US Wafer Equipment Maker Expands Leadership Team

• Kerfless wafer equipment maker Leading Edge has announced the appointments of a new CEO and CTO for the company
• They come in at a time when the company is looking at taking its patented FSM Wafer Technology to the market
• Founder Dr Alison Greenlee will move on to taking up the role of CCO looking after customer engagement, fundraising and international development

Leading Edge Equipment Technologies, a US production equipment manufacturer for kerfless, single-crystal silicon wafer production equipment, has expanded its leadership team with the appointments of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Dr Rick Schwerdtfeger is the company's new CEO. He joined Leading Edge after working with a cleantech and semiconductor equipment company he co-founded called Advanced RenewableEnergy Company (ARC), where he developed strong relationships with Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese customers, said the Leading Edge management.

Schwerdtfeger also worked as the chief operating officer (COO) of Pica Solar and as staff scientist with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).

The company's new CTO Dr Nathan Stoddard comes with a deep knowledge of developing silicon wafer technologies for the PV industry as he worked with 1366 Technologies' Direct Wafer platform in one of his previous professional assignments. He also worked with BP Solar on its mono technology. Stoddard also has on his résumé work experience with SolarWorld.

Stoddard had also been supporting technical development of Leading Edge before joining as its CTO.

"Leading Edge's new silicon wafer manufacturing technology is poised to disrupt manufacturing standards in the $40 billion solar panel market," said CEO Dr. Schwerdtfeger. "I was impressed by the company's FSM Wafer Technology that can drive savings for solar panel manufacturers of up to 25% while also improving solar panel efficiency. The team at Leading Edge has made great strides to develop this patented technology, and I'm excited to lead the organization out of testing and into the market."

Leading Edge Founder Dr Alison Greenlee will assume the role of the company's chief commercial officer (CCO) overseeing customer engagement, fundraising and international development.