Executive Team
John W. Baumstark
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer
John is the founding Chairman and CEO of Suniva, Inc., a leading manufacturer of highly-efficient, affordable solar cells and modules. Suniva evolved in 2007 from John's collaboration with Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi, Regent's professor and founding director of Georgia Tech's University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaics (UCEP). Under John's leadership, Suniva has raised $130 million from top venture capital firms and private equity companies, including New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Warburg Pincus, HIG Ventures, and Goldman Sachs.
In October 2008, Suniva began production of its first-generation solar cells, achieving the fastest production ramp-up in solar manufacturing. In just three years, Suniva has expanded its production capacity from 30MW to 170 MW; set world records for solar cell efficiencies; implemented its next generation technology, and was named 2010's Commercial Technology of the Year by Platts Global Energy and Renewable Energy Exporter of the Year by the Export-Import Bank of the United States where John had the honor of accepting the award and introducing President Obama before his major policy speech on U.S. exports. For two years consecutive years, the Wall Street Journal ranked Suniva #2 in its list of the Top 10 Venture-Backed Clean Technology Companies and placed them on the Top 50 Venture-Backed Companies across all industries list (2010, 2011). Suniva has also earned top rankings in Greentech Media's Top Fifty Green Start-ups (2008, 2010), and by AlwaysOn GoingGreen as one of the Top 50 green technology companies in the Eastern U.S.
John has more than 20 years' experience in early and late-stage private and public companies. Prior to founding Suniva, John was an operating partner at H.I.G. Ventures, providing overall strategy for the fund as well as development of portfolio companies.
From 2001-2005, John was president and CEO of DWL, the leader in customer data integration software. Under John's leadership, DWL was profitable and cash-flow positive for 20 consecutive quarters, and was named one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America three years in a row by Deloitte and Touche. DWL was acquired by IBM in 2005.
Earlier in his career, John served as the Chief Operating Officer of TRADEX Technologies, during which time TRADEX became the market leader in digital marketplace platforms. In March of 2000, TRADEX was acquired by Ariba for $5.6 billion, making it one of the largest software acquisitions in history.
Previously, John directed worldwide field operations for Infinium Software, where he led a successful initial public offering, and acquired two companies.
John graduated from Colorado College with a BA in Business/Economics, and is a graduate of the AeA Stanford Executive Institute. He is a former director of Procuri, Inc., which was sold to Ariba in 2007; and former director of Marketmax, which was sold to SAS in 2003. John currently serves on the Board of Directors for Gwinnett Technical College.
Ajeet Rohatgi, Ph.D.
Founder, Chief Technical Officer
Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi is a Regents' Professor and a Georgia Power Distinguished Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), where he joined the ECE faculty in 1985. He is highly regarded as one of the world's leading research scientists in photovoltaic (PV) technology, and is the founding director of the University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaic Research and Education (UCEP) at Georgia Tech. Dr. Rohatgi is also the Founder and CTO of Suniva®, Inc. and has positioned the company as a U.S. leader in the research, development and manufacturing of high-efficiency, low-cost monocrystalline PV cells, using unique processes and techniques that evolved from his work at UCEP. Dr. Rohatgi continues his research interests in the development of cost and efficiency roadmaps for attaining grid parity with silicon PV, and innovations in cell design and technology.
Under Dr. Rohatgi's leadership, Suniva has accomplished several industry firsts and achievements in manufacturing, technology, research, and development, including the fastest ramp-up to 100MW production in the industry; the raising of $130 million in capital following the formation of Suniva in 2007; the successful production of cell efficiencies exceeding 19% and R&D cell efficiencies exceeding 20%.
