President Joe Biden announced six appointments to the White House climate team, led Gina McCarthy. On the new climate team, Sonia Aggarwal, a co-founder and the vice president of Energy Innovation, will serve as senior advisor for climate policy and innovation. The Coalition for Green Capital’s Jahi Wise will serve as a senior adviser for climate policy and finance in the administration’s Office of Domestic Climate Policy. David Hayes, formerly executive director of the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center and an adjunct professor at the NYU School of Law, has been tapped as special assistant to the President for climate policy. Dr. Cecilia Martinez, co-founder and executive director at the Center for Earth, Energy, and Democracy, will serve as senior director for environmental justice. Maggie Thomas, political director at the non-profit Evergreen Action and former policy advisor to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has been appointed chief of staff for the Office of Domestic Climate Policy. Jeff Marootian has been named special assistant to the President for climate and science agency personnel.
Women in Climate Tech (WiCT) has been launched to empower and amplify the voices of women working in this industry and to grow the share of females represented who will work on this issue for generations to come. “Studies show that women are disproportionately impacted by climate change,” said Lisa Veliz Waweru, Customer Success Lead at The Climate Service, and Head of the WiCT Steering Committee. Steering Committee members include: Nicole Efron of PG&E, Rachel Ett of First Solar, Radhika Lalit of Rocky Mountain Institute, Annie Guo of Microsoft, Emily Wasley of WSP, Jennifer Kane of Trane Technologies, and Grace Kankindi.
Northern Electric Power Technology Inc., developer of rapid shutdown safety solutions and state-of-the-art solar microinverters, named Ed Heacox as CEO. Heacox had been General Manager of CPS America and will transition to an advisor role with CPS as he initiates his role of CEO at NEP. He will implement and lead NEP’s global strategy and engagement with the U.S. market. NEP is based in Silicon Valley, California, and established as a benefit corporation driven to advance solar power conversion, safety and clean energy.
Image: Sunfolding
The Sunfolding board of directors named Glen Davis as Chief Executive Officer. With more than 35 years as an energy executive, Davis has led market share development, revenue and profit growth, and new market expansion while serving as CEO at RES Americas; Group Leader at AES Corp.; and CEO at Agile Energy. Davis joins a leadership team at Sunfolding with deep experience in product development and gigawatt-scale project deployment. In 2020, Sunfolding added Bruce Sohn, former president of First Solar, to its board of directors. Jurgen Krehnke, Sunfolding CEO since August 2017, will continue to serve the company in an advisory role.
The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), a national nonprofit that unites finance, policy and technology to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy, announced its new Board class for 2021. ACORE welcomes two new Board members: Laura Beane, Chief Renewables Officer at ENGIE North America; and Rose McKinney-James, Managing Principal of Energy Works LLC, McKinney-James & Associates and Advocacy BL/ACK. In addition, the following current Board members were elected or appointed to new three-year terms: Mit Buchanan, Managing Director of Energy Investments, J.P. Morgan; Pat Reiten, Senior Vice President of Government Relations, Berkshire Hathaway Energy; and Himanshu Saxena, Chief Executive Officer, Starwood Energy.
Image: Sunworks
The Board of Directors of Sunworks, Inc. named Gaylon Morris as its new CEO and a member of the board. Prior to joining Sunworks, Morris served as Business Strategist at Rosendin Electric. He earlier was Senior Vice President of Operations for Strategic Growth and Market Development at Cupertino Electric, and held senior executive roles at NTS Corp., Methode Electronics and MET Laboratories. He also served in the United States Navy, where he was a Submarine Service Reactor Plant Operator.
Vision Solar named Faraz Khan as its new Chief Financial Officer. Khan has more than 15 years of experience in the energy industry. Prior to joining Vision Solar, he served as Senior Director of Corporate Finance at Hardinge Inc. and as CFO for Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.
The utility trade group Edison Electric Institute promoted Emily Sanford Fisher to General Counsel, Corporate Secretary & Senior Vice President, Clean Energy. Fisher joined EEI in 2008 and has headed the legal department since 2017. She will continue in that role, and also will oversee and coordinate strategic clean energy engagement across EEI and the federal government. Earlier, Fisher was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State and was in private practice representing electric companies. She is a member of the Advisory Council for the Energy Systems Integration Group and the National Board for the Women’s Energy Network.
Shine Solar said that David Chidester has joined the company as its first CFO Advisor. A certified public accountant, Chidester brings more than 20 years of financial experience that includes 10 years as a senior executive, including as CFO of Overstock.com. He holds an undergraduate degree in accounting and an MBA from the University of Utah where he also serves on the advisory board for the Accounting School.
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