The solar panel manufacturing spin-off of America's SunPower Corporation, Maxeon Solar Technologies has announced the creation of a new position, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Distributed Generation (DG) Products in its bid to expand its DG business to go 'Beyond the Panel' which translates into the company moving into storage and services.
In his new position, Ralf Elias will be responsible for leading the company's strategy in the DG segment which Maxeon sees as a 'source of significant future growth'.
Elias comes to Maxeon from Samsung Electronics where he was the global vice president IOT/global business development and partnerships and responsible for the company's business development across consumer markets. Before that he was in various senior roles at Vodafone Group including as the group head of products and innovation.
Elias will join the new position on July 1, 2021 and report directly to Maxeon's CEO Jeff Waters.
"As a recognized business leader who has spent most of his career guiding technology innovation, Ralf's deep experience in consumer facing product solutions and comprehensive Internet of Things (IOT) ecosystem expertise will help Maxeon significantly accelerate our Beyond the Panel strategy," said Maxeon Solar's CEO Jeff Waters. "The creation of this role reflects our commitment to accelerating the development of our DG business, and specifically highlights our focus on providing our customers with complete smart energy solutions that enable them to continue Powering Positive Change."
Maxeon has been expanding its leadership team with several new appointments announced in recent times. In February 2021, it hired semiconductor industry veteran Kai Strohbecke as the company's new CFO (see New Chief Financial Officer For Maxeon Solar).
Maxeon presented its high-efficiency module products at the TaiyangNews 500W+ Solar Module Conference; the recording can be viewed here.