Starting January 1, 2011, Advanced Energy Industries will have two new business units: Thin Films and Renewables. The Thin Film division will be led by Yuval Wasserman who will also act as president and COO for the business unit. The Thin Film business division will be headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado and will house the company’s power conversion and thermal instrumentation products for capital equipment markets such as the semiconductor, solar panel and flat panel display industries.
“The re-alignment of AE’s businesses reflects the success of our strategy to maintain our leadership in thin-film markets, while also expanding into high-growth renewable markets with our inverter product portfolio,” said Hans Betz, CEO of Advanced Energy. “The Thin Films business unit will serve principally our OEM and end customers in the semiconductor, flat panel display, solar module and other capital equipment markets, while the Renewables business unit will focus on string, commercial and utility-scale solar projects and installations, selling primarily to distributors, EPCs (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction contractors), developers, and utility companies. The creation of these two units will enable greater focus on each business’ unique needs and requirements, allowing each to expand and accelerate our growth by better serving each of these very different industries.”
The Renewables division will be led by Gregg Patterson who will as executive vice president and general manager. Located in Bend, Oregon, the unit will consist of the PV Powered and Solaron solar inverter products. Patterson previously worked with Hewlett Packard for its worldwide business divisions. Both Wasserman and Patterson will report to AE CEO Hans Betz.
“We are excited to have these two industry veterans lead our business units in 2011,” said Dr. Betz. “Yuval’s extensive experience in successfully managing through cyclical thin film markets combined with Gregg’s knowledge of the renewables market and ability to build and manage a high growth business such as PV Powered will create new opportunities and enable us to execute on our growth strategy for 2011 and beyond.”
