Our Professionals…

Managing Partner

Mr. Dane Watson has twenty years experience at a Fortune 100 utility company in engineering, property accounting, depreciation and valuation. Since forming Alliance in 2004, Mr. Watson has achieved an industry-wide reputation with significant experience as an expert witness in depreciation, valuation and rate base areas and has provided testimony and support at a majority of state commissions, as well as in federal regulatory commission dockets. 

Mr. Watson has managed over 225 depreciation studies encompassing nearly all types of assets in both regulated and non-rate regulated companies and serves as the primary Expert Witness in this area for Alliance.  He has appeared as an expert witness in over 175 proceedings before 35 state regulatory commissions and FERC.  He has held a number of national industry roles related to depreciation and property accounting including twice chairing the Plant Accounting and Valuation Committee of the Edison Electric Institute.  He has attended all the classes offered by the Depreciation Programs, Inc. (DPI) and actively trains industry and commission staff personnel in various depreciation-related seminars across the country.  He developed the training materials for the Advanced Training (and other) sessions of the Society for Depreciation Professionals.  He served as general editor of the industry publication “Introduction to Depreciation and Net Salvage of Public Utility Plant and Plant of Other Industries”, is contributing editor of other industry publications and is a frequent speaker at conferences on depreciation related issues.  Mr. Watson led the industry adoption of SFAS 143 and was industry panelist before FERC (FERC Docket 02-0700) testifying on their implementation of SFAS 143.  He also served as project lead (functional) in the development of both automated regulated group depreciation and fixed asset systems and item based fixed asset and depreciation systems while at TXU.  As well as holding BSEE and MBA degrees, Mr. Watson is a Licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Texas (PE) and a Certified Depreciation Professional (CDP).

Senior Consultant

Dr. Karen Ponder is a Senior Consultant at Alliance with over forty years of experience in utility financial matters.  Dr. Ponder has a doctorate degree in engineering valuation from Iowa State University where her dissertation was entitled, “Some Aspects of Statistically Modeling the Simulated Plant Record Method.”  She is a subject matter expert in depreciation and capital recovery in the utility industry and has performed numerous studies for regulated and non-regulated entities involving property of all types.  Dr. Ponder has conducted statistical analysis of life and net salvage components and incorporated knowledge of equipment failure, new technological trends, and company practices to develop life and net salvage estimates. She has provided support during rate case litigation including study write-up, testimony, and responses to interrogatories.  She was an instructor at Depreciation Programs, Inc. in Kalamazoo, Michigan and serves as a faculty member for the Society of Depreciation Professional’s Annual Training courses.  

Senior Consultant

Ms. Rhonda Watts is a Senior Consultant at Alliance who participates in the various activities related to the completion of the depreciation study and provides Expert Witness testimony as needed.  Before joining Alliance, Rhonda worked for a large electric utility and Deloitte and has over twenty eight years of experience in utility accounting, depreciation and regulatory matters.  She is considered a subject matter expert in depreciation and capital recovery in the utility industry and has performed studies for regulated entities involving property of electric, gas, water and wastewater and communication utilities. She has provided support during rate case litigation including study write-up, testimony, and responses to interrogatories.  Rhonda has also testified as an Expert Witness in two state jurisdictions.

Senior Consultant

Ms. Rebecca Richards is a Senior Consultant at Alliance.  She was previously employed as a Team Lead of Property Accounting at WE Energies and has nine years of experience at a Fortune 500 company in utility property accounting, depreciation and areas of corporate finance.  She has a vast working knowledge of fixed asset and finance systems including SAP, UI, and PowerPlan. Rebecca has managed fixed asset accounting for both regulated and non-regulated entities.  She has coordinated and performed depreciation studies for many types of utilities including electric, gas, water, and steam heating.