SOL SYSTEMS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Vice President, Sol Customer Solutions
Experience
Andrew Grin leads Sol's Investments team, coordinating investment decisions, due diligence, negotiation, and financing of Sol developed distributed generation projects. Mr. Grin has supported the development, acquisition, and financing of solar projects since joining Sol Systems in 2016 and is a critical member of the team that built Sol's development business.
Previously, Mr. Grin worked within SunEdison's Financial Leadership Development Program, where he led project initiatives for the Corporate Treasury group and supported renewable energy project due diligence and investment decisions for the senior executive team. Mr. Grin began his renewable energy career at Brightergy Solar, where he supported the sales and business development departments, and TradeWind Energy, where he evaluated the financial viability of potential new ventures.
Mr. Grin holds his B.S.M in Finance with a Specialization in Energy from Tulane University, where he graduated magna cum laude. During his tenure at Tulane, Mr. Grin spent two years leading a social entrepreneurship incubator for Tulane's Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching, as part of a student work fellowship. Mr. Grin is also a Clean Energy Leadership Institute fellow and an active member of the alumni community.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Policy & Corporate Affairs
Experience
Andrew leads Sol's Policy and Corporate Affairs team and has nearly 20 years of energy industry expertise. He focuses on creating and defending renewable energy markets and innovative ways to communicate and develop domestic Infrastructure + ImpactTM sustainable solutions.
Andrew joins Sol from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) were he served as Director of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs, U.S. climate and energy. While at EDF, he helped shape EDF's state-level domestic advocacy strategy.
Before joining EDF, Andrew served as Vice President and General Counsel for Hickory Creek Ventures, LLC, a strategic management and communications consulting business focused on the nexus between renewