue his doctoral dissertation, entitled "Building Condition Monitoring". He also grew up in an electro-mechanical contracting family in NJ where he gained many years of exposure to practical field-work and engineering that is pertinent to building energy efficiency. Today, Stephen strives to combine the practice of fixing buildings with cutting edge IT and real-world engineering in order to deliver scalable and effective solutions for better building performance. In addition to business and product development at KGS, Stephen is also an avid speaker and technology advocate on issues pertaining to IT convergence with the built environment, with invited talks on the subject at the New York Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy and the Urban Studies department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Nicholas Gayeski, PhD - Chief Building Wizard
Nick Gayeski is a Partner and Co-Founder at KGS Buildings, LLC focused on practical application of building science and technology research and development to solve problems in the built environment. He holds a BA (2002) in physics from Cornell University, and an MS (2007) and PhD (2010) in Building Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his doctoral work, Gayeski developed predictive control algorithms for energy efficient low-lift cooling systems, designed and built a low-lift cooling system, and experimentally verified its cooling energy savings potential in two climates. While studying at MIT, Gayeski gained experience as an industry researcher and energy modeler working as a Research Intern at the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory, a Research Engineer at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, and an Energy Modeler at The Green Engineer. He is especially interested in data-driven modeling, analysis and control of building systems; identifying opportunities for retrofits, improved efficiency, or better control through performance feedback; and research and development of new HVAC system integration and control strategies.
Siân Kleindienst, PhD - Master Control Program
A Partner and Co-Founder at KGS Buildings, Siân Kleindienst has a B.A. in physics from Harvard, and both a Ph.D. (2010) and a Masters (2006) in Building Technology from MIT. Siân's primary interests revolve around the response of buildings to different climactic conditions and the intuitive communication of annual data. Her research has focused on daylight modeling, metrics, computational analysis, and graphical communication, and she has an overarching interest in operational building energy efficiency through both passive and mechanical HVAC. Through KGS, she hopes to promote university-level analysis in the current field of building construction and management, and to help make energy efficiency part of the "best practice" of building design and operation. Siân has previously held positions at Energy Photovoltaics in New Jersey, and Sasaki Associates, an architecture and design firm in Watertown. She became a LEED Accredited Professional in 2007 and a BPI certified Multifamily Building Energy Auditor in 2010.
John Anastasio - Chief Technology Sorcerer
John Anastasio is a Partner and CTO of KGS Buildings. John received his B.S. in Computer Engineering, with a minor in Business from Northeastern University. He has over eight years of experience architecting and developing complex and extensive web sites and applications. John has worked for several top development agencies in Massachusetts, where a fast paced and cutting edge environment has inspired his innovative thinking and his ability to generate a multitude of creative, yet user-friendly web experiences.
Primary interests and focal points revolve around back-end development, front-end development, n-tier architecture, relational and non-relational database design, content management systems, scalable enterprise cloud solutions, SaaS applications, build automation, systems integration, and hosting. John uses technologies that include but are not limited to ASP.NET, C#, SQL Server, TSQL, Linq, Ajax, HTML, CSS, XML, Javascript, Sitecore, Kentico, Ektron, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace Mosso, Amazon EC2, SVN, and Confluence. He is also certified in multiple web based technologies, content management systems, and information technology fields. John’s development experience goes hand in hand with client quotes, estimates, timelines, wireframes, sitemaps, specifications documentation, creative design, user experience, and QA. John has additionally designed full software development lifecycles for numerous companies, enabling them to streamline work flow, organize their teams, and positively influence their bottom lines.
Given John's extensive background and creative experience, it is of no surprise to those in the industry he has developed numerous award winning web sites and has acted with distinction as a judge for the Web Marketing Association's international judging panel since 2008.
As a seasoned veteran in the web development field, John is currently moving forward to lead the KGS software development team to success.
Joe Fucetola - Mr. Universe
Joe Fucetola is a VP of Finance at KGS Buildings. He recently concluded a distinguished 30 year career with Hewlett Packard and has over 25 years experience as a director level manager in R&D—leading teams of 30 to 50 engineering professionals. He led 15 major technology programs which included workstation products, integrated circuit process development (including packaging and testing technologies), and electrical, mechanical, power and product ID design. Joe has managed R&D budgets ranging up to $25 million. He served on the Board of Directors and was HP's lead for the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) consortium. Joe is a lifelong learner and tutors math and physics at Colorado State University. He has a BS in electrical engineering from NJ Institute of Technology (’71) and MS in electrical engineering from University of Illinois (’73).
