Another week brings more moves and shifts at the upper levels of the renewable energy industry.
Before founding the just-unstealthed Voltus last year, CEO Gregg Dixon was a senior VP and a founding executive at EnerNOC. Voltus is a challenger to EnerNOC, as is long-standing competitor CPower. In March, EnerNOC CEO Tim Healy said the firm was exploring "potential alternatives to our current structure. This may include the sale or separation of one or more of our business units, a sale of the company, or other alternatives." (Jeff St. John reports on Voltus here.)
Last week we reported that Jon Wellinghoff, the chief policy officer at SolarCity, had left the company now that it has merged with Tesla. The ex-FERC commissioner just told GTM:
"My move in opening my own firm, Policy/DER Consulting, will allow me to better focus on my passions: energy policy and its intersection with distributed energy resources. I see a rapid movement now happening from the old way of siloing technologies like rooftop solar, efficiency, storage, and control technologies to an integration and optimization of systems behind the meter. In order to effectively enable this transition, significant policy initiatives will be necessary. Those initiatives include the creation of efficient transactional financial market platforms based on backend algorithms like blockchain. Having my own firm allows me to fully explore and engage these new paradigms."
William Stanton, most recently with Belectric, is now VP of engineering for Blue Oak Energy, a solar engineering firm. Blue Oak has a portfolio of 1.5 gigawatts of operational solar generation across the Americas. Stanton also served as director of global project permitting at First Solar. Blue Oak Energy is a wholly owned affiliate of Coronal Energy and Panasonic.
JLM Energy, a renewable energy technology firm, added Erin Clark as COO. Clark most recently served as president of nationwide roofing and solar contracting firm PetersenDean.
Peter Olmsted is now Assistant Secretary of Energy at the New York State Office of the Governor. He was previously with the New York State Department of Public Service and Vote Solar.
Tom Weirich, previously with ACORE, is now director of marketing and business development at investment bank CohnReznick Capital.
Matthew Culligan, with SunPower since 2007, has joined solar tracker standout NEXTracker as director of sales operations.
Christopher Sommerfeld was promoted to director of field efficiency and quality at Sunrun.
Dawn Roiz recently left the now-bankrupt California solar installer HelioPower to join Associated Construction & Engineering as controller. PV magazine reports that HelioPower filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday and estimates it owes its employees approximately $124,000 in wages.
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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 is looking for a VP of Sales -- Energy Efficiency
This client empowers energy value chain participants by providing them the power to foresee -- leveraging advanced machine learning capabilities to deliver accurate, granular predictions, which are crucial for tackling the rising challenges of today's energy industry.
The client is seeking a VP of Sales who will directly report to the CEO and become a member of the company's executive team. You should be a sales leader who has at least 4 or more years of experience in hiring and managing a world-class sales team that is aggressive, disciplined and results-oriented.
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Frank Bergh, previously with Edison Energy, is now VP of grid engineering at Sigora International, a firm looking to develop a commercially viable micro-utility model "to provide underserved populations with first-rate electric utility service."
FTC is a solar developer with SunEdison roots. Mitchel Bowman is now the director of engineering at the firm.
What is the fastest-growing occupation in the U.S.? It's wind turbine technician, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The wind industry now employs more than 100,000 people, according to a new report from the American Wind Energy Association.
From the previous jobs column:
Silver Lake, a private equity and venture debt firm that makes occasional forays into greentech, raised $15 billion for its latest fund. New Energy Capital Partners, an asset management firm, raised $325 million for its most recent fund. Obvious Ventures, an early-stage sustainable technology-focused VC firm, raised $178 million for its latest fund. We recently covered Congruent Ventures' recent fundraising activity as well.
Jing Tian has been promoted to president of North American region at Trina Solar.
Dr. Ernest J. Moniz, former U.S. Secretary of Energy and founding director of the MIT Energy Initiative, has been named as the first distinguished fellow of Emerson Collective, a social impact effort headed by Laurene Powell Jobs (net worth: $19 billion). Moniz will focus on "equitable access to technology, workforce development, and clean energy innovations in communities across America in support of a low carbon future." Andy Karsner is a managing partner of Emerson Collective.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will nominate New York State Energy Research and Development Authority CEO John Rhodes to chair New York's Public Service Commission. Rhodes would fill the position left by Audrey Zibelman, who departed last month to lead a large Australian grid operator.