Green Jobs: New Execs at LightSail, Essess, Ascent Solar, Alion, First Solar, SoCalGas

New CEOs, partners and executives in utilities, cleantech and alternative energy

Eric Wesoff March 16, 2014

Eric Wesoff

Editor-at-Large
Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.

Dennis Arriola, president of Southern California Gas has assumed the role of the utility's CEO, succeeding Anne Shen Smith, who has retired after 36 years at the firm. Arriola has been president and COO of SoCalGas since 2012. In 2008, Arriola left to become EVP and CFO at solar power firm SunPower. He rejoined SoCalGas in 2012. Arriola has been quoted as saying, "Natural gas is the energy of possibility; it is a foundational fuel that can power a clean environment and propel our nation toward energy independence. There has never been a more exciting time to be in the energy business."

Large-scale energy storage startup LightSail Energy added former GE executive Volker Schulte as COO and Neel Sirosh, former CTO at Quantum Technologies, as VP and GM of its energy storage group. Schulte was GM of engineering for GE’s gas engine business. LightSail is intent on developing a more efficient approach to compressed air energy storage. Investors in the early-stage firm include Khosla Ventures, Peter Thiel, Bill Gates, and Total Energy Ventures.

Thomas Scaramellino has been named CEO at Essess, a startup that uses thermal imaging to assess building envelopes for energy efficiency. Scaramellino was founder and CEO of Efficiency 2.0, an energy efficiency software and rewards firm that was sold to C3 Energy in 2012.

Ascent Solar named Richard Hashim as VP and GM of its consumer products group. Hashim was previously with Corsair Components.

Carlos Abreu is now Director of Distributed Generation Solutions at solar EPC and panel maker First Solar. Abreu was most recently a renewable energy principal at Pacific Gas & Electric.

Kim Fiske, formerly the Managing Director of Solar Power at Iberdrola Renewables, is now VP of Corporate Development at Alion Energy. Alion aspires to automate solar PV power plant construction. Formerly known as SunPrint, Alion is funded by Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, Bright Capital, and Cleantech Group. The firm once worked with cadmium telluride, intent on building utility-scale, large-format panels.

Marty Reed is now Partner at The Roda Group. He is an investor in mOasis, Inventys, Gridtential, and Axine. The firm invests in "people and businesses that address the consequences of climate change, increasing demand for low carbon energy."

This is old news, but after Charlie Ricker retired from CSP developer BrightSource Energy in 2013 (he was the startup's first employee, according to his LinkedIn profile), he joined with BSE founder Arnold Goldman to found MADA Power, "developing energy processing and storage projects using an liquid air energy storage (LAES) technology developed by its affiliate, MADA Energie Ltd. MADA LAES technology is based on equipment and processes widely used in the LNG and air separation industries. MADA LAES combines the functionality of batteries with the long duration of pumped hydro and compressed air storage."

Jim Weldon, founder and former CEO of Solar Junction, is now CEO and Chairman at Alliphant, according to his LinkedIn profile. According to Xconomy, Alliphant's product "Zerch/Alert discovers new information you’re interested in, by 'connecting the dots' across multiple sources, both local and web/net-based. By using meaning and inference, it finds information beyond the reach of current systems -- delivering a unique decision advantage to its subscribers."