Energy Jobs: Shiao Moves to Arcadia Power, NRG Renewables Now Clearway, More Former Tesla Moves

We start this week’s job column very close to at home. 

After more than eight years with GTM Research (now Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables), MJ Shiao is ready for his next adventure. He leaving his role as head of Americas research to join Arcadia Power and help them build the digital utility of the future as director of community solar.

Shiao was instrumental in building GTM’s solar research practice into an industry-leading enterprise, bringing a sharp intellect and wit to the growing market. He is also a tragic loss for the GTM talent show and more than one GTM Slack channel. 

“I'm incredibly grateful for the amazing opportunities and people that GTM connected me with,” Shiao told me in a Slack message (see above). “I'm excited to focus everything I've learned over the past decade into expanding access to renewables through community solar and the digital utility platform at Arcadia Power.”

If you want to know what the digital utility of the future actually looks like, or what his talent is, you can pepper him with questions in person at SPI later this month. 

You can also listen to his swan song on The Interchange podcast this week.

Earlier this year, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) announced it would acquire NRG's controlling stake and 46 percent economic interest in NRG Yield, as well as NRG’s renewable energy development and O&M businesses, for $1.375 billion in cash proceeds. With that deal complete, those two entities are now Clearway Energy Group, which began operations last week as an independent enterprise that maintains senior leadership, including John Woody, Craig Cornelius, Randy Hickok, Christopher Sotos and others.

Deutsche Bank’s Vishal Shah is now at Hudson Sustainable Investments (formerly Hudson Clean Energy). He also previously led global clean energy groups at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers. Hudson was a founding investor in Sunlight Financial and also has Recurrent, Landis+Gyr, Eagle Creek and others in its portfolio.

Jim Bausell came out of a brief retirement to join solar project developer Silicon Ranch as EVP for business development to lead the firm's ambitious growth strategy. John Kemp has left E.ON as director of solar development to be VP of origination and business development for Silicon Ranch. Earlier this year, Shell acquired a 43 percent interest in Nashville-based Silicon Ranch from Partners Group as it expands its New Energies footprint.

Jon Bonanno is now CXO at California Clean Energy Fund. He is just coming off a nine-month work sabbatical that took him and his family across 55,000 miles and through 20 countries. As for his new role, here’s how it’s described on LinkedIn: “At the not-for-profit California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF) and New Energy Nexus (NEX), we put the Entrepreneur at the epicenter of the impact engine: financial, environmental and social. CalCEF and NEX drive world-class New Energy & Mobility innovation by Creating strong organizations, Promoting them, Capitalizing them and Building Community around global Entrepreneurs. Join us in this charge.” The very interesting opportunity appears to come with very interesting use of capitalization.

And since Tesla seems to dominate this column these days, an update that Tesla’s engineering chief Doug Field, who did not return from a personal leave earlier this summer, is now back at his previous employer Apple. He is just one of dozens of Tesla folks to land at Apple in the past year, according to CNBC.

Molly Hubbard is now the energy program manager at Facebook. She was previously director of global operations at ForeFront Power.

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Enertech Search Partners, a boutique talent acquisition and advisory firm focused exclusively on the intersection of the new energy economy and connected industries, is the sponsor of the GTM jobs column.

Among its many active searches, Enertech has been exclusively engaged to find a Head of Sales for a client who is disrupting the way energy efficiency is designed and delivered to utilities as well as small and medium-sized enterprises.

This is an opportunity to join a team of founders who have established the company’s industry-leading position and who are recognized as thought-leaders and subject matter experts defining “the field of play” in this market.

The Head of Sales is responsible for managing both a direct and indirect sales organization in a fast-paced sales environment; it requires demonstrated sales success including enterprise level sales and channel development with a desire to build and lead a sales team capable of establishing a leading position in an emerging and rapidly growing market.

Blaine Collison is now SVP at strategic advisory firm David Gardiner and Associates. Before Gardiner, he was at Edison Energy’s energy advisory firm, Altnex, and spent more than 17 years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency before that.

Julianne Bernstein is now director of business development at solar EPC, Sofos Harbert Renewable Energy. Also, in the middle-America equivalent of being bicoastal, she is a SEIA member in both Alabama and Minnesota.

EV networking company Blink, owned by CarCharging Group, has named James Christodoulou as president. He was most recently CFO of Galeon Navigation and has more than 20 years of CEO and CFO experience across various sectors.

Sila Nano has brought on Warren DeSouza as CFO. DeSouza was previously in biotech. Linda Miller, who was previously at Applied Materials, will be VP of supply chain and Eric Larkin, formerly of Tesla, will be VP of data systems.

Also in the world of energy storage, Solo Energy, an energy storage and peer-to-peer power exchange platform, has brought on former VP of Tesla, Ben Hill, as a commercial and technical advisor. Before Tesla, Hill spent six years at Trina Solar. In his role at Solo Energy Ben will be overseeing the development and deployment of the company’s virtual power plants.

Blockchain-based energy marketplace Electrify Asia has brought on Regina Cheong as finance manager. Cheong was previously a senior business partner at Enterprise Singapore and has also been with KPMG Singapore, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.

Also in cryptocurrency and transactive energy, John Cooper is CEO at Nextenergi, a startup with various platforms that it says, “addresses the global challenge to faster DER and decarbonization, offering a straightforward solution to Climate Change and Grid Modernization.”