Energy Transition Jobs: New CMO at QuantumScape, new CEO at PG&E, plus Perea at SunPower, Arevon, The Engine

Executive jobs and job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

November 24, 2020 Eric Wesoff

Asim Hussain, a longtime Bloom Energy VP, is now chief marketing officer at QuantumScape, a secretive, well-funded solid-state battery builder going public via a reverse merger with Kensington Capital (a SPAC) — at an enterprise value of $3.3 billion, according to reports. Investors in the ten-year-old startup include Volkswagen, Bill Gates through Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Prelude Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. Total funding is in excess of $1 billion for the company since its founding. QuantumScape’s CEO Jagdeep Singh claims its lithium-metal battery has an energy density exceeding 400 watt-hours per kilogram. It’s a testament to the difficulty of developing a new battery technology that it has taken more than a decade to bring this product to the edge of industrial production.

Katherine Gensler is now VP of government affairs at Arevon Energy Management (AEM). AEM has a partnership with Capital Dynamics’ Clean Energy and Infrastructure platform — for the origination of renewable-based structured energy contracts. Gensler was previously with SEIA. Last week we reported that Tiago Sabino Dias will lead AEM as CEO.

Lara Metcalf joined VC firm The Engine as CFO and COO. She was previously with The Social Entrepreneurs’ Fund. The Engine’s energy investments include Quaise, Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Form Energy.

Patti Poppe is leaving Consumers Energy to join Pacific Gas and Electric Company as CEO. Garrick Rochow will be the new CEO of CMS and Consumers Energy.

Morgan Day has joined Silicon Ranch as VP of projects. Day was previously with Black & Veatch.

Austin Perea, previously with Wood Mackenzie, is now pricing and policy manager at SunPower.

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This column is sponsored by Technica Communications, a public relations, social media and content marketing firm. Women World Awards named Technica CEO Lisa Ann Pinkerton Female Entrepreneur of the Year for advertising, marketing, & public relations 2020.

Technica client, ZeroAvia, completed the world’s first and largest hydrogen fuel-cell-powered flight of a commercial-grade aircraft.

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Woolpert hired Ryan Thomas as program director for the firm’s energy market. Woolpert is an architecture, engineering and geospatial services firm. Thomas has managed the design and construction of power generation and delivery, utility-scale solar plants, battery storage sites, and military support buildings.

Bob Brady is now senior project manager at Enable Energy. He was previously with Coronal Energy.

Mike Nolan is now director, energy storage and renewables, at IHS Markit. Nolan was previously with Edison Energy.

Peter J. Park is now senior product marketing manager at Nextracker. Park was most recently with Merlin Solar and has a work history that includes stints at MiaSole, Nanosolar and Solexel.

Raffi Garabedian, co-CTO of First Solar will be retiring from his position, effective March 31, 2021. Co-CTO Markus Gloeckler will assume the full CTO role at the thin-film solar panel pioneer. The company has had two co-chief technology officers since October. First Solar has recently posted a strong Q3, reinstated its Q4 guidance, sold off its O&M business to NovaSource, and made the decision to pursue the distributed generation market.

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