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.
In welcoming Ryde to DayStar, DayStar chairman Peter Lacey said, “Magnus is an executive possessing a unique combination of skills and experiences that make him the ideal leader for DayStar as the company commercializes its CIGS PV modules. Magnus has extensive experience with world class semiconductor manufacturers and high technology companies.”
“I am excited to lead DayStar through the next phase of growth as we commercialize our unique thin-film PV technology,” said Ryde. “DayStar has a robust technology roadmap which calls for commercial CIGS PV modules with a conversion efficiency of greater than 13% and less than $0.85 cost per watt at full production scale. There is wide consensus that CIGS is the most promising photovoltaic thin-film platform. DayStar has demonstrated repeatable high-efficiency CIGS with its one-step sputter deposition process, and I am confident in our ability to scale this process and commercialize our product.”
The company did not give a reason for the change in CEOs.
