26 January 2012

Nanosolar’s EVP of engineering & operations transitions to CEO

Nanosolar Inc of San Jose, CA, USA, which makes thin-film photovoltaic panels based on printing copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) and nanoparticle inks (using roll-to-roll solar cell printing), has named Eugenia Corrales as CEO. Current CEO Geoff Tate will retire after two years at the firm.

Picture: Eugenia Corrales.

Tate recruited Corrales in May 2010 to serve as executive VP of engineering and operations. In that role, she has led the firm’s transition to a commercial production phase while achieving both efficiency and production capacity benchmarks for Nanosolar. For the past 18 months Corrales has managed all operations, as well as engineering, purchasing and planning for both the San Jose, CA site and the firm’s assembly plant in Luckenwalde, Germany. Under Corrales, cumulative shipments have gone from zero to 10MW, and median panel efficiencies are now 11.5%.

Corrales has held a number of executive positions, including several years as a VP at Cisco where she ran all product operations for Cisco-branded products. She was previously responsible for manufacturing operations of $7bn in router, switching and optical product revenue. Prior to Cisco, Corrales spent 11 years in engineering and R&D management at HP. Prior to joining Nanosolar, she was founder & VP engineering of two cleantech startups. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Grinnell College and a master’s in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

Tate, who joined Nanosolar in early 2010, was recruited as an interim CEO with the charter to build an executive team capable of scaling into high-volume manufacturing at high efficiencies and low cost. The latest transition is the culmination of that effort. Tate had retired from Rambus in 2006 and is returning to retirement.

“This planned transition will allow the company to maintain its momentum and trajectory,” says Erik Straser, Nanosolar board member and Mohr Davidow Ventures general partner. “Under her stewardship we can grow the market for Nanosolar Utility panels and expand our global footprint,” he adds of Corrales.

“I am thrilled to lead such a talented team as we leverage this innovative printing technology to fulfill our mission to become the world’s lowest cost cell and panel manufacturer, independent of subsidies,” says Corrales. “We will continue to deliver on our stated production goals and efficiency roadmap for 2012,” she adds.

Tags: Nanosolar CIGS thin-film PV panels CIGS

Visit: www.nanosolar.com