SolarCity named its current president, Tanguy Serra, as CFO, ahead of the previously announced resignation of CFO Brad Buss. Serra joined SolarCity in 2013 as executive VP of operations and was promoted to COO in 2014 and president in 2015. Prior to joining SolarCity, Serra was CEO of Vivint Solar. Serra, 37, "will not receive any additional compensation for serving as CFO."
SolarCity beat fourth-quarter revenue and earnings-per-share estimates, posting a still-blistering installation growth rate of 54 percent year-over-year, as announced in its quarterly earnings report. But despite those strong numbers, the No. 1 solar financier and installer fell short of its 280-megawatt installation Q4 guidance by 8 megawatts and posted a soft Q1 guidance of 180 megawatts installed.
Stephen Prince is the new CEO at Younicos, replacing James McDougall, who left the firm "under amicable terms." Prince was most recently the chief revenue officer at the energy storage startup. Founded in 2005, the Berlin-based company has raised about $200 million from investors including First Solar, Korean lithium-ion battery maker Samsung, German-Japanese flow battery maker Gildemeister/DMG Mori Seiki, and Grupo Ecos. In 2014, Younicos acquired the 60-megawatt portfolio of bankrupt U.S. storage startup Xtreme Power.
Olivier Jacques, formerly the managing director of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region for microinverter maker Enphase Energy, is now APsystems' senior VP and managing director for EMEA operations. APsystems was No. 2 in global microinverter market share in 2014, according to GTM Research.
Fiveworx, a developer of digital customer engagement software for the energy sector, promoted Laura Orfanedes to chief strategy officer, and Jamie Lalos to VP of customer success. Fiveworx "utilizes insights from more than 11 years of national polling of American energy consumers and marketing software to transform the way that utilities are communicating with their customers."
Cheryl Martin joined Enbala's board of directors. Jeff St. John just reported on Enbala's software platform to control pumps, refrigerators and other devices in ways that can turn them into fast-responding grid assets. Martin also just joined the World Economic Forum as the Head of Centre for Global Industries. Martin recently led part of New York state's comprehensive Reforming the Energy Vision strategy. Before that, she served as acting director of the DOE’s ARPA-E program, while also serving as the agency’s deputy director for commercialization.
PACEfunding Group, a property-assessed clean energy (PACE) financing platform, added John Law as VP of government relations. Law previously worked on Renovate America's Hero program to gain municipal approvals throughout the state of California. PACEfunding's financing tools can be used for solar electric, solar thermal, HVAC, roofing, windows/doors and water conservation equipment.
Kate Burson is now Northeast market development lead at Tesla Motors. Burson was previously chief of staff for Richard Kauffman, New York’s energy czar.
Michelle Mapel has joined energy storage system builder Sonnen as marketing director. She was previously senior marketing manager at Coda Energy.
Dan Leary was promoted to director of the community solar program at SolarCity.
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Intel's 2015 diversity report reveals that the semiconductor giant's "workforce is now nearly a quarter female (up 5.4 percent from 2014), and that its female employees' salaries are on par with those of their male counterparts," as reported in Fortune.
Christina Lee of Kleiner Perkins wrote about lessons from Bill Campbell, Silicon Valley's secret CEO coach.
From last week's column:
SunEdison named Claire Gogel, formerly of David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital, to its board of directors. Greenlight Capital has a 6.8 percent stake in the troubled solar and wind developer.
Kevin Johnson is co-founder and CCO at CleanCapital, a company that allows "investors -- including institutional investors, family offices, and funds -- to easily invest in secure and diversified clean energy projects, and simultaneously provide sponsors an easy way to exit clean energy assets."
Sandor Nagy joined NEXTracker as senior VP of global supply chain. Nagy was most recently COO at CTB/McGraw-Hill, managing operations, quality, technology and customer delivery.