Richard Erskine, partner and CEO of Energy Capital Management, is resigning his position as a director on the Ascent Solar board, a position he has held at the CIGS thin-film company since March 2008.
Hoku announced that effective March 31, Dustin Shindo will step down as Hoku chairman, president and CEO, although he will continue to serve the company in advisory position as a consultant. Scott Paul, Hoku's former chief operating officer, has been approved to succeed Shindo as president and CEO.
Mitsubishi Electric has appointed Kenichiro Yamanishi as new president and CEO. He is scheduled to assume his new position on April 1. He will be replacing Setsuhiro Shimomura, who will be appointed to the new position of chairman.
CIGS thin-film start-up DayStar has appointed Magnus Ryde its new chief executive officer and a director of the company's board. DayStar also announced that William Steckel resigned from his positions of CEO and CFO on February 15. Steckel will continue to serve on DayStar's board. Ryde was North American President of the leading semiconductor foundry, Taiwan-based TSMC. He also spent 18 years with KLA-Tencor in various executive roles. DayStar has had a string of executive changes over the past two years.
After a long search that started in May, 2009 GT Solar has now appointed a permanent Chief Financial Officer. The company has appointed Richard J. Gaynor to the role from Sonus Networks. Robert Woodbury, the former CFO had resigned for personal reasons. Vice President of Finance, Rich Johnson had held the CFO role during the search to replace Woodbury and will return to his former role within the company.
The board of directors at Oerlikon has appointed Michael Buscher as its new CEO. Hans Ziegler will continue in his role as delegate of the board until Buscher joins Oerlikon in May 2010.
SolarCity has named John Stanton, veteran of the Solar Energy Industries Association, as its vice president of government affairs. He will lead SolarCity's work with federal and state government organizations on a wide range of renewable energy policy issues. He previously worked with SEIA, where he was the executive vice president and general counsel.
Borrego Solar Systems has appointed Bill Bush as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Previously, Bush served as the CFO of Solar Semiconductor. He will work to further develop the relationship between Borrego Solar and investor Walsin Lihwa, and work with Borrego’s commercial and public-sector customers on solar system financing. Walsin Lihwa recently formed a US$30 million Power-Purchase Agreement Fund (PPA), organized as Green Lake Capital LLC.
Solyndra has tapped former First Solar executive John Gaffney as its new senior VP of corporate development and general counsel. He will lead the CIGS thin-film PV company's legal and corporate development activities and will report to CEO Chris Gronet.
