ThinkLabs AI Expands Leadership Bench to Meet AI's Speed-to-Power Challenge

Former Siemens Grid Software leader Craig Newman joins as VP of sales alongside Ed Locher, VP of Marketing and Liana Karimova, VP of People and Workforce Transformation

NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ThinkLabs AI, a grid intelligence company helping utilities connect new loads while keeping the grid reliable and affordable with AI built on the physics engineers trust, today announced three executive appointments: Craig Newman as vice president of sales, Ed Locher as vice president of marketing and Liana Karimova as vice president, People and Workforce Transformation. The executive expansion comes at a critical time for ThinkLabs as it deepens its footprint with major utilities to meet the energy demands of AI, using AI.

Rising electricity demand from AI data centers and electrification, combined with aging infrastructure, continues to strain the grid. Utilities must study, approve and connect large new loads on timelines that legacy planning tools were never built for. ThinkLabs builds a digital twin of the grid that returns interconnection studies in seconds instead of weeks and surfaces capacity already sitting in the network, so utilities can connect new load in months instead of years, make capital decisions they can defend to regulators and keep customer bills down. Newman, Locher and Karimova will help ThinkLabs bring that capability to more utilities by expanding its sales reach, raising its profile with grid decision-makers and building the team to support its growth.

"Utilities are facing soaring demand with limited infrastructure options, and ThinkLabs is building the technology to help them meet the moment," said Josh Wong, founder and CEO of ThinkLabs. "It's vital that our team understands the nuances of the utility industry while bringing an innovation-first mindset that helps iterate technology quickly. Craig, Ed and Liana bring a deep understanding of the needs of our customers and will be invaluable assets to power our growth."

Newman brings 20 years of experience leading sales teams for utility modernization technology. He joins from Siemens, where he focused on expanding grid capacity, modernizing infrastructure, improving customer satisfaction and advancing digital twin and AI technologies as vice president of sales for Siemens Grid Software. Previously, he expanded smart grid and IoT deployments as a regional vice president at Itron.

"I've spent my career helping utilities adopt new technology, and I've never seen demand for grid capacity move this fast," said Newman. "ThinkLabs gives utilities grid planning answers in minutes instead of months, with results their engineers can trace, check and defend. It's a compelling package for utilities who are on their AI transformation journey, and exactly why I joined the company."

Karimova and Wong first worked together at Opus One Solutions, the grid software company he founded and later sold to GE, where she was director of people and culture. She joins from PwC where she advised organizations on workforce transformation and the impact of AI on their people, HR teams and processes.

"I've seen firsthand how Josh can take companies through seismic growth, and my goal is to empower our team with the right people practices and AI-enabled ways of working to seize this moment," said Karimova. "I'm also excited to work alongside our customers, helping them navigate the workforce transformation that comes with adopting AI. By building a culture of engineering excellence paired with innovation-first thinking, we can help the utility industry meet the energy needs of AI."

Locher is a global B2B marketing executive with more than 20 years of experience building demand engines and transforming marketing organizations at technology companies, including time at ESRI. He joins from PureFacts Financial Solutions, where he was chief marketing officer.

"ThinkLabs has a clear answer to one of today's biggest challenges: using AI to advance the AI revolution," said Locher. "I'm joining the team to help share what's next for the grid and to show every utility how it can connect new load faster on the grid it has already built."

These appointments follow a period of strong momentum for ThinkLabs, including the recent addition of Dragos co-founder and CEO Robert M. Lee to its board of directors, and a $28 million Series A funding round earlier this year.

About ThinkLabs AI
ThinkLabs AI is a grid intelligence company helping utilities connect new loads while keeping the grid reliable and affordable with AI built on the physics engineers trust to unlock existing capacity and accelerate load and generation interconnection. Purpose-built for the electric grid, the company's platform enables utilities to automate complex planning and operational workflows, compressing month-long studies into under three minutes with greater than 99.9% power flow accuracy. Training its targeted small models takes as little as 15 minutes and five dollars. For more, visit thinklabs.ai.

SOURCE ThinkLabs AI