Energy Jobs: SunEd CFO Terminated, Plus Tesla, PG&E, Gardner Capital, PVComplete, Simply Solar

Executive and boardroom moves in cleantech, utilities, energy and VC

According to a filing with the SEC last week, SunEdison (OTC PINK: SUNEQ) gave Brian Wuebbels, the company’s CFO and CAO, a formal 30-day notice of termination of employment, during which Wuebbels will report to John Dubel, the firm’s chief restructuring officer. Ilan Daskal will remain SunEdison’s CFO designee. SunEdison also announced that it would delay filing its first-quarter earnings report.

Ahmad Chatila is still CEO of bankrupt SunEdison, although a report by professors at Queen’s University and Dartmouth finds that about two-thirds of CEOs are gone by the time bankruptcy protection is sought -- pushed out by creditors or the board, or departing by choice. The study notes that debtor-in-possession financing, as SunEdison has done with a recent $300 million loan, increases the chance of the CEO departing. Cathy Zoi is still CEO of SunEdison's rural electrification unit Frontier Power, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Peter Hochholdinger, with Audi for 22 years, is joining Tesla as VP of vehicle production. He'll be responsible for Model S and Model X production, as well as the design of a manufacturing program for the Model 3. At Audi, Hochholdinger was responsible for leading the production of Audi’s A4, A5 and Q5 vehicles.

Jenya Meydbray of DNV GL joined the board of directors at PVComplete, which offers a solar design platform. Solar project design software and the many other flavors of solar software were on everyone's mind at last week's Solar Software Summit. GTM Squared members can watch the archived video of the full-day event here.

Tyfani Hafley is now VP of sales at Simply Solar. Hafley was previously with American Solar Direct and before that, SolarCity.

Sarath Srinivasan, previously with SunEdison, is now director of solar finance at Gardner Capital Solar, a utility-scale solar developer and financier.

CarbonCure added Bill Holden as VP of sales. CarbonCure uses recycled CO2 gas to improve the compressive strength of concrete. Holden was previously president of Block USA, a concrete masonry producer.

Karen Khamou was promoted to interim director of state infrastructure projects at PG&E. Elise Hunter was promoted to expert analyst for energy storage at PG&E. Hunter focuses on policy, strategy and valuation of DG paired with energy storage.

Cory Honeyman was promoted to associate director of U.S. solar research at GTM Research.

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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's latest blog post, "A Year of Oil and Gas Decline Is a Boon for Grid Edge Hiring," suggests that "savvy oil and gas technology professionals" are "looking toward clean technology as a legitimate career possibility."

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In a presentation at the Haas School of Business, Sheldon Kimber, former COO of Recurrent Energy, suggests that distributed renewable generation doesn't pencil out in meeting the societal goal of climate change mitigation.  

From last week's column:

Mario Barbaresso, previously CEO of Benning Power Electronics, has been named CEO of Power Survey International. Last month, EnerTech Capital and Investissement Québec announced a $10 million investment in Power Survey, while also acquiring the shares of the current owners. Power Survey is a long-time provider of power factor correction and harmonic filtering equipment that helps industrial energy users reduce energy consumption.

Smarter Grid Solutions named Jim Kent as its new CEO. He takes over from Gerry Docherty, who is moving to the role of chairman. SGS provides distributed energy resource management and consultancy services that allow developers and distribution network operators to integrate distributed energy resources.   

Fortune reports that Apple has hired Yoky Matsuoka, a co-founder of Google’s X lab, robotics expert and former head of technology at Nest, to work on Apple's health efforts.