Dr. Rohatgi is an IEEE Fellow. He has published more than 370 technical papers in the PV field and has been awarded 11 patents. Dr. Rohatgi has been widely recognized for his research and development contributions:
- Named "Champion of PV" by Renewable Energy World Magazine, 2010
- Recipient of the 2010 Outstanding Achievement in Research Innovation Award, nominated on behalf of the faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Leadership in Technology award by Renewable Energy World for his achievements in advancing the market for renewable energy in North America, 2010
- Envention Award by Atlanta Business Chronicle for conservation and pollution-curbing efforts, 2009
- Hoyt Clarke Hottel Award by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) award committee for outstanding educator and innovator in the field of photovoltaics , 2009
- Thought Leadership Award finalist by the Aspen Institute's 2009 Energy & Environment Awards, 2009
- Climate Protection Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for dedication and technical innovation in PV, 2009
- One of The Five Most Influential People in Renewable Energy by Power Finance & Risk Magazine, 2008
- Georgia Institute of Technology Outstanding Research Program Development Award, 2007
- William Cherry Award by the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2003
- Rappaport Award by the U.S. Department of Energy/NREL, 2003
- Georgia Tech Distinguished Professor Award, 1996
- As part of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Dr. Rohatgi and his team designed and installed the world's largest grid-connected, roof-top PV system on the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center
- Westinghouse Engineering Achievement Award, 1984
Dr. Rohatgi received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1971, and a M.S. degree in Materials Engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, in 1973. He received a Ph.D. in Metallurgy and Material Science from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, in 1977. Prior to joining the Electrical Engineering faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Dr. Rohatgi was at the Westinghouse Research and Development Center in Pittsburgh, PA in 1977 and became a Westinghouse Fellow while working on the science and technology of photovoltaic and microelectronic devices.
James M. Modak
Chief Financial Officer
Jim Modak is an experienced financial executive with more than 30 years experience in high growth businesses. His career has included three public offerings, four sell-side M&A transactions and more than 50 buy-side M&A transactions.
As CFO of Suniva, Jim assisted in raising $130 million in capital and led the debt financing for the company's manufacturing equipment. Jim continually focuses on efforts of constant improvement for operational cost efficiencies throughout Suniva. These efforts were recognized by The Wall Street Journal's Next Big Thing survey, which ranked Suniva #2 in the 2010 Top 10 Venture-Backed, Clean Technology Companies. In addition, Jim manages the human resources aspects of Suniva, which has seen steady growth since the company was founded in 2007.
In March 2010, Suniva received the Renewable Energy Exporter of the Year by the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Jim presented at EX-IM Bank's annual conference, where President Obama addressed attendees and announced his export initiative.
Before joining Suniva, Jim was the CFO of Datapath, a $300 million company providing mobile satellite communications. While at Datapath he led the company's private placement of $350 million in 2006. His career has included COO and CFO roles at companies such as DWL, a private enterprise software company which was grown from $5 million in revenues to over $35 million in four years, ultimately leading to the sale of the company to IBM.
Additionally, Jim was the CFO at Tradex Technologies where he helped build the business into one of the leaders in developing digital marketplaces. Jim and the executive team ultimately sold the company to Ariba in one of the largest software M&A transactions at the time of $5.6 billion.
He has held senior financial executive positions at such companies as Total System Services-NYSE, American Software and Logility-NASDAQ and FFMC-NYSE (sold to First Data in 1995). In addition to public financing experience, Jim has significant operational and business development experience.
Jim began his career with KPMG Peat Marwick where he spent 12 years after graduating from the University of Notre Dame. He currently serves on the Library Council of Notre Dame.
J. Bryan Ashley
Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer
Bryan brings to Suniva nearly 30 years of hi-tech marketing, business development and sales experience leading and working in companies ranging from IBM to his own successful consulting start-up in the early 1990s.
As Chief Marketing Officer, Bryan leads Suniva’s Marketing, Sales and Business Development teams worldwide. Bryan formed and implemented Suniva's worldwide go-to-market strategy, company branding, sales strategy, and sales team during 2008 and 2009. Bryan also instituted and led Suniva's significant participation in the emerging Indian and European PV markets. In 2010, Bryan was appointed to the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.
