Markets & Finance

GT Solar has appointed Noel Watson to its board, bringing the total number of directors to eight. Watson has been chairman of Jacobs Engineering Group since 2006.

DEK Solar has named two new members to their team: Zhang Jun as the China Alternative Energy Customer Support Engineer and Jens Katschke (pictured) as the Business Development Manager. Jun will be with the China-based team, while Katschke will be providing support for its Western Europe sector.

Sunways AG has announced that Roland Burkhardt (pictured), CEO and founder of the company, will pass his position of CEO and Sunways strategic and operational management to CFO Michael Wilhelm, effective 1 January 2009. Wilhelm will oversee the finance and strategy areas in his new position, while Burkhardt will take over the technology and R&D division.

Shuichi Fujii has been designated by Dow Corning as Global Major Market Leader for Feedstock and Active Device Products in its Solar Market Business Unit. He will also be the Solar Market Business Unit leader for Dow Corning Toray Co., Ltd., which is a joint venture between Dow Corning and Toray Industries.

Oerlikon Solar recently chose Robert Gattereder for the newly created position of Senior VP New Business where he will be expanding the business opportunities for the company. He brings over 15 years of operational experience with global industrial companies and has held senior management positions in finance, procurement, marketing and business development in the solar industry and industrial infrastructure.

Nabeel Gareeb, President and Chief Executive Officer of MEMC resigned his executive position and seat on the Board of the major polysilicon supplier to the semiconductor and photovoltaics industries. Gareeb will assist in a transition through the end of 2008, while Board member Marshall Turner will serve as interim CEO, effective November 12, 2008. The search for a permanent replacement for Gareeb will be conducted during this period.

Premier Power Renewable Energy has appointed Teresa Kelley as its new CFO effective as of 24 October 2008. Kelley will be chiefly responsible for leading the company’s global finance, planning and accounting efforts to help the company keep growing in the U.S. and European markets.

Sixtron has recently announced the selection of Bates M. Marshall as Vice President for Sales and Marketing, beginning immediately. Marshall carries with him near 15 years of sales and marketing experience in the semiconductor, solar, flat panel display and related markets.

Surfect Technologies, Inc., named Terry Gafron as the Product Manager, Software. Gafron brings a vast amount of experience in electrical engineering and automation programming. Before his appointment with Surfect, Gafron worked at Micron Technology, Inc., from 2001 to 2008. He was most recently the Characterization/Instrumentation Engineer for the company. During his time at Micron he was also in charge of designing, programming and implementing a wide range of test systems that involved memory and radio frequency wafer technology.

SemiSouth Laboratories, Inc. named Chris Thompson as Vice President of Marketing and Dan Schwob as Vice President of Sales in time to help get new technologies for solar, wind, datacenter and hybrid applications underway. Both bring a vast amount of experience to SemiSouth in the solar, wind and power electronics arenas.