Meet our staff
Sandro Aquiles-Perez - Development and Applications Engineer
Just a few months after obtaining his Ph. D. degree in power systems engineering, Sandro joined Electrocon in January 2007. In addition to steadily producing new relay models requested by CAPE's customers, he also contributes in other areas of CAPE development and performs other engineering tasks.
Sandro was born in Oaxaca City, Mexico, where he earned his B. E. in Electrical Engineering from the Instituto Tecnologico de Oaxaca (ITO). After graduation, he obtained his M. Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico City, under the supervision of Dr. Ricardo Mota Palomino.
Before beginning his Ph.D program at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada), Sandro taught math at the Instituto Politecnico Nacional. He obtained his doctoral degree under Dr. Mohindar Sachdev's supervision. Sandro's studies were in the fields of modeling of numerical relays, transient studies of protective devices, and analysis of weak power systems.These academic interests were a wonderful fit for Electrocon; we found him through an international network of academic colleagues and Electrocon users.
Outside of work, Sandro enjoys playing soccer, running, swimming and outdoor activities. He plays the guitar and enjoys reading, painting, and drawing. Sandro loves talking about philosophy and social and political themes. But his great passion is enjoying time with his wife and two children. He is also constantly in contact with his (huge) family and friends on the other sides of both North American borders.
Daryl B. Coleman - Software Architect and Lead Data Engineer
Daryl joined Electrocon in 1993 and quickly mastered the CAPE environment, building data models in the CAPE library. His first real programming assignment was tackling CAPE’s old Database Editor, which was the largest single program in CAPE, and converting it to the PC. He developed our first two-way interface between the CAPE database and a manufacturer's relay test software. He jumped at the opportunity to take the lead in developing a completely new Database Editor that is now CAPE's standard interface to the database. He is now the primary architect and innovator for the CAPE Database Editor and a contributor to many other CAPE modules. For example, he designed and implemented the graphical user interface for Line Constants data, the data merge function, and functions for network merge, external model replacement, and network comparisons. He also developed the pilot protection wizard for fast modeling of teleprotection schemes.
His current responsibilities include maintenance of the CAPE database schema, development of the CAPE Neutral Interface, continual enhancements to the Database Editor, not to mention cheerful technical support (after his morning coffee) for CAPE users with questions, sage advice on development and usage of new features, and frequent contributions to the graphical interface of the rest of CAPE. His personal mission is to maximize CAPE’s user-friendliness. As a consultant, he often draws the most challenging data manipulation projects.
Daryl’s publication credits include: “A Stepped-Event Technique for Simulating Protection System Responses”; “Protective Relay Setting File Formats, the Need and Move Towards an Industry Standard”; “A Stepped-Event Technique for Simulating Protection System Responses”; and “Visual Verification of Line Parameter Data.”
Daryl holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University, where he was a member of Eta Kappa Nu national honor society for Electrical Engineering and Computer science. He has been exposed to nearly every computer language known to man, but is particularly happy with Delphi, C, C++, FORTRAN, Visual Basic, SQL, and XML.
Daryl and his wife Judy have two children, and enjoy life in their home in the country. When not working around the house or on his home PC, Daryl plays racquetball and ice hockey for light exercise.
Marge Cramton - Marketing Manager
Marge joined Electrocon in the spring of 2007. She has been a marketing professional in business-to-business software and information technology companies since the 1980’s. At Comshare, a top-50 software firm (since acquired by Infor) she was responsible for marketing programs and marketing communications. Over time, she was responsible for the annual users group conference, new product introductions, events and direct mailing, website and e-marketing,technical publications, media relations, and customer surveys. After Comshare, she was marketing manager and a marketing and web content consultant with Logic Solutions, an information technology and web consulting firm. She has also worked with clients in a variety of industries, including nonprofits, healthcare, and automotive.
At Electrocon, Marge is responsible for sales and marketing operations, planning marketing programs, and organizing the annual North American Users Group Meeting.
Marge holds a BA from the University of Michigan, where she majored in English and minored in Chinese studies. Her work has received awards from the Society for Technical Communication and the Ann Arbor Ad Club.
Outside work she enjoys her family, old-fashioned music, and a variety of unskilled music activities.
Ashok Gopalakrishnan - Lead Engineer
Ashok joined Electrocon in May 1999. Once he arrived, he immediately began updating the CAPE Coordination Graphics Tutorial manual and revising the Short Circuit Reference manual. He also wrote and improved many useful macros that are now in production. He became very involved in the development of digital relay models. His current responsibilities include CAPE development, special coordination studies, mathematical modeling of protective relays, macro development, system simulation and relay checking studies. He loves to propose ideas for new CAPE features. As a consultant, his specialty is applying automation techniques to labor-intensive projects.
