Energy transition jobs: Innowatts, Entergy, DOE, Romeo Power, and more

Innowatts named Jeff Wright as chief revenue officer to drive continued expansion in the U.S. and also accelerate its growth globally. Prior to Innowatts, he served as the global VP of GE Digital’s Grid Solutions business unit. Earlier, he was VP of the western U.S. for Silver Spring Networks, an IoT provider for major utilities and power providers that was acquired by Itron in 2018.

Entergy Corp. created a new sustainable planning, development, and operations organization under the leadership of Pete Norgeot, currently senior VP, transformation. Norgeot will continue to serve as a member of the Office of the Chief Executive, and will report to Paul Hinnenkamp, executive VP and COO. The new organization will be composed of system planning and operations, led by Jason Reynolds; enterprise planning, led by Elizabeth Adams; and a new power development group led by Jonathan Long, which will be responsible for building internal capabilities to establish a pipeline of renewable energy projects. Gary Dickens, currently VP, project construction, will succeed Long as VP of capital projects. All organizational moves are effective May 16.

Law firm Clean Energy Counsel added six attorneys and a new chief operating officer. Diego Atencio will focus on project development, with an emphasis on the real estate sector, including site acquisition agreements, options, leases, and title and survey review. He was previously with Husch Blackwell LLP in its Austin office. Zach Crowley will advise developers, investors, and lenders on project and asset financing transactions and acquisitions, as well as dispositions of clean energy and sustainable infrastructure assets. He previously served at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in its San Francisco office. Shae Harvey will focus on the sale and procurement of power and energy services for commercial and utility-scale renewable generating facilities and storage projects, including PPAs, capacity sales agreements, and grid services contracts. She previously was with Southern California Edison, where she served as senior counsel. Brian Joyce will represent borrowers, sponsors, and tax equity investors in project finance, structured finance, project development, and general corporate transactions in the renewable energy space. Previously, he served at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in its Los Angeles office. Brett Martino will focus on real estate transactions, EPC contracts, power purchase agreements, renewable energy credit purchase agreements, land use entitlements, and permitting approvals. He previously was senior in-house counsel with First Solar. Marlena Schultz will focus on representing project lenders and developers and advise clients on structuring complex financings and joint ventures, particularly growing cleantech clients. As COO, Kami Calderon will lead the firm’s core business support functions, including administrative operations, human resources, information technology, marketing, and finance. She previously was at Faegre Drinker, where she directed operations for its three California offices.

The Department of Energy named two people to senior positions. Ann Dunkin was named chief information officer. She was most recently the chief strategy and innovation officer focused on state and local government at Dell Technologies. Prior to that, she was the CIO for Santa Clara County, California. She served in the Obama Administration as CIO of the Environmental Protection Agency. Yahaira Lopez was named deputy chief of staff. Most recently, she served as director of People Operations at Hawkfish LLC, and prior to that was HR director for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. During the Obama Administration, she worked across three different federal agencies, first managing environmental policy initiatives at the Department of Agriculture, moving to political personnel at the Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation.

Romeo Power named Dr. Hang Shi as VP of Cell Engineering. In his role, Shi will be responsible for leading Romeo Power’s battery cell design group and is expected to play a critical role in the company’s efforts to secure a diverse range of qualified cells for its customers’ electric vehicle applications. He is a 30-year veteran in the battery technology industry and founded and served as CEO and CTO of several key innovators in the field.