MiaSole, a manufacturer of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic solar panels, today announced the appointment of two seasoned executives to lead the company into its next phase of growth. John Carrington assumes the role of Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, and Bob Baker continues as President of the company.
Carrington previously served as executive vice president of global marketing and business development at First Solar, where he directed the company's global sales, marketing, and product management initiatives, and supported its targeted expansions in Europe, Middle East, Asia and the U.S. Prior to this, he spent 16 years at General Electric in a variety of global leadership roles, including four years in Japan running the Asian marketing and business development team.
Baker is a 32-year Intel veteran who brings deep experience across technology development, manufacturing, business and management. While at Intel, Baker managed the Technology and Manufacturing Group and also grew its NAND and SSD business to a profitable $1B+.
"MiaSole is entering into an important time in its evolution," said Martin Lagod, Managing Director and co-founder of Firelake Capital Management, on behalf of the MiaSole board of directors. "Both John and Bob bring a wealth of experience and the right combination of skills. Their joining speaks volumes to the potential opportunities that we see in the solar market."
This latest addition to the company's management leadership is part of MiaSole's strategy to scale its capacity and continue building a sustainable and scalable business through innovation and manufacturing improvements. MiaSole recently announced a new volume production milestone at 13% module efficiency, and are on track to meet their ambitious cost per watt goals. The company also recently announced the production of its 50 millionth cell. This underscores the viability of MiaSole's distinctive manufacturing process which has enabled the production of low cost, high efficiency, flexible solar cells at volume scale.
Dr. Joseph Laia will step down as CEO to pursue other interests. Under Laia's leadership, MiaSole doubled its module efficiency, and today MiaSole CIGS panels are superior to leading thin film and approaching c-Si performance.
"We thank Joe for his contributions to MiaSole and look forward to continuing our path to global leadership," said Lagod.