Ashok’s publications credits include: “Implementation of a MOV Computation Method within a Protection System Simulation"; "Fault Location using the Distributed Parameter Transmission Line Model”; "Transmission Line Modeling Requirements for Testing New Fault Location Algorithms using Digital Simulators"; "A Digital Simulator Design for Real-Time and Open-Loop Applications"; and "Design Characteristics of an Advanced Two-Terminal Digital Simulator for Relay Testing.”
After earning his B.E. in Electrical Engineering with Honours at Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India in 1989, Ashok became an Application Engineer in the English Electric Co. of India Ltd. (ALSTOM), in Chennai, India. There he designed programmable logic control (PLC) systems for industrial processes and power systems.
He went on to earn M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University, completing his dissertation on “Fault Location and Parameter Estimation on Overhead Transmission Lines Using Synchronized Sampling.” His studies included the fields of transient simulation of power systems, digital simulators for relay testing, and transmission line fault location. His outstanding teaching and publications have been recognized by Texas A&M University's IEEE Student Chapter, American Public Power Association, and the National Science Foundation. Ashok is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, (IEEE).
Ashok's wife Usha, who was also a student at Texas A&M, is a molecular biologist at the University of Michigan. They have one son. Ashok enjoys running, backpacking, and hiking, and is an avid do-it-yourself audio hobbyist.
Anne Guise - Office Manager
Anne first joined the company then known as Shared Applications in 1977. Since then she has been handling payroll, accounts payable and receivable, administration of human resources and benefits programs, publishing documentation, and all the other important tasks needed to make the company work as a business. Anne has 
supported the company’s evolution over that time, keeping up with the changing technology environment and the financial management skills needed.
Anne has a B.A. from the University of Michigan, where she majored in English. She loves reading fiction, but her three adult children and their wonderful families keep her calendar very busy when she is not at work.
Donald MacGregor - Lead Engineer
Donald was the first full-time employee of Shared Applications, the predecessor company from which Electrocon evolved, coming from the UK to Ann Arbor in 1973.
Donald is a theoretician and Lead Engineer in the areas of electromagnetics, applied mathematics, and numerical methods and techniques as applied to power system problems. He was responsible for an entire series of electromagnetics software products, having personally developed and extended programs for two- and three-dimensional analysis of electron guns for color television and microwave tubes, and for analysis of traveling wave tubes, klystrons, and crossed-field amplifiers.
Donald’s strengths in mathematical analysis, scientific FORTRAN programming, and sparse matrix methods applied to power systems analysis have distinguished his contributions at Electrocon. He contributed to the development of the CAPE User Programming Language. He currently has technical responsibility for Electrocon’s CAPE Short Circuit, Relay Checking, System Simulator, and Relay Checking modules. He also supervises or personally implements the detailed models of digital relays that CAPE users have found far superior to models found in competing products. He also provides customer assistance and training.
Publication credits include: “Automatic Calculation of Relay Settings for a Blocking Pilot Scheme”; “Automatic Relay Setting”; “A Stepped-Event Technique for Simulating Protection System Responses”; “Simulation and Measurement of the Deflected Electron Beams in a Color Cathode-Ray-Tube’; “Computer-Aided Setting and Coordination of Distance Relays in 38 kV Distribution Networks”; “Graphical Relay Coordination Analysis using an Integrated Short Circuit Module”; “Three-Dimensional Analysis of Cathode Ray Tubes for Color Television”; “Electromagnetic Field Theory of Metal Ceramic Helixes”; “Computer-Aided Design of Color Picture Tubes with a Three-Dimensional Model”; “Deformable Mesh Electron Gun Analysis Programs (DMEGA and GUN3D)”; “Defines: A Semiconductor Device Finite Element Simulation”; and “Computer Modeling of Crossed-Field Tubes.”
Donald’s B.A. in mathematics (with Honors) is from St. Catharine's College in Cambridge, England. He earned his Ph. D. in Electronic Engineering from University College of North Wales in Bangor; his thesis title was “Electron Bunching in Klystrons and High-Frequency Diodes.” This research caught the attention of Dr. Joseph Rowe, founder with the late Dr. Mark Enns of Electrocon's predecessor company, Shared Applications and led to bringing Donald to Ann Arbor .
Donald enjoys hiking, travel, and playing the piano. He is an active member of the Religious Society of Friends in Ann Arbor, through which he promotes numerous charitable objectives.
