Energy Transition Jobs: Silfab Solar, Energy Department, Madison Energy Investments, GAF Energy, and more

Manufacturer Silfab Solar hired Renee Terreri as corporate director of human resources. She was an executive credited with ramping up Panasonic Solar’s Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York. Silfab also promoted Treff MacDonald to chief operating officer and Itai Suez to chief technology officer. MacDonald has 18 years of manufacturing experience that includes overseeing plant startups and expansions. Suez joined Silfab in June 2019 as vice president of product development.

Madison Energy Investments announced several hires as part of its efforts in the commercial and industrial solar and distributed generation markets. The new hires include Chioma Enechukwu, senior associate of operations and technology; Praniti Mehta, analyst of operations and technology; Hermann Yibokou, senior analyst of business development; Anum Chandani, senior associate of investments; Tucker Johnson, senior analyst of finance; and Jason Norinksy, senior associate counsel. The company said that most of the new hires had not worked in solar prior, but had backgrounds in areas of energy, such as oil and gas or carbon capture, or in banking or private equity.

Westwood Professional Services hired Jeff Kopocis, PE as a senior project manager. Kopocis has 23 years of engineering experience with 16 years specializing in utility-scale wind and solar energy projects. Westwood is a multi-disciplined national surveying and engineering services provider for renewable energy projects and infrastructure.

The U.S. Department of Energy named Jigar Shah as director of its Loan Programs Office, which oversees DOE’s more than $40 billion in loan authority across manufacturing, innovative finance, and tribal energy projects. Shah most recently was co-founder and president at Generate Capital. Earlier, he founded SunEdison, and also was the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global non-profit to help entrepreneurs address climate change. Karen Skelton was named a Senior Advisor to Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. Skelton spent the last decade as CEO and founder of Skelton Strategies, a policy and political consulting firm working on energy, climate, technology, economic justice, and women’s health. She also served as California Gov. Jerry Brown’s Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Global Climate Action Summit, where she drove corporate commitments designed to combat climate change.

Integrated solar solutions company GAF Energy announced three promotions on its leadership team. David Kaltsas was named senior vice president of operations. He previously was the company’s executive director of renewable energy, operations, and investment, and has portfolio management expertise in the commercial and industrial solar market. Jason Barrett was named senior vice president of sales. He joined GAF in 2015 and previously served as chief commercial officer of Sol-Wind and a founding partner of Paladin Strategic Partners. Reynolds Holmes was named vice president of services and product management. He held senior leadership positions at both SolarCity and Tesla.

DeAnn Walker resigned as chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, effective March 1. She was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2017 for a term that would have expired in September. Earlier, she was a policy advisor to Abbott on regulated industries and, before that, worked for CenterPoint Energy, a Houston-based electric utility company, as associate general counsel and director of regulatory affairs. The state’s utility regulators faced criticism for their handling of the electric power crisis that hit the state in mid-February.

ISO New England said that its vice president of information and cybersecurity services, Jamshid Afnan, is retiring after a 40-year career at the regional grid operator. Rudolf “Rudy” Pawul has been promoted to replace him. The changes are effective April 1. Pawul joined ISO New England in 1999, when he joined as a system administrator. He has taken on increasingly broad assignments since then, including supervisor and then manager of system support and IT director of infrastructure and enterprise support. Most recently, he served as the ISO’s IT director of development and power system support.

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