Speakers
Henning Wicht - Senior Director and Principal Analyst Photovoltaics, iSuppli
A well-respected technology expert and business leader, Henning Wicht has performed numerous syndicated and custom research assignments in microelectronics and photovoltaics. He was the founder and president of WTC - Wicht Technologie Consulting, acquired by iSuppli in April 2008. At iSuppli, Henning is responsible for directing the photovoltaics (PV) service.
Henning has been involved in the marketing of microsystem technology and electronics since 1993 when he joined CEA-LETI. In 1996, he was tasked with establishing CEA Germany.
Shyam Mehta - Senior Solar Analyst, Greentech Media Research
Shyam Mehta is a Senior Analyst at GTM Research, focusing on global solar markets.
Before joining GTM Research, Shyam was a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research where he covered equities in the alternative energy sector, primarily solar companies. Prior to Goldman, Shyam was a Research Analyst at The Brattle Group, an economic consulting firm, where his work focused on problems within the electricity industry.
Shyam received his Bachelor's in Mathematics from U.C. Berkeley.
Stephan Hansen - Managing Director, First Solar Germany
Stephan Hansen is the Managing Director of First Solar's German division.
First Solar is the largest manufacturer of thin film solar modules, having expanded manufacturing capacity to an annualized run rate of 62.6MW per line in the 4th quarter of 2010. By enabling clean, renewable electricity at lower costs, First Solar is providing a sustainable alternative to conventional energy sources.
This goal has driven First Solar to become one of the fastest growing manufacturers of solar modules in the world. FS Series 3 PV Modules represent the latest advancements in solar module technology, and are rapidly driving down the cost of solar electricity to rates comparable with traditional fossil fuel-based energy sources.
Ben Hill - Director of Sales & Marketing European Division Trina Solar
Ben Hill, formerly at BP Solar, has joined Trina Solar as Director of Sales & Marketing for Europe. Mr. Hill has over 23 years of experience in the photovoltaic industry. Prior to joining Trina Solar, he spent over 10 years at BP Solar, serving in both Germany and Spain and in various senior positions including Sales & Marketing Director for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and most recently, as a Regional Director for Europe. Prior to BP Solar, he served as a Division Manager for Battery Control, DC Lighting and Solar at Sollatek Ltd.
Mr. Hill manages Trina Solar's operations in Europe and implements the Company's ambitious regional growth plans.
Edwin Koot has been active in the Solar Energy business since 1994. Through his own companies Ekomation and Easysolar Edwin built up a lot of practical knowledge about the Dutch national situation and the international solar energy market.
With the foundation of his company Solarplaza in 2004, Edwin started building a broad informationplatform focused on the international solar energy market and the expansion of his large network of contacts and relations. By organizing international conferences and trade missions to production facilities; publishing in-depth market reports and supporting businesses in finding valuable contacts, Solarplaza has positioned itself as an important player in the PV industry.
Romain Henricart - Executive Director, QS Solar
Romain Henricart is QS Solar's Executive Director. QS Solar is part of the Qiangsheng (QS) family. QS was founded in 1993 as an industrial manufacturer. In the subsequent years, QS solar has gained worldwide recognition for their ability to produce technologically advanced, cost-effective solutions for the marketplace. QS maintains a R&D Technical Center which has consistently created new materials and processes that have advanced the company's business fields.
Joseph Berwind - Managing Partner & Founder, Alternative Energy Investing
Joseph Berwind has ten years of industry experience includes chemical market research and institutional sales at Marubeni Corporation, one of Japan's leading general trading companies with offices in 83 countries, managing global product distribution and manufacturing for Japan's top firms. During Joe’s six years on Wall Street, the hedge fund he helped manage at Bourgeon Capital Management, LLC where he was a Partner returned greater than 50% (2000-2005). Joe's three areas of research and investment focus were alternative energy, commodity and specialty chemicals and technology.
Joe is the author of Investing In Solar Stocks published by McGraw Hill 2009.
Chris O’Brien - Head of Market Development, Oerlikon Solar
Chris O'Brien is the head of Market Development at Oerlikon Solar.
Oerlikon Solar (a business segment of OC Oerlikon, based in Switzerland) is a leading global supplier of manufacturing equipment for the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry. Oerlikon Solar sells end-to-end manufacturing lines for producing advanced thin film silicon PV modules.
Chris O'Brien's responsibilities as Head of Market Development for North America include both Government Relations (pressing for Federal and state-level policies that will encourage accelerated investment in solar energy equipment in North America) and strategic market development.