Paul F. McGuire, President and CAPE Product Manager
Paul has been with Electrocon and its predecessors (Shared Applications, Inc., and Harris SAI, Inc.) since graduation from The University of Michigan in 1974. As Engineering Manager, he was responsible for project scheduling and monitoring. He has participated in every phase of the work of Electrocon and its predecessor organizations. Today he serves as President (since 1996) and Product Manager for CAPE software. These roles get him involved in sales, customer training, speaking at conferences, project management, and managing and recruiting employees. Occasionally he can be caught dabbling in the development of CAPE macros for customers.
Paul’s publication credits at Electrocon include: “A Stepped-Event Technique for Simulating Protection System Responses”; “Data Base Organization for Protection Engineering”; “Data Base Applications for Relay Engineers”; “CAPE: The Computer-Aided Protection Engineering System”; “Integrated Coordination and Short Circuit Analysis for System Protection”; “Graphical Coordination Program Aids System Relaying at Consumers Power”; “Graphical Relay Coordination Analysis Using an Integrated Short Circuit Module”; and “Navigating a Protection-Engineering Data Base.”
Paul grew up in Maine and was Valedictorian of his class at the University of Maine, where he received a degree in Engineering Physics. After graduation, he spent four years as an Engineering Duty Officer in the U.S. Navy, first as an Electronics Division Officer on an aircraft carrier and then as a Ship Superintendent at Boston Naval Shipyard. He is proud to have served in that role for the prototype installation of a controllable pitch propeller, prior to their general use in the gas-turbine propulsion systems of Spruance-class destroyers.
He then came to Ann Arbor Michigan to attend the University of Michigan, receiving his M.S.E. (EE) degree (thesis: A Protection Design Program for Radial Distribution Circuits) and an E.E. (professional) degree with concentration in electrical power systems. He received a Detroit Edison Fellowship. His EE project was the development of a protective device coordination program for the Distribution Department at Detroit Edison. It was not the forerunner of CAPE but is a very curious coincidence with what became our career focus.
In 1984, Paul became a registered professional engineer in the State of Michigan.
Paul is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Conference Internationale des Grands Réseaux Électriques a Haute Tension (CIGRE), Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, Sigma Pi Sigma physics honor society, and Phi Kappa Phi.
Paul and his wife Christie have two adult sons, Gregory and Patrick, who know no fear of computers. His travel schedule has prevented Paul from being very useful to the local Boy Scout troop or to his family, for that matter. But he has rebuilt his front walk and steps using Deer Island granite from a quarry in Maine that once was owned by his grandfather; Paul and Christie also remodeled their 50's vintage home recently and installed (you guessed it) Deer Island granite countertops from the same quarry.
Jeff Quada - Executive Vice President
John J. (Jeff) Quada joined Shared Applications (a predecessor company to Electrocon) in 1975. He began as a Staff Engineer and grew quickly into the position of Lead Engineer, working on the company’s major products. Jeff was the primary assistant to our founder, Dr. Mark Enns, for the development and implementation of the Power Flow, Contingency Analysis, Network Configuration, and State Estimation functions of our former Real-Time Security Analysis (RTSA) software for online use in power system control centers and for operations planning. He helped to implement these programs into control center products at Harris Controls, Boeing Energy Management Systems (Ebasco), and the Control Data Corporation Utilities Service Center. He then led the programming and updating of the RTSA software for the New York Power Pool (NYPP) and assisted NYPP with its integration.
Jeff became the principal architect of CAPE's present structure and a key force behind the development of its intuitive Visual C++ graphical user interface. Jeff is the principal author of the CAPE Power Flow and Short Circuit Reduction modules, the principal implementer of the Line Constants and new One-Line Diagram module (with Hira Herrington), and the re-designer of Coordination Graphics. It would be an understatement to say that Jeff has contributed key design features to nearly every facet of CAPE. Currently, he is extending the CAPE One-Line Diagram program with a remarkable feature for modeling detailed bus structures that is simply not found in any other protection software. Features like this keep CAPE in the clear lead for power and flexibility. In his spare time, Jeff is also our resident computer hardware and software consultant. 
Jeff works with C, C++, Visual C++, FORTRAN, PostScript, PCL, and SQL.
Publication credits include: “A Stepped-Event Technique for Simulating Protection System Responses”; “Sparsity-Enhanced Network Reduction for Fault Studies”; “Considerations in Developing and Utilizing System Operator Training Simulators”; and “Fast Linear Contingency Analysis.”
Jeff earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, where he was awarded a Detroit Edison Power Fellowship.
Jeff is a member of IEEE and Eta Kappa Nu national honor society for electrical engineering and computer science.
A combination of talents
Our staff is a cross-disciplinary team of engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, and business people dedicated to working with you, one-to-one, to help you increase your productivity using CAPE software.
