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Following the retirement of José Villarreal, a member of the board since 2007, First Solar has taken the opportunity to expand its board membership from nine to 11 members. The company has nominated George “Chip” Hambro, former First Solar COO, and Richard “Rick” Chapman, CFO of Walton Enterprises, Inc., to stand for election at its annual stockholder meeting on May 23, the latter as an independent director.
The former executive vice president of SunPower Corp., Julie Blunden, will begin her new role as ClimateWorks CEO on May 21, 2012, after being appointed by the foundation’s board of directors. The resignation of Hal Harvey as the foundation’s CEO last December initiated a worldwide search for a new chief executive officer, led by a ClimateWorks subcommittee and headed by Bank of America chairman Chad Holliday.
UK-based Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology (OPIT) has promoted Dan Ayres to managing director, effective immediately. Last summer Ayres was appointed to the newly-created role of general manager having already worked at the company for over ten years. He has been based in operations, product management and project management.
Dyesol has announced that, effective immediately, Gavin Tulloch will no longer serve in the consultant role of director of technology, a position he has been responsible for since October 2010. Details surrounding the end of the engagement were not disclosed, however, Dyesol did note that Tulloch will remain a non-executive director of the company.
PV module and component manufacturer Soventix Canada – formerly Sovello Canada – has revealed that following its CEO’s departure, it has appointed Soventix GmbH managing director Philipp Neff to the executive role. The company’s board of directors accepted the resignation of Jan Dressel, who is departing for reasons unspecified, and has promoted Neff to the role of CEO and member of the board with immediate effect.
The University of Seville, the Social Council and the Focus-Abengoa Foundation have awarded the 9th “Javier Benjumea Puigcerver” research prize to Eduardo Fernández Camacho for his applied research on the increase in performance of solar-thermal plants through predictive control. The prize was awarded to the university professor on the basis that his submitted work was of “extraordinary scientific value” to the globally important issue of energy supply.
Renesola Ltd. one of the world’s largest solar wafer manufacturers, has appointed Xiaoliang Liang as president of the company’s newly created China division. Mr. Liang’s main responsibilities will be to head sales and systems developments for the Chinese market.
The Chinese have suffered from a great deal of negative press lately; nonetheless Jerry Stokes from Suntech has been elected as one of eight directors on EPIA’s board. The elections, held at EPIA’s annual general meeting in Brussels saw SMA Solar Technology’s Dr. Winfried Hoffmann become president of the Association, having been originally elected as vice-president. However, the position had already been declined by vice-presidents Boris Klebensberger and Virgilio Navarro Sanchez-Sicilia.
MiaSolé has expanded its operations throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with the addition of Michael Povlin as director of sales and marketing.
Charles Boynton, is officially SunPower’s chief financial officer and new executive vice president, having held the title of acting CFO since the departure of Dennis Arriola. The former EVP and CFO resigned effective at the beginning of March. Boynton will lead the company’s global finance, planning and accounting organizations.
