First Solar has shifted a number of positions in its C suite. According to a July 1 8-K filing: 

  • Georges Antoun, COO, was named president of the U.S. division, reporting to the CEO. Prior to joining First Solar in 2012, Antoun was a venture partner at Technology Crossover Ventures.
  • Joseph Kishkill, CCO, was named president, international, reporting to the CEO. Before joining First Solar in 2013, Kishkill was president of eastern hemisphere operations at Exterran Energy Solutions.
  • Tymen DeJong was named COO, reporting to the CEO. DeJong joined First Solar in 2010 as VP of plant management and was appointed senior VP of manufacturing and EPC this year. Previously, DeJong was VP of assembly/test manufacturing at Numonyx.
  • Bryan Schumaker, former VP corporate controller, is now chief accounting officer, reporting to the CFO. 

First Solar declined to comment on the personnel moves. GTM just reported on First Solar's cadmium-telluride PV module efficiency record (18.6 percent) and CEO Jim Hughes' utility solar cost forecast ($1 per watt installed in 2017).

Energy storage system builder Alevo added Randell Johnson as its chief analyst. Johnson joins Alevo from Energy Exemplar and will be responsible for the firm's analytics platform.  

Brian O’Hara joined solar developer and EPC Strata Solar as senior VP of strategy and government affairs. Previously, he was founder of the Southeastern Wind Coalition. Strata just hired 188 solar workers to begin construction of an 87.5-megawatt PV project in North Carolina, which is one of the fastest-growing solar markets in the country.

Mike Rudolph joined Choose Energy, an energy marketplace for residents and businesses in deregulated markets, as CMO. Previously, Rudolph held executive marketing roles at several venture-backed startups including Addvocate, Bunndle and SugarSync.

Empower Energies added Buster Barksdale, former CEO of CoGen Power Solutions, as VP of business development with a focus on CHP and expansion of the firm’s integrated system. 

John Bryan is now VP of sales and marketing at EPC Power. Bryan was previously VP of product and marketing at battery storage company CODA Energy. 

GameChange Racking hired Jeff Haas as director of business development for its ground and rooftop racking products. Haas has served in business development roles with module manufacturer Schott Solar and racking manufacturer Renusol.

The Connecticut Green Bank promoted Genevieve Sherman to director of its commercial and industrial program. Sherman has been serving as acting director for C&I since January of this year and will continue to oversee the Green Bank’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program and its microgrid financing projects.

Walter Cuculic is now director of business development at SunPower. Previously he was regional director of builder and developer programs at SolarCity. 

Arvind Sodhani is retiring as head of Intel Capital after 35 years with the chip maker, according to Venture Beat. 

From last week's jobs column:

Yumin Liu is now COO of Recurrent Energy. Liu was most recently VP of the global energy business at Canadian Solar. Prior to Canadian, Liu was president of GCL Solar Energy. Canadian acquired Recurrent in February of this year.

EPC Stellar Energy was just acquired by REC Solar. Stellar's president, Ted Walsh, will join REC Solar as VP of business development.