OverviewExecutives in Residence
Summary
The Executive in Residence (EIR) is a respected and senior leader in the technology community that provides intimate access and is a resource for both McCormick undergraduate and graduate students
Highlights of an EIR include:
- Hosting office hours each quarter to advise students.
- Providing two lectures on industry topics relevant to their career during the academic year.
- Acknowledging the EIR appointment for one academic year.
The MEM program has three EIRs: Mark Johnson, Katie Kollhoff Mouat, and Azgar Ali N.
MEM Executives in Residence 2026-2027
Mark Johnson
The Master of Engineering Management Program welcomes back Mark Johnson, clean energy startup founder and innovation director, as an Executive in Residence for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Education
MBA Loyola Chicago
BA University of Notre Dame
Biography
Mark created CleanEnergyBlockchain.com and H2onchain.com using blockchain as digital cryptographic database accounting providing unique identifiers to outputs like units of electrical energy or clean energy credits to track, trace, trade and retire kWhs and clean energy credits. This work is built upon his years perfecting and patenting clean energy blockchain. Along the way Mark founded two 501(c)3 not-for-profit startups, served as Smart Cities Chief of Schneider Electric, led the U.S. Department of Energy ARRA program for 2,500 cities, counties and states, and worked as a senior consultant for both IBM and Navigant (now Guidehouse Energy and Utilities).
His work and interests are clean energy: especially engineering new synergistic technologies together like DC-coupling solar + battery energy storage + electric vehicle fast charging with kWhs and clean energy credits tracked, traced, traded and retired. This creative engineering approach engages teamwork, techno-economic financial analysis, financing, partners, suppliers, and market readiness.
Mark and his wife, who is originally from Sri Lanka, have 4 adult children across the United States. He looks forward to helping MEM students with:
- Projects to join or new project idea
- Introductions to companies
- Referrals for Jobs
- Coaching
- Questions/Answers
- 1-on-1 Meetings
Read more about Mark's work in "Using Blockchain for Clean Energy."
Mark Johnson's LinkedIn Profile
Katie Kollhoff Mouat
The Master of Engineering Management Program welcomes back Katie Kollhoff Mouat as an Executive in Residence for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Education
MEM Northwestern University
BS Chemical Engineering, University of Kansas
BA Spanish Language & Literature, University of Kansas
Biography
Executive in Residence, Katie Kollhoff Mouat (MEM ‘19) has over fifteen years of experience spanning clean energy, entrepreneurship, chemical process performance analysis and safety management. Her career has been built around protecting communities and the environment through safe handling of toxic materials. As an MEM student, she developed and led NUMIX Materials, a startup dedicated to removing heavy metal pollution from water through advanced sorbent materials.
At NUMIX, Katie guided the company’s strategy, including seeking and securing non-dilutive funding, overseeing product development and managing the tech portfolio, building teams and developing partnerships, managing risk, negotiating with internal and external stakeholders, and serving as company spokesperson. She was selected as a Department of Energy Fellow in the Chain Reaction Innovations lab-embedded entrepreneurship program at Argonne National Lab. With the NUMIX team, Katie won the Northwestern VentureCat competition, the Department of Energy CleanTech University Prize at the Rice Business Plan Competition, and the Clean Energy Trust (now Evergreen Climate Innovations) Cleantech Inclusion Award.
In addition to clean water and hard tech entrepreneurship, Katie is interested in sustainability topics including regenerative agriculture, carbon credits, and the circular economy. She has experience operating a Chicago-based art gallery with her husband, with whom she also owns a CPG company, the Bitter Science Co., which makes upcycled bitters for upscale beverages while diverting food waste. From the range and depth of her experiences, Katie offers a unique blend of strategic thinking, operational expertise, and a passion for innovation.
Katie can help with:
- Business strategy development
- Techno-economic modeling and analysis
- Process improvement
- Team building and leadership
- Career path mentoring
- Presentation skills
- Introductions
- Project idea generation and direction
- Mentoring and coaching
Read more about Katie’s work with NUMIX
Katie Kollhoff Mouat's LinkedIn Profile
Azgar Ali N
The Master of Engineering Management Program welcomes Azgar Ali N as a new Executive in Residence for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Education
Master of Engineering Management (MEM), Northwestern University
Stanford LEAD Business Program, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Post-Graduate Diploma in Cyber Laws and Cyber Forensics, National Law School of India University
B.E. in Electronics and Communication Engineering, R.V. College of Engineering (VTU)
Biography
Azgar Ali N is a Senior Technical Program Manager at Google, where he leads complex AI and infrastructure initiatives spanning Google and Google DeepMind. He spearheads critical network infrastructure deployments across the Americas, combining technology strategy, cross-functional program leadership, and large-scale execution. His work also intersects extensively with responsible AI, including evaluation and red-teaming efforts for Gemini models and AI products such as NotebookLM.
Prior to Google, Azgar spent more than seven years as an engineer at the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium in Bangalore, Government of Karnataka. He led the deployment of advanced scientific visualization and data-driven infrastructure for research and science communication. He drove multiple science outreach initiatives in collaboration with organizations including ISRO, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, NASA, and academic institutions.
An alumnus of Northwestern's Master of Engineering Management program, Azgar serves on the Northwestern MEM Industry Advisory Board and previously served as President of the MEM Student Advisory Board. He has mentored hundreds of engineers and students navigating career transitions. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, a Fellow of IETE, and a published researcher whose work spans AI governance, engineering leadership, and program management. His science and engineering advocacy has also received recognition from the U.S. House of Representatives.
Azgar can help with
- Technology strategy, business models, and value creation.
- AI adoption, responsible AI, and AI-enabled engineering management.
- Designing and leading complex global programs.
- Career pivots and leadership development.
- Resume, interview, and executive communication coaching.
- Engineering management, AI, infrastructure, and emerging technology talks.
Learn about Azgar's work with Google here.
