In early March, SunEdison's long-time CFO Brian Wuebbels left that role to join YieldCos TerraForm Power and TerraForm Global as CEO. Last week, Wuebbels, one of the architects of SunEdison's current multibillion-dollar edge-of-bankruptcy dilemma, resigned as president and CEO and as a member of the board of directors, effective immediately. According to a release, TerraForm's board has formed an office of the chairman, led by Peter Blackmore, an independent director and chairman of the firm, to lead TerraForm Power on an interim basis.
Veteran venture capitalist John Doerr is moving away from his management role at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to become the firm's first chair. Doerr wrote in a blog post, "As I become chair, our tenured partners -- Ted Schlein, Beth Seidenberg, and Mary Meeker -- will continue to lead with a new generation of managing members -- Mike Abbott, Eric Feng, Wen Hsieh and Mood Rowghani." Doerr has worked at KPCB since 1980. Kleiner's many cleantech investments include Bloom Energy, Nest, Opower, Proterra, Amonix and MiaSolé.
Ditlev Engel joined DNV GL as CEO of the energy group -- providing testing, certification and advisory services to the energy industry including renewables, power grids and storage, as well as energy usage. Engel previously served as CEO of wind power manufacturer Vestas.
Ryan Hanley was promoted to VP of grid engineering solutions at SolarCity. Hanley's group recently authored a white paper, a sort of regulatory-design framework, to provide the first comprehensive accounting of the net societal benefit of the distributed grid. He and his team determined that if California were to fully account for the costs and benefits of distributed energy resources over the next five years, the net societal impact would amount to $1.4 billion in annual benefits.
Krysta Harden, the former deputy secretary of the USDA, has joined DuPont as CSO and VP of public policy. DuPont is executing a $120 billion merger with Dow Chemical. DuPont provides PV materials such as Tedlar backsheets and silver pastes.
The Solar Energy Industries Association has hired Evelyn Butler to run the trade association’s codes and standards work. Butler comes to SEIA after serving as business development director of solar/PV, energy and power technologies at UL. Butler will also lead SEIA’s environment, health and safety initiatives.
Mike Fraenkel, formerly of PVHardware, is now president and GM at solar-mounting hardware vendor Sol Components. Kris Jernstedt, previously with Bentek and ArrayPower is senior VP of sales and marketing at the firm.
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Azuri Technologies, a commercial provider of "PayGo" solar home systems for rural off-grid communities, appointed Peter Reinartz to its board of directors as part of the company’s expansion plans in East Africa. Rwanda has a goal of bringing electricity to 70 percent of households by 2018, an increase from about 20 percent in 2014. Other off-grid electrification companies include Ignite Power, BBOXX and Off Grid Electric. Off Grid Electric raised $70 million in 2015 alone. Reinartz was previously a managing director of Eaton Towers.
Wes Brown was promoted to VP of sales and operations at UtilityAPI, a software startup that automates the process of sharing data between utilities and third-party providers.
Solazyme once aspired to produce algae-based biofuel. The company has settled on being a supplier of algae-based ingredients and is looking for a replacement for CEO Jonathan Wolfson, who is now assuming the role of chairman of the board. The firm is changing its name to TerraVia as it focuses on food, nutrition and specialty ingredients.
Louis-Philippe Lalonde is now chief marketing officer at Ygrene Energy Fund, a provider of property-assessed clean energy (PACE) financing for residential and commercial sites. Previously, Lalonde served as GM at Akeena Solar and VP at Enecsys.