We recently reported that Jeff Dorety joined Trina Solar, a large, China-based solar panel producer, as president of the Americas region. He was previously VP of sales at JA Solar USA. That hire comes as Mark Mendenhall, the former president of Trina Solar's Americas region, leaves the company for "personal reasons" to join dynamic glass builder, View, as chief commercial officer. Haiyan Sun, the former president of Trina Solar's Distributed PV Generation Business Unit, also left Trina for "personal reasons." He is replaced by Longxing Huang, the former VP for Shunfeng Photovoltaic International.
Solar developer Conergy just named David Flory as Global Head of Project Financing and Structuring. Flory was previously with Silver Ridge Power, a utility-scale solar independent power producer owned by Riverstone Holdings and SunEdison. He also takes over risk management roles as the chair of both the Development Capital and EPC Committees.
SolarCity named Jonathan Beamer as Chief Marketing Officer, reporting to Chief Revenue Officer Hayes Barnard. Beamer joins SolarCity from Progressive Insurance, where he led the Marketing Strategy and Innovation unit.
Richard Lowenthal has retired as CTO of ChargePoint, the firm he co-founded in 2007. He lists his current occupation as "golfer" and still maintains a seat on the board. The startup has raised more than $110 million since its 2007 founding, with backers including Rho Ventures, KPCB, Braemar Energy Ventures, Siemens Venture Capital and BMW. As GTM Smart Grid Editor Jeff St. John reported, ChargePoint "has managed to expand, with about 17,000 public charging stations nationwide. [...The firm's] network includes both its own charging hardware, and, increasingly, equipment from an expanding list of partners like Schneider Electric, Eaton, Fuji Electric, Leviton and Siemens. The startup builds the software and manages the cloud computing platform to monitor and control charging stations, provide a smooth, safe and secure customer experience, and bill everyone correctly at the end of the day." Ajay Agrawal is the new CTO at ChargePoint.
Green Charge Networks, a startup deploying energy storage equipment for commercial customers, named Harjinder Bhade as its new CTO and VP of engineering. Bhade was the co-founder of ChargePoint, as well as the VP of software engineering. As GTM's Julia Pyper recently reported, "In February, Green Charge and partner TIP Capital announced a $10 million fund to support new projects. Then, in July, Green Charge Networks brought in $56 million from K Road DG to expand its energy storage program."
Energy engineering firm AESC named Ray Pustinger as CEO. Pustinger has held CEO and board positions in his twenty years of experience in the energy efficiency business, working for ABM Industries, [P2] Lighting and Enerliance. AESC develops utility incentive programs, technology assessments and demand-side audits.
Sebastien Schikora is now the VP of product development at Networked Energy Services Corporation, formerly Echelon's Grid Modernization division. Networked Energy Services Corporation looks to transform the electricity grid into "an energy control network." The firm claims its Open Smart Grid Protocol-based energy services product is "used in more than 4 million smart end points by utilities around the world."
Edelman, the world’s largest public relations company, named Amy Hemingway as global sector chair for its energy practice. Hemingway joined Edelman in 2006 and "has managed campaigns for energy clients on key energy and policy issues, including access to energy, taxes, prices, advanced technologies, air quality and emissions, crisis preparedness, safety and security," according to a release.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane announced plans to step down from the post. Macfarlane was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2012 in the wake of the accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and leaves the politically tinged agency and post in the second year of a five-year contract. Senate Republicans are urging a vote on the Yucca Mountain Nevada radioactive waste storage site, a highly charged issue and one not supported by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). The approximately 100 nuclear power plants in the U.S. generate about 20 percent of the country's electricity.
Oorja Protonics, a direct methanol fuel cell manufacturer, has a new CEO -- Charles Shalvoy, the former CEO of Nitronex, a maker of RF semiconductors that was acquired by M/A-COM. Prior to Nitronex, he was the executive chairman of Canesta. Sanjiv Malhotra, Oorja's CEO since 2005, resigned the post "to pursue other interests." Earlier this year, Oorja, which targets materials transport and remote power markets, closed a Round E led by Mingxin China Growth Fund.
Erik Blachford, former CEO of Expedia, joined Choose Energy as a member of its board of directors. The company has raised more than $10 million from investors including KPCB to build an online marketplace for residents and businesses to comparison-shop for energy suppliers.