Green Jobs: New CEOs and Directors at SunEdison, RecycleBank, SRI, Calpine, Sensus and Choose Energy

Executive moves in the greentech C-suite

Eric Wesoff November 08, 2013

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.

SunEdison (NYSE: SUNE) appointed Georganne C. Proctor, former CFO of TIAA-CREF, as a new independent member of its board.

Barbara Heydorn is now Director of the Center of Excellence in Energy at SRI International.

Thad Hill will succeed Jack Fusco as Calpine’s CEO in May 2014 when Fusco becomes Executive Chairman.

SolarCity added Bennet Van de Bunt to the firm’s Board of Directors as part of its $120 million acquisition of Paramount Energy Solutions in August.

Curt Vass is now EVP of Business Development at Scifiniti, which is working on thin silicon for photovoltaic applications and just closed a $10 million funding round. Sharone Zehavi, Scifiniti CEO, will be speaking next week at an IEEE event at PARC in Palo Alto, Ca. The 22-employee startup's expertise lies in substrate creation, silicon deposition and recrystallization, with potential applications in batteries, optoelectronics and ceramics, as well as solar.

Sensus, a provider of smart grid metering and communications technology, named Randy Bays as president. Bays joins Sensus from Kinetek, where he was CEO.

Choose Energy named Kerry Cooper as its new CEO and recently added a $7.5 million Series B from KPCB, Stephens Capital and Michael Polsky.

In August we reported that Recyclebank had run into some financing trouble along with some layoffs. The firm was to undergo an "aggressive realignment." We just learned that CEO Jonathan Hsu has been moved to advisor and replaced by Javier Flaim, while COO David Eisendrath has stepped down. In an email to GTM, newly installed CEO Flaim wrote, "Our business is healthy. We’ve experienced strong growth and success over the past three years, with membership tripling, an installed base expanding to all 50 states, and key strategic partners such as SC Johnson (who is still a partner), Johnson & Johnson, Unilever and Waste Management committed to long-term impact. Recyclebank lets consumers receive coupons and rewards for recycling, energy efficiency, and energy conservation." KP's Trae Vassallo called it a way to "get consumers aligned" with the goal of recycling. The firm claims it has 4.5 million members.

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We report on greentech industry employment news and C-level hires and fires. Contact [email protected] with news, good or bad, on the employment front.