Nathan Pickett - Director of Cloud Whispering
As Director of Software Engineering, Nathan brings over 12 years of experience building database driven applications using PERL, Java and .Net technologies to KGS Buildings. Prior to joining KGS Buildings, Nathan was a technical lead for Cramer and Digitas. At Cramer, Nathan implemented content management systems and dynamic websites for a variety of clients, including Siemens, Zoll Medical, Dewey Leboeuf, Kilpatrick Stockton and Covidien. At Digitas Nathan was a technical lead, where he developed websites and executed marketing initiatives for several Fortune 500 companies, including Turner, General Motors, FedEx and Diet Coke. While at Digitas, he was part of the team that spearheaded Niemen Marcus' online storefront. He also worked on ecommerce development for Digitas' London office and helped launch two large retailers based in the United Kingdom.
Nathan majored in Computer Science and received his Bachelors Degree from Gettysburg College with honors.
Alex Grace - Biz Dev Manager
Alex Grace is the Business Development Manager at KGS Buildings. He brings extensive experience developing channel partner relationships and go-to-market strategy for combined SaaS and engineering services.
Alex’s responsibilities at KGS include developing and expanding the KGS Buildings partner network and supporting domestic and international sales. Alex is passionate about energy efficiency in the built environment and the opportunity that Fault Detection holds to drive energy and CO2 reduction goals. He received his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Political Science and Sustainable Business. When he is not in the office marveling at the abilities of the KGS team, Alex can be found bouldering area rock faces.
Jaime Gagne, PhD - Analysis Master
Jaime Gagne is a Sr. Building Scientist at KGS Buildings. With a background in both engineering and architecture, Jaime has extensive experience working with and developing digital tools for building performance analysis. She holds a BA in Engineering Sciences from Harvard, an MArch and an MS in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in Building Technology from MIT. Jaime’s doctoral research focused on the development of an interactive expert system for performance-driven architectural design as well as the design and assessment of a corresponding user interface. At KGS, Jaime is responsible for managing and developing KGS's library of fault detection diagnostics. She is also a project manager who oversees the assessment and configuration of building data for KGS's analytics platform. Jaime is excited to be part of a team that promotes energy efficiency and improved building performance using innovative strategies and technologies.
Igor Zhan - Da Tigor
Igor Zhan is a Sr. Software Engineer at KGS Buildings. The rest is top secret.
Abraham Rosenfeld - Clutch Solutions Specialist
Abraham Rosenfeld is a Sr. Systems Engineer at KGS Buildings. He received a B.S. in Computer Science from MIT in 2010 and an M.Eng. in Computer Science from MIT in 2013. Abraham has worked with KGS's co-founder Stephen Samouhos for 3 years, formerly as an undergraduate research assistant at MIT and presently as a systems engineer at KGS. Abraham's responsibilities at KGS include system integration development and testing. When not coding or participating in development at KGS, Abraham is also an avid surfer and enjoys local microbrews.
Brad Werntz - Building Analyst
Brad Werntz is a Building Analyst at KGS Buildings. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and minor in Sustainable Engineering from Princeton University in 2010. Brad is excited to be part of a team that is innovating in the field of Commercial Building Fault Detection, a technology that drives reduction in CO2 emissions while improving the comfort and performance of buildings. Before entering the commercial building energy efficiency industry, Brad was a fluid dynamics researcher, specializing in boat hull optimization. Brad hasn’t lost touch with boats though, since he often starts the day with a row on Boston’s Charles River.
Peter Armstrong, PhD - The White Wizard
Peter Armstrong is a Professor, Scholar, and Research Scientist. He is on the Mechanical Engineering Faculty at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. Prior to joining the Masdar Institute, Dr. Armstrong was a senior research engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he worked on miniature devices, such as a man-portable heatpump and a hypothermic implant, efficiency retrofits for domestic and Russian buildings, alternative cooling, and other new end-use and combined heat and power technologies. Dr. Armstrong's current research interests include: fault modeling and detection in motors, pumps, compressors, and refrigeration equipment; advanced efficient cooling and heat pump technologies, controls and systems; controls for motor, power and thermofluid systems; model-based control, sensor systems; and infiltration, ventilation, contaminant transport and dispersion modeling. Active in numerous professional associations, Dr. Armstrong has received the following awards: Fostering Diversity Awards (1996, 1998); Key Contributor Award (anisotropic micro-channel recuperator and fabrication method 2002); Top Thirty Inventor of Energy Technology Division (invention disclosures 2000-2004); Outstanding Performance Award (advanced HVAC technology field monitoring/analysis 2005).