Prior to Suniva, Bryan was Director of Industry Marketing worldwide for the $3+ billion Information Management division of the IBM Corporation's Software Group. He led teams that managed both industry and sector marketing strategy/messaging, as well as the transition to cross industry "CIO" and an industry specific "Line of Business" -focused marketing messaging framework. Before IBM, Bryan was the Chief Marketing Officer/V.P. of Marketing and Business Development for DWL Software, based in Atlanta and Toronto. DWL was the recognized thought leader and pioneer in creating the customer data integration (CDI) software space; DWL was acquired by IBM in September of 2005.
Bryan has also held positions as V.P. of Marketing; V.P. of Business Development; V.P./Director of Strategic Alliances; Managing Director of Sales, E/ME/A, and V.P. of Product Marketing at various companies, including Infinium Software (Software 2000); Talus/Manugistics; Ariba; Witness Systems, and DSI Inc. (co-founder). Bryan began his career in sales at IBM in the late 1970s, and gained significant product marketing and development experience in IBM's Rochester lab in the mid-to- late 1980s as a market manager, bringing the highly successful AS/400 product line to market.
Bryan holds degrees in Marketing and Economics from Louisiana Tech University and has completed graduate studies at the Darden School and at the Wharton School. He brings a wealth of experience in international negotiations and in building successful, motivated teams to create and implement marketing and business development strategies/tactics in international markets.
Stephen P. Shea, Ph.D.
Chief Engineering Officer
Dr. Shea has spent more than 35 years in Photovoltaics, including device design, research and development, manufacturing process development, technology transfer, and engineering and operations management. As Chief Engineering Officer, Steve leads Suniva's manufacturing design implementation, proprietary processes and growth. Prior to his current role, Steve was Vice President of Manufacturing at Suniva, leading the creation of the company's operations group, which successfully implemented the first Suniva process line in a record-setting 14 weeks from start of construction to first product. His team has also tripled production in the Norcross facility during 2009, and collaborated with Suniva R&D to optimize the company's production process to achieve average cell conversion efficiencies above 18% with no increase in capital cost and with reduced variable cost.
Prior to joining Suniva in 2007, Steve's work covered all aspects of the PV manufacturing value stream. From 2004 to 2007, Steve worked primarily as an independent PV consultant, with a portfolio of work covering process optimization, cost modeling of next-generation manufacturing processes, advanced metallization research, staff training, and a full factory installation in Egypt which included process design and documentation, staff training and factory start-up.
During 2005-2006, Steve was Senior Visiting Photovoltaic Manufacturing Specialist at Xerox-PARC in Palo Alto, CA. Prior to that, he spent more than 20 years with Solarex (later BP Solar), one of the largest vertically-integrated PV companies in the world, with factories in Maryland, Madrid, Bangalore, and Sydney. As Director of Technology in the Crystalline Division of BP Solar, Steve was responsible for technology development and implementation across the entire PV value stream, from raw material to modules. Before joining Solarex in 1983, and after completing his Ph.D., Steve ran the Materials Analysis Lab at the University of Delaware's Institute of Energy Conversion, working with a wide range of emerging thin-film materials and devices.
Steve earned an M.S.E.E. and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware, where his graduate work concentrated on Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) measurements of carrier transport in thin film solar cells. He also earned both a B. S. in Engineering Science and a B. A. in English Literature from Swarthmore College. Steve is the author of more than 25 papers on photovoltaics.
Bruce McPherson
Vice President of Research and Development
As Vice President of Research and Development at Suniva, Bruce and his team of scientists are responsible for successfully advancing the ARTisun® Series of monocrystalline cells. The team's impressive 20% cell efficiency results are being incrementally deployed into manufacturing, using low-risk steps that maintain low manufacturing costs. Working closely with Dr. Steve Shea, Chief Engineering Officer, Bruce transitions ideas from the R&D lab environment into full-scale, viable manufacturing. Together, Suniva's R&D and manufacturing teams have recently added more than 1% cell efficiency gains without adding any new manufacturing processes.