Jesse Pichel - Senior Analyst, Jefferies
Jesse Pichel joined Jefferies in June 2010, as a senior equity research analyst covering cleantech. Prior to joining Jefferies, he spent seven years as a senior analyst at Piper Jaffray covering the same sector. Previously, he covered technology growth companies at Needham & Company and C.E. Unterberg Towbin. Over the years Mr. Pichel has been recognized with numerous stock picking and earnings accuracy awards including those given by Forbes, FT/StarMine, and The Wall Street Journal. In 2009, he was also named runner-up for the Institutional Investor annual All-America Research Team Award for alternative energy. He was one of the first analysts in the US to cover clean technology companies. Mr. Pichel received an MBA from Fordham University and a BS from Cornell University.
Prof. Ayodhya N. Tiwari, Head of PV Lab at EMPA and Chairman and founder of Flisom Ltd
Ayodhya N. Tiwari is the Head of the Laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics, EMPA-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, and Titular Professor at ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Zürich, Switzerland. He is a co-founder and Chairman of Flisom AG, Swiss company involved in production of monolithically connected flexible CIGS solar modules. He has more about 30 years of R&D experience in various photovoltaic technologies, especially applied and industrial R&D on thin film solar cells based on compound semiconductors using vacuum and non-vacuum chemical deposition process. His group has developed highest record efficiency flexible CIGS and CdTe thin film solar cells.
Dr. Tiwari is a co-author of more than 200 research publications and about 240 conference presentations including numerous invited papers and talks. He has co-chaired or co-organised several international conferences, co-edited special issues of leading journals on solar cells and thin films, is serving on the editorial board of journals. He has been advisor to various institutions and PV-Expert delegation member of EU and other national agencies. Dr. Tiwari is a co-recipient of numerous awards and recognitions.
Jens Hauch - Director Research and Development, Konarka Technologies
Dr. Jens A. Hauch is the Director of R&D Operations and the manager of the German R&D site of Konarka Technologies. He is responsible for stability and packaging development of Konarka’s innovative Power Plastic®. In 1998 he received a PhD degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining Konarka in 2004, he worked for Siemens Corporate Technology.
Konarka Technologies develops and manufactures solar plastic films that convert light to energy - anywhere. As the leading developer of polymer-based, organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology that provides a source of renewable power in a variety of form factors, Konarka has a broad portfolio of patents, technology licenses and an accomplished technical, scientific and manufacturing team.
James Plastow - Global Product Strategy Manager Solar Frontier K.K.
After an education at Loughborough University and Imperial College London James Plastow worked as a Renewable Energy Consultant at IT Power. In 2001 he moved to Tokyo to get involved in the Japanese solar Industry. From 2002 until 2007 Mr. Plastow functioned in various managerial positions at MSK. After MSK was acquired by Suntech James stayed with the company as BIPV Technical Sales Manager and then later as Product Manager. James has recently made the switch to Solar Frontier, where he has taken up the position of Global Product Strategy Manager in its Tokyo headquarters.
James Plastow has experience in Photovoltaics, BIPV, Product Development and Sales.
Mark Thirsk - Managing Partner, Lynx Consulting
Mark Thirsk has over 20 years experience in the chemical industry working with a variety of materials and processes utilized in wafer fabrication. In addition to his knowledge of electronic materials and manufacturing, he has also been involved in economic and business forecasting, strategic planning, technical marketing and M&A. Having been on both sides of the fence as a user and seller of materials and equipment, as well as being intimately involved with major materials manufacturers, Mark is well placed to bring clarity and insight into understanding markets from both a technical and commercial perspective.
Previous to Linx, Mark was Senior Marketing Manager at Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, a specialty materials company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was responsible for strategic planning and new business development. Additionally, Mark has served on the SEMI Chemicals and Gases Manufacturers Group (CGMG) since 1999, acting as Chairman between 2001 and 2003.
Ian Bennett - Senior Scientist PV Technologies, ECN
Ian Bennett has been with ECN since 2006. He worked in national and European projects on low stress interconnection and encapsulation of thin cells and interconnection and encapsulation of MWT cells.
His responsibilities cover the PV module technology (materials and mechanical aspects of interconnection and encapsulation).
ECN Solar Energy, with its staff of over 65 scientists and engineers, offers a wide range of R&D activities on PV materials, processing technologies, cells and module design. These are available for transfer and implementation on laboratory, pilot and production scale. ECN’s extensive facilities for solar cell and module processing and characterization are well suited to study almost all R&D issues currently relevant for the PV industry.
Christian Pho Duc - VP Sales and Marketing Europe, Nanosolar
Christian Pho Duc joined Nanosolar in January 2011 as Vice President Europe Sales and Marketing. Prior to this Christian grew the business for Solyndra in Europe as Vice President of Sales Europe since early 2009. Prior to this Christian was 15 years in semiconductor industry in various management positions , in particular as Vice President of Marketing at Infineon, Head of International Sales at Giesecke & Devrient and Head of Project Office at Siemens Semiconductors. Christian earned his Physics Degree at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich and his Master of Philosophy Degree at Cambridge University in UK.