Another week brings more moves and shifts at the upper levels of the energy industry.
Alicia Barton is the new CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, succeeding John Rhodes, who is now chair of the Public Service Commission. Barton was most recently at law firm Foley Hoag, serving as co-chair of its energy and cleantech practice. Before that, Barton was chief of operations for the global utility group at SunEdison. She also served as CEO for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The board also added Kate Fish, executive director of the Adirondack North Country Association, and Sukanya Paciorek, executive VP of asset management at Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation.
BYD has delivered more than 20,000 battery-electric buses worldwide and just hired Milo Victoria as GM for BYD Coach and Bus. Victoria began his career as a transit bus mechanic at L.A. Metro. BYD also promoted Bobby Hill to VP of U.S. sales for BYD Coach and Bus.
Doug Houseman, former VP of technical innovation at EnerNex, is now grid modernization lead at Burns & McDonnell.
Intersect Power, a utility-scale clean power developer, won an equity and credit investment from Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation this week to support its 700-megawatt pipeline of early-stage solar and storage projects in the U.S. Sheldon Kimber, managing partner and co-founder of Intersect, was COO at solar developer Recurrent Power. Canadian Solar acquired Recurrent from Sharp for $265 million in 2015. Kimber sees an energy future dominated by "renewables, electricity storage and natural gas." Every member of Intersect's diverse senior management team worked at Recurrent.
I bumped into Jack West, founder and CTO of Zep Solar, at Intersolar this week. He left Tesla a few months ago, but is still dreaming, literally, of solar innovations.
Smart Energy Decisions reports on a slew of executive moves at Edison Energy (Edison International's unregulated energy advisory), including the departure of President Allan Schurr. Ron Litzinger, president of Edison Energy, was named interim president. Edison Energy is a $300+ million effort to build, via acquisition, an energy consulting group for large C&I companies. It's difficult to make these multi-service C&I businesses work -- Current, GE's energy services model, started a restructuring process late last year. Chief Regulatory Officer Ward Camp and CMO Tom Comstock are also departing Edison Energy, according to reports.
As covered by SparkSpread, two managing directors have left residential solar firm Spruce Finance. They are Darryl Carbonaro, deputy general counsel, now at Generate Capital, and Sean Coletta. CEO Nat Kreamer left the firm in June.
Law firm Reed Smith added Colette D. Honorable, former commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Regina Y. Speed-Bost, chair of Schiff Hardin’s energy group, as partners in its international energy and natural resources practice.
The Energy Storage Association hired Kelly Speakes-Backman as its first CEO. Executive Director Matt Roberts moves to a new role as VP for external affairs. Speakes-Backman served as director of clean energy for the Maryland Energy Administration before becoming a commissioner at the Maryland Public Service Commission. She was marketing director in the early days of SunEdison.
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GI Energy (GIE), a provider of on-site energy and micro grid systems, added Tony Amis, previously with Geothermal International, as senior VP of sales. GIE recently built a geothermal system at Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island in NYC that pumps water from 80 onsite wells to provide the building’s total heating and cooling requirements. GIE is building a similar system at Google's California headquarters.
Marcus Müller, previously the research director at Technische Universität München, is now energy storage policy lead in Tesla's Munich office.
We've heard rumors of layoffs at Fluidic Energy, as well as at Green Charge Networks, which is now a part of the immense independent power producer Engie.
From the previous jobs column:
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the national association of investor-owned electric companies, promoted Phil Moeller to executive VP of business operations group and regulatory affairs. Prior to EEI, Moeller served two terms as a commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
(David Owens stepped down from the position this month. Listen to Stephen Lacey's lengthy podcast interview with Owens about his career and the range of issues that EEI is grappling with.)
Patricia Vincent-Collawn, CEO of PNM Resources, was elected chairman of the board of EEI. Also elected were three vice chairmen: Christopher Crane, CEO of Exelon Corporation; Gregory Abel, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy; and Lynn Good, CEO of Duke Energy.
Fortune profiled PG&E CEO Geisha Williams, the first Latina CEO of a Fortune 500 company, whose "biggest diplomatic triumph came in her decision to decommission Diablo Canyon, California’s last nuclear plant, beginning in 2024." She called electric transportation the “single biggest opportunity to really make a meaningful impact on reducing greenhouse gases.”