SUNRISE ENERGY VENTURES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant
- Executive Assistant / Office Manager for Sunrise Energy
Angie Schreiner has been an Executive Assistant/Office Manager for Sunrise Energy since its inception in 2009. She has been working in the field of solar development and energy management for the past 15 years. She provides administrative support to the CEO, COO, VPs, and Controller as well manages the company's human resources.
Prior to joining Sunrise, Angie was a Legal and Marketing Assistant for Senior Shareholder Attorneys in workers' compensation insurance defense for 12 years. Given her extensive experience, Angie brings a high level of integrity and discretion in handling confidential information and professionalism in working with senior executives.
Dawn Arnold, Director Key Accounts, has a passion for helping others and providing a great customer experience. She has served in the utility industry for over 30 years supporting the Tennessee Valley Authority and the local power companies in the seven state TVA service area.
She is excited to continue her work with the local power companies, partnering with Sunrise to generate clean affordable energy to those living in the valley. She strives to serve others, build and maintain relationships through respect, integrity, and communication.
Dawn has a BS in Computer Science and minors in Aerospace and Mathematics. She also completed the Emerging Leaders program offered by TVA and the Vanderbilt Owen School of Business.
Dean Leischow, Chief Executive Officer, has served in the energy business for over 30 years. Previous to focusing his work on energy production, Mr. Leischow has worked for Fortune 100 companies in energy efficiency and process management and was a pioneer in the performance contracting business.
Emily Cattoor graduated from the University of St.Thomas with a bachelor's degree in business, majoring in accounting. She began her career in public accounting at Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, focusing on small to mid-size private and public companies across various industries. Emily is a certified public accountant in the state of Minnesota. After leaving public accounting, Emily went to work in public and private industries where she specialized in providing positive leadership, gaining operational efficiencies and financial reporting. Emily has over 15 years of experience within accounting and finance while also leading and supporting critical initiatives across human resources, IT and Operations.
In her spare time, Emily enjoys practicing yoga, golfing, and spending time with her husband and four children.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Vice President, Business Development
Mr. Tierney has over 8 years of experience in the energy conservation and renewable energy industry. He has been with Sunrise Energy Ventures, LLC since it was founded.
Prior to Sunrise, Mr. Tierney consulted for Solar Energy Initiatives. He provided support for the sales and marketing department and was responsible for providing financial and market feasibility analysis for the executive management team.
Prior to Solar Energy Initiatives, Mr. Tierney served as a business analyst for Leischow Group. He was responsible for process optimization of the utility processing department and worked closely with company executives to analyze and improve strategic protocols for $400M in annual utility procurement.
Mr. Tierney has a MS in Finance from Johns Hopkins and a BA in Economics, with a focus in Physics and Psychology, from Hamline University.
Joe Tierney, Vice President, Business Development, has over 8 years of experience in solar development and energy management. With a background in physics and economics, Mr. Tierney brings both practical experience and intellectual command to each project under development at Sunrise Energy Ventures.
Joel Cipcic is an experienced project developer and seasoned EPC veteran having built over 500mw's of distributed and utility scale solar power generating assets and over 700mw's of wind assets in his 13 years in the renewable energy industry.
Joel has over 20 years of construction and operations expertise in the Utility Electric Power industry. He is well versed in selling, developing, estimating, and constructing electric utility infrastructure with emphasis in solar power, wind generation, substation, and transmission line facilities.
Joel has built and led EPC teams at MasTec Energy, Quanta Services, and REC Solar/Duke Energy to name a few. Joel Cipcic is a multi-state licensed Unlimited General Contractor, that leads the EPC services of Sunrise.
Job Titles:
- Design Support Specialist
Kshitij Chopra has over 4 years of experience in business development, techno-economic analysis, and design of renewable energy assets of over 1 GW including solar, storage, and green hydrogen. He also has about 7+ years of experience in research and development of novel technologies in the domains of energy harvesting, smart grids, and energy storage which have resulted in over a dozen publications and patents which are published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at flagship conferences of IEEE Tencon and UKsim, Cambridge University.
Kshitij has interdisciplinary expertise in domains of electrical engineering, statistical modelling, strategic management, and finance. Previously, as a graduate researcher he worked on various energy storage technologies, their applications, and failure mechanisms including Li-ion and NiMH batteries. Kshitij has completed MS in Energy Systems from Northeastern University, MBA (with specialization in Finance) and B. Tech in Electronics and Communication from Amity University. As a Design Support Specialist, Kshitij brings critical thinking, problem solving, and innovation to the Sunrise Energy Ventures team.
Michael Cathcart has over 4 years of solar development experience and manages the development of community solar projects. With a background of 10 years of marketing and business development experience, he brings strategic thinking to the Sunrise Energy Ventures team.
He has supported the development of over 150MW of solar with a strong focus on community solar. He has been responsible for new market development, project management, due diligence, land acquisition, and permitting during his time at Sunrise.
Michael holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas and a BS in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.