Upon expiry of a recent five-year contract, long-standing employee and current CFO, Sabine Kauper will leave Phoenix Solar at the end of the year. Her replacement, Dr. Bernd Köhler comes from Siemens and will assume responsibility for finance, along with Personnel and Organisation Development, International Process and IT Management, Internal Audit and Law from January 1, 2012.
As Douglas May, former CEO of Unirac, retired at the end of October, the company had been in search of a new executive and they have found a new leader in Peter Lorenz. The new CEO joins Unirac after serving as president of Quanta Services’ Renewable Energy Services unit. Prior to his role with Quanta, Lorenz worked seven years with McKinsey & Company as an associate principal and specialized in finance assignments with Royal Dutch Shell from 1996 to 1999.
The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced that Dr. Gregory Wilson had been appointed director of the National Center for Photovoltaics (NCPV) effective November 28. Wilson joins NCPV after serving 17 years at MEMC as a leader for its silicon research and PV development. He most recently acted as MEMC’s director for corporate business development and external technology development.
China Sunergy (CSUN) revealed that, effective since September 15, Robert Rice was appointed as the company’s chief sales, marketing and strategy officer as well as its vice president. Rice manages corporate international expansion and sales and marketing functions for the company in order to expand CSUN’s global market presence. Rice will additionally spearhead the establishment of long-term industry partnerships and the recruitment of a global sales team.
China-based integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic products, CNPV Solar Power, announced the appointment of Ponsekar Periyanadar as Vice President sales and marketing for South Asia.
A 25-year veteran in the business and financial business sectors, Bob Kelly has joined SolarCity as the company’s new chief financial officer. In his new role, Kelly will oversee the company’s financial affairs as well as its corporate, project financing and accounting units.
Effective as of October 12, Bruce Cousins has been appointed CEO and a board director of Carmanah Technologies, specialists in self-contained solar LED lighting and solar power solutions. Cousins replaces Ted Lattimore, CEO since 2007, who announced his resignation in May this year.
Task force leader, Christian Prischmann, from UIbrich, a specialist metals provider to the PV industry, was the recipient of the Standards Leadership award. The European Semi award went to Dr. Tibor Pavelka, CEO of Semilab Co. Ltd. who is a producer of metrology equipment for the characterization of semiconductor and PV materials.
Following the resignation of Greg Ye and Dafeng Shi from its board of directors, Daqo New Energy advised that it had selected Mingsong Liang and Shuming Zhao as the new independent directors for the company board. Liang is a co-managing partner of investment banking firm CLA Partners in China. He received his PhD degree in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a JD degree from New York University. Liang additionally serves on the audit committee for Daqo’s board.
