Hans-Georg Schweikardt has been announced the new Head of Product Management at Sputnik Engineering's headquarters in Biel. Employed with the Swiss solar inverter manufacturer's German branch since 2004, Schweikardt has worked for the company as both a sales engineer and the head of sales.
Solar Power, Inc. has appointed finance and investment veteran Francis Chen to the board of directors. Mr. Chen, vice chairman with WI Harper Group, brings a wealth of management and private investment experience to the board as the company heads into a period of development. The WI Harper group manages over $400 million in invested capital.
Shortly after eSolar announced its establishment of operations in South Africa and the Sierra SunTower in Southern California, they have now recruited George (Chip) Hambro, the retried COO of First Solar, to its board of directors. Hambro helped First Solar achieve a successful IPO, increase its global reach and focus its R&D to advance the thin-film technology and eSolar now looks forward to Hambro bringing his talent to their board.
MiaSolé has appointed Kevin Eassa as the new vice president for manufacturing and operations. Eassa brings over 26 years of manufacturing experience, specifically in the disc drive industry with Seagate Technology. While at Seagate he oversaw the rapid global expansion of the company’s manufacturing and operations in five countries and three continents.
Continuing its trend for this year to expand its European administration, Suntech Power has added to its management board with the appointment of four new senior executives. David Hogg is head of Suntech Europe, Vedat Gurgeli is VP of Sales Europe, Frank Weber is Marketing Director of Europe and Carl von Braun is Director of Project Finance Europe.
Acro Energy Technologies released that Steve Vella will be the company’s new director of business development. Vella will leave the post of COO to immediately start his new director position and focus his efforts, among others, on furthering the national expansion of Acro.
Tom Gutierrez was elected as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors for GT Solar. He follows Tom Zarrella who served in the same positions for GT since 2007. The management changes became effective October 28.
The Economist’s Energy and Environment Innovation Award this year will go to Richard Swanson, president and CTO of SunPower Corp. The award will be given to him in recognition for his contribution to the development of the high-efficiency solar cells. His past honors include the Becquerel Prize for Outstanding Merits in Photovoltaics in 2006 and the William R. Cherry Award by the IEEE for outstanding contributions to the PV Field in 2002.
Tom Hecht has been chosen as Schott Solar’s new executive vice president of sales and marketing. The company looks forward to Hecht advancing SCHOTT’s PV and concentrating solar power business in the region.
GreenVolts has named David Gudmundson their new president and CEO. His position will start immediately at the company’s newly relocated headquarters in Fremont, California. Bringing more than 20 years of experience in senior management positions with technology companies and a track record of improving the growth of both domestic and international market share and revenue, GreenVolts looks forward to Gudmundson applying his skills to his new position.
