To mark International Women’s Day earlier this month, we start the jobs column with women making moves in clean energy and at the grid edge.
If you haven’t already, we also welcome you to take a quick survey for GTM Research’s newly formed group for women working in the grid edge sector, so that women making executive moves in the industry will someday be the norm rather than the exception.
First up, Ameren has recruited Bhavani Amirthalingam for the newly created role of chief digital information officer. She was previously at Schneider Electric and also CIO at World Wide Technology. As SVP and CDIO at Ameren, Amirthalingam will be responsible for driving the technology innovation to transform the utility into a more customer-centric company.
Fast-charging station provider EVgo has brought on Julie Blunden as EVP of business development. Vision Ridge Partners bought EVgo from NRG in 2016. Blunden, who previously worked at SunEdison and SunPower, has spent the past few years consulting. Cathy Zoi, who has been acting as interim CEO since last November, was formally appointed CEO at EVgo.
Thermostat maker ecobee recently raised $61 million in a Series C round. As part of the fundraising, Lindsay Luger, a partner with lead investor Energy Impact Partners, will join ecobee’s board. Amazon’s Alexa Fund was also a repeat investor.
Nancy Covey has joined demand flexibility software provider AutoGrid as VP of marketing. She was previously executive director and head of global upstream marketing for IHS Markit. Last year, AutoGrid and National Grid won the first-ever Innovation in Gas Award from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners for their pilot using demand response for natural-gas peak demand.
The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago has brought on Lindsay Iversen as deputy director. Iversen spent the past seven years at the Council on Foreign Relations, most recently as the associate director of climate and resources.
After nearly 15 years leading the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy, Kateri Callahan is moving to CMC Energy Services as president and CEO beginning in April. She is replacing Eileen McGinnis, who is stepping down after 10 years.
***
Enertech Search Partners, an executive search firm with a dedicated cleantech practice, is the sponsor of the GTM jobs column.
Among its many active searches, Enertech has been exclusively engaged to find an SVP of Project Development for a rapidly growing renewable energy developer focused on municipal and utility-scale projects in solar, wind and energy storage.
****
Mateo Jaramillo, who launched Tesla’s stationary energy storage effort before departing in late 2016, has landed as executive chairman at the startup Form Energy, which recently raised $7 million for its super long-duration energy storage. Ted Wiley is also at Form Energy in the role of CEO.
Also in the realm of storage, Jorg Heinemann has joined Primus Power as chief commercial officer. The flow battery startup raised $32 million last year with an eye toward global expansion. Heinemann spent eight years in various roles at SunPower, and before that he was with Accenture for two decades.
Enterprise software company IFS, which provides software for various industries including energy and utilities, has appointed Darren Roos as CEO. Roos joins IFS from SAP, where he was president of cloud enterprise resource planning.
Norwegian startup Greenbird Integration Technology has hired Andrew Lund as global chief revenue officer. Greenbird helps utilities with their digital transformations and is looking to expand globally. Lund was previously at Google Cloud.
Across the pond, European demand response firm REstore has brought on Neil Durno to lead its U.K. business development team. He was previously regional business manager for energy storage systems integrator Younicos.
OnSwitch, a company that helps commercial customers optimize their onsite energy solutions, has hired Rick Whisman as VP of sales and Fred Vaske as CFO. Whisman was previously VP of sales at EnSync Energy and held various roles at SunPower. Vaske also hails from EnSync, where he was chief administrative officer and principal financial officer.