Solar inverter and power conversion manufacturer Advanced Energy Industries reported that Danny Herron, the company's EVP and CFO, "will step down, after a transition period, to pursue other opportunities." William Trupkiewicz, the firm's corporate controller, has been promoted to chief accounting officer. Last year, Advanced Energy bought Germany-based commercial inverter supplier REFUsol for $77 million.
Bernerd Da Santos, the CFO at AES Corporation, will also serve as acting COO upon the departure of COO Andrew Vesey, who has joined Australia's AGL Energy as CEO. Da Santos has 30 years of experience in the electric utilities industry.
Siluria Technologies, which focuses on the commercial production of fuels and chemicals derived from natural gas, announced that Alex Tkachenko, Siluria’s co-founder, will step down as president. Tkachenko will join the firm’s advisory committee. Earlier this year, MJ Maloof, investment director at Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, joined the board at Siluria Technologies after the Saudi firm led a $30 million round D, along with Bright Capital, Vulcan Capital, ARCH Venture Partners, The Wellcome Trust, Alloy Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Lux Capital, Altitude Life Science Ventures and Presidio Ventures. Siluria has raised over $100 million since its founding.
MicroPlanet Technology, a provider of low-voltage power regulator products for the grid, named Wolfgang Struss as interim CEO. Struss was formerly part of the OEM sales management team at Microsoft. Joe Tanner stepped down from the CEO role but will continue to serve as chairman.
Gridco Systems named James Andrus as VP of worldwide sales. Andrus joins Gridco Systems from Tollgrade, where he served as VP of global smart grid sales. GTM's Jeff St. John described Gridco as dialing in voltages along individual distribution lines with “series-connected, voltage-control power regulation” devices.
Former GTM Research solar analyst Scott Burger is now managing director at MIT Clean Energy Prize.
NRG Energy named Steve McBee as CEO of NRG Home, the outcome of a crowdsourced recruiting effort. McBee is the founder and CEO of McBee Strategic, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying and advisory firm that has served a number of energy clients. He is also a senior advisor to venture firm VantagePoint Capital Partners. D.C. news website InTheCapital reports that this move "shocked most of [McBee's] colleagues," while website Politico reports that McBee "started representing NRG on the lobbying side in February, where it has focused on monitoring energy and solar proposals and EPA greenhouse gas regulations, among other issues."
Serge Tchuruk, most recently CEO of telecommunications firm Alcatel, has joined Joule as CEO. Prior to Alcatel, Tchuruk served as CEO of oil and gas company Total. Joule claims the ability to directly use genetically modified bacteria to economically produce ethanol or hydrocarbons from CO2 and has raised over $160 million in funding led by Flagship Ventures.
John Zahurancik was promoted to president of AES Energy Storage, replacing Chris Shelton, who is now vice president at AES Corporation.