Bruce also works closely with Suniva's founder and CTO, Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi, and Georgia Tech's University Center of Excellence in Photovoltaics (UCEP), in all aspects of cell design, fabrication and characterization. An important part of Bruce's role is managing the Suniva development lab, a 5,000-square-foot cell development lab fully equipped to conduct comprehensive experiments as well as confirm promising advances within a pilot environment. Additionally, Bruce oversees Suniva's module application lab, which includes state-of-the-art environmental test chambers, cell stringing equipment, and lamination and flash testing capability. The module application lab enables Suniva to research new module designs and improvements to module bill-of-material components. Key focus areas include improving module performance and streamlining installation and module integration.
Bruce is the co-author of several advanced cell structure patent applications that are currently in progress. Prior to joining Suniva, Bruce was Vice President of Strategy/Product for Tradex, which was acquired by Ariba; he held a similar position with DWL, which was purchased by IBM. Bruce's career also includes management roles in research and development, product management and strategic planning.
Gregory Mihalik
Vice President of Operations
Greg has more than 20 years' experience in the energy industry, including 15 in solar manufacturing and operations. As Vice President of Operations, Greg oversees all aspects of Suniva's cell manufacturing, module manufacturing, process engineering, maintenance and quality.
Prior to joining Suniva, Greg was Vice President of Module Operations for SunPower. Most recently, he spent the past three years managing SunPower's internal and contract module operations worldwide from its Philippines base, completing construction of a 500-megawatt (MW) site and expanding operations from a single line of 30 MW to 10 lines totaling 400 MW. Greg also grew SunPower's contract manufacturing capacity from 40 MW per year in Asia to 400 MW in Asia, Europe and North America.
During his career, Greg has also held leadership positions in operations and engineering at Shell Solar, SolarWorld and Siemens Solar. He was Director of Capital Equipment and Facilities for Shell Solar and SolarWorld, and participated on a team that purchased and designed a 250-500 MW integrated solar operations facility.
Greg began his career as a research scientist in the field of crystal growing in Goleta, CA and later entered the field of solar energy as an engineer with Siemens Solar. Greg developed an energy-efficient Silicon crystal growing process and received the Green Energy award from the DOE, the State of Washington's Governor's Award on Sustainability, and the Bonneville Power Administration Green Energy Award.
Greg holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Yale University and an MBA in Management Sciences from Golden Gate University. Greg has authored and co-authored publications in both of his fields of expertise, crystal growing and solar energy.
Marc Rogovin
Vice President of Corporate Services
Marc brings more than 25 years' experience to Suniva, spearheading corporate services and project management for large capital developments, including more than $2 billion worth of construction projects during his career. He is responsible for Suniva's supply chain operations; real estate, construction and manufacturing project management; insurance and purchasing logistics, and facilities management operations. He acts as Suniva's chief procurement officer.
Marc joined Suniva as Senior Director of Corporate Services, helping to secure the most appropriate site for Suniva and negotiate the incentive packages. He was responsible for the build-out of Suniva's corporate offices and manufacturing plant, taking the building from an empty shell in July 2008 to full production in October 2008 -- achieving the fastest production ramp-up in solar manufacturing. Marc is also focused on Suniva's continued growth, achieving speed-to-market for Suniva's manufacturing expansions in 2009 and 2010.
Prior to joining Suniva, Marc was Vice President of Real Estate and Construction for Aarons, a public furniture company based in Atlanta. Under Marc's leadership, Aaron's successfully grew from 300 to 1,500 locations in seven years.
Previously, Marc was Vice President of Corporate Services for Health Images (later acquired by HealthSouth), managing the construction, facilities and equipment purchasing for all of the company's medical outpatient diagnostic centers.
