A sharing of management responsibilities at struggling Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) has been announced with ex-Abound Solar executive, Julian Hawkins joining the firm as chief executive officer and president and a member of the board of directors, effective December 5, 2011. Current interim president since May 2011, Jay Knoll will become executive vice president and chief restructuring officer at the same time.
Hawkins was said to be focusing on the operations, while Knoll would be charged with handling what the company called ‘strategic alternatives processes,’ under his restructuring role.
“Julian is an experienced and talented executive with important industry knowledge and relationships who can reinvigorate our sales efforts and optimize the deployment of our lightweight, flexible technology in commercial opportunities around the world. We are confident that Julian will have an immediate positive impact on our solar business,” commented Stephen Rabinowitz, chairman of ECD's board of directors.
The move by Hawkins from the CdTe thin-film module manufacturer would seem to have a very recent switch as Abound’s website still recognises the executive as its senior vice president, sales & marketing.