A major reshuffling of executive positions has been made at Hanwha SolarOne, which said the move was designed to strengthen the management team as it continued to build-out the company to become a major player within the solar industry. Stepping aside is Dr. Peter Xie, CEO and Gareth Kung, CFO, both former Solarfun executives, who are being replaced by Hanwha Group executives, Ki-Joon Hong and Jung Pyo Seo, respectively. Hong is currently the chairman of the Board of SolarOne and CEO of Hanwha Chemical Corporation, which acquired a majority stake in the former Solarfun.
Hanwha SolarOne also announced that Justin Koo Yung Lee has been appointed as its chief commercial officer. Lee joins SolarOne from Hanwha International in New Jersey.
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The company also reiterated that Chris Eberspacher, who joined the company in March 2011 from Applied Materials, is now Hanwha SolarOne’s chief technology officer. The appointments will become effective on July 1, 2011.
“Mr. Hong has played a vital role in the integration of SolarOne into the Hanwha family and in the growth and rebranding of SolarOne over the past year,” commented Thomas Toy, an independent director of SolarOne. “He is a proven operating executive at one of Korea's largest chemical enterprises and his contributions and strategic direction to us as Chairman have been significant. Mr. Seo, Mr. Eberspacher and Mr. Lee bring a vast amount of experience that will be invaluable as SolarOne moves into the next phase of its development. At the same time, we would like to thank Dr. Xie and Mr. Kung for the leadership they have provided. In their time with SolarOne, they played important roles in building the Company's production capacity and shipment volumes, and implementing management and financial systems that leave the Company in a particularly strong position for our new management team. We thank them both and wish them all the best in their future endeavours.”