Marc graduated from Georgia Tech with a B.S. degree in Architecture and Building Construction.
Daniel L. Meier, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist
As Chief Scientist, Dan leads the development of new technology at Suniva and advises on a variety of technical areas. He works closely with Suniva founder and CTO, Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi, and the R&D team on new device architectures and processes designed to continually improve Suniva's high cell efficiencies while maintaining low costs. Dan also supports the module side of Suniva's business, providing both technical and application direction. He joined Suniva as one of its first employees in 2007.
Dan joined Suniva from the technical staff of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where he worked from 2006 to 2007on advanced cell designs involving amorphous silicon/crystalline silicon heterojunctions, as well as issues related to the production of silicon feedstock by novel processes.
Prior to NREL, Dan served as Vice President of Engineering from 2003 to 2006 at Solar Power Industries. His staff produced 265 kg multicrystalline ingots by the directional solidification technique, 156 mm square wafers from the ingots, and developed processes for fabricating multicrystalline cells from these wafers. From 1994 until 2003, Dan was Chief Scientist for the start-up company EBARA Solar, responsible for the development of dendritic web silicon ribbon crystal growth and cell fabrication in a pilot-scale facility. His team stabilized the growth of dendritic web crystals by introducing a magnetic field to allow the production of long crystals (typically 10 m) and developed a unique cell structure based on an aluminum alloy back p-n junction.
Dan began his career in photovoltaics at the Westinghouse R&D Center in 1980, where he worked on the design, fabrication and characterization of silicon solar cells from thin (100 micron) dendritic web ribbon crystals. He also participated in the fabrication and testing of superconductive components for low-loss microwave applications and superconductive digital integrated circuits. He left Westinghouse in 1994 with the ranking of Fellow Scientist.
Dan holds a B.S. from St. Vincent College and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon University, all in physics. He has published more than 75 technical papers in conference proceedings and archival journals, and holds 11 US patents. Dan has been honored with three Westinghouse Signature Awards for excellence in engineering.
Matt Card
Vice President - Sales, Americas
Matt Card is the Vice President - Sales, Americas for Suniva, a global provider of high-efficiency, low-cost monocrystalline photovoltaic cells and modules. Matt brings over 20 years of marketing, business development, sales and product management experience working and leading in high-technology companies ranging in size and diversity from engineering start-ups, established software development firms and global telecommunications providers.
One of Suniva's first 20 employees, Matt has been instrumental in building Suniva's worldwide customer base since 2008, having led or managed the development of many of the company's key customer relationships, including UPS, Advanced Green Technologies, AEG Power Solutions, Tenesol, and Heliene Energy.
He has also held senior positions in Sales, Channel Development, Strategic Alliances, Product Management, and Systems Development, at various high-technology companies including Air2Web, Infinium Software, Xcellenet, KnowledgeWare, Sprint Telecommunications, after started his career in application development at MCI.
Matt holds degree a degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Georgia, and has done graduate studies, concentrated in International Business, at Georgia State University. He carries a solid background in sales, alliance development and negotiations and in building successful, motivated teams to create and implement marketing and business development strategies/tactics in high-technology markets.
Melvin Poi
Vice President - Sales, Asia Pacific
Melvin brings more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience to Suniva. He joined Suniva in early 2011 to grow the company's existing Asia Pacific market.
Prior to joining Suniva, Melvin was responsible for developing the Asia Pacific market for Clarity Systems, Inc. During his two and a half years at Clarity he secured several large deals with Lend Lease and ANZ Bank in Australia, PT Telkom in Indonesia and ASTRO All Asia Networks in Malaysia. The company was acquired by IBM in October 2010.
Previously, Melvin started and grew the business from zero to $6 million in the first year in Asia Pacific for Ariba. Earlier in his career, Melvin held various leadership positions in the software business including but not limited to IBM Singapore, Sigma, Savi Technology Inc., SSA and Infinium.
Melvin holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology.
