Dhruti Patel is the Sustainability Project Manager at Patrick Engineering Inc. (Patrick). At Patrick, Dhruti is the sole sustainability professional and is creating the business line for the company. She is establishing the future of sustainability at Patrick, building a diverse client base, and utilizing sustainability as a method of breaking down silos through inter-department collaboration. Dhruti started her professional path within the power industry as a structural engineer designing power plants and then disrupted her career to seek opportunities within the field of energy, sustainability and technology. She brings a unique perspective, systems design and thinking to the energy management industry, and she believes that the future of energy is leveraging machine learning strategically to enhance operations and maintenance. Prior to working at Patrick, Dhruti was an energy engineer and sustainability manager within the commercial real estate industry helping buildings reduce energy usage and improve energy related operations and maintenance. Currently, Dhruti serves on the Board of Directors for the Illinois Green Alliance. She is a guest lecturer at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and a researcher and graduate mentor with UIC’s Energy Initiative. In 2017, Dhruti was recognized as Midwest Energy News 40 under 40.