Sonnen Promotes COO Oliver Koch As Company CEO

• sonnen COO Oliver Koch has been promoted to lead the group as its CEO
• He will take over from the company's Founder Christoph Ostermann from October 1, 2020
• Ostermann will continue to be associated with the company as an adviser till the end of year

German energy storage products maker sonnen has made some major changes at the top of its management. It has announced the appointment of Oliver Koch as the company's CEO with effect from October 1, 2020.

Koch will be replacing sonnen's Co-Founder Christoph Ostermann who will step back to take an advisor role until the end of the year.

"After more than 10 successful years at an incredible pace, the time has come for me to follow new directions," said Ostermann. "With Oliver, sonnen has gained a CEO who has helped build the company up, who knows it inside out and who will successfully lead it through the next growth stage.

Koch has been with sonnen as the COO and part of the management board since 2014, providing continuation in the leadership team also 2 years after Shell took over sonnen in 2018 (see Shell Takes Over 100% Of Sonnen). He is credited with having led sonnen into standardized series production and spearheading sonnen's expansion into the US and Australia (see Sonnen Appoints New Board of Directors In US).

Prior to joining sonnen, Koch worked with several companies in senior management roles, including with US solar company Paramount Solar that was acquired by SolarCity in 2013.

However, according to German newspaper Handelsblatt, major realignment with the change at the top will not take place at sonnen: "We want to continue to grow strongly. There will be no radical change of course now, but there will be new accents," Koch told Handelsblatt.

Sonnen continues its expansion strategy. Its turnover grew from 41 million Euro in 2016 to 65 million Euro in 2017, and by 30% in 2018,  while it also improved its sales numbers in the first 9 months of 2020 without providing details, according to Handelsblatt.