Here's an accounting of some top personnel moves from around the energy industry.
As many as 525 people could lose their jobs at the Oak Ridge and Brookhaven National Laboratories. Officials say the cuts are not due to the Trump administration's proposed budget; rather, they are part of normal cost-cutting measures.
Scientists and other career staffers worried about their jobs may yet be safe. Lawmakers are pushing back hard hard against Trump's massive decrease in funding for the Department of Energy.
Looking to the business world, we start with one biggest pieces of recent news: Paul Nahi is resigning as CEO of Enphase Energy after 10 years at the helm.
GTM's Jeff St. John reports that Enphase has created an office of the CEO, consisting of CFO Bert Garcia and COO Badri Kothandaraman, “to oversee and provide leadership for the company’s day-to-day activities" while the board looks for a replacement for Nahi.
The former president and CEO of GE’s power business, Stephen R. Bolze, is now a senior managing director and head of portfolio operations and asset management at Blackstone’s new dedicated infrastructure program. The new business unit anticipates more than $40 billion in total equity over time and is launching with a $20 billion commitment by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
David Bartlett has moved from chief technology officer at GE Current to the same position with Panasonic Avionics Corporation. GE’s Current is still figuring out exactly what business it’s in. At the beginning of the year, Current underwent restructuring to focus more on lighting and analytics driven by GE’s Predix platform, and less on the everything-under-the-sun approach it developed when it first launched two years ago.
After six months, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has a quorum. The U.S. Senate confirmed Robert Powelson, commissioner on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and current president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, and Neil Chatterjee, energy adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to FERC. The two commissioners join Acting Chair Cheryl LaFleur. They'll have a lot on the docket, from evaluating how DERs affect regional electricity markets to pipeline approvals. Two other nominees, Kevin McIntyre and Richard Glick, await confirmation hearings on September 7.
The Senate also confirmed Dan Brouillette to return to the Department of Energy as deputy secretary. During the George W. Bush administration, he spent two years as the assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, according to The Hill. This is only the second DOE official the Senate has confirmed during the Trump administration.
ChargePoint brought on Mark Kerstens as senior VP of business development. Kerstens spent just a year as CEO of Beamreach Solar, formerly Solexel, before jumping over to ChargePoint. ChargePoint has been in fundraising mode this year, raising more than $100 million in 2017, bringing its total to nearly $300 million.
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Enertech Search Partners, an executive search firm with a dedicated cleantech practice, is the sponsor of the GTM jobs column.
Enertech Search Partners has placed Shane Fay as SVP of sales at Grid4C.
Grid4C’s predictive analytics solution is currently deployed on four continents and was rated No. 1 in predictive analytics by GTM Research in its 2016 Predictive Analytics for Utility Load and DER Forecasting report.
Grid4C’s platform analyzes massive amounts of data collected from millions of smart meters. It then delivers accurate, granular predictions to maximize the efficiency of energy operations, increase customer engagement and drive profit.
Fay, an industry veteran, joins Grid4C from Comverge, where he built and managed the sales team driving significant revenue, resulting in the acquisition by Itron in May. Fay sees Grid4C’s advanced machine-learning capabilities as a highly differentiated product, perfectly positioned to take advantage of market conditions. Enertech Search Partners is thrilled to partner with Grid4C in continuing to develop a talented leadership team across North America.
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Sigora Solar has named Ron Hisel as the company’s new COO. Sigora is Virginia’s largest residential and commercial solar provider. Hisel is expected to “sharpen” Sigora’s project cycle efficiencies and scale up all aspects of its business, from residential through utility-scale. Hisel comes to Sigora from PosiGen Solar Solutions, where he was VP of operations.
Sam Ori has left his position as the executive director at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago to join the university’s Becker Friedman Institute for research in economics. His previous position at EPIC was open as of the beginning of August, as is a role for a communications coordinator at EPIC.
Jason Allen joined Leeward Renewable Energy as COO. He will be responsible for operating Leeward’s 1.5 gigawatts of existing wind fleet. He was most recently at AltaGas as VP of operations and before that had been at Duke Energy Corporation for more than 20 years. Leeward Renewable Energy is an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm with about $18 billion invested in across the energy industry.
John May is now managing director of Hamilton Clark Sustainable Capital. Previously he was managing director, founder and co-head of the alternative energy finance group at Stern Brothers.
Diane Fellman left NRG Energy, where she was VP of West government affairs, to join the California Public Utilities Commission as senior policy analyst. She is returning to CPUC after decades in the private sector. Fellman was previously with the CPUC in the 1980s, when she served as an attorney.
Also at CPUC, Heather Sanders has been appointed special advisor. She is also the principal manager of electric system planning strategy and engagement at Southern California Edison. Before joining SCE two years ago, Sanders was the director of regulatory affairs for distributed energy resources at California ISO.
After nearly two decades, John Saintcross has retired from public service. He was most recently the acting director of NY Prize and managed the grid modernization R&D programs for the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority. Dave Crudele will take over management of those two programs.
Eric Wesoff has left GTM after a decade of service. For those who sent tips to Eric about career changes and other industry happenings, please continue to let us know at [email protected] or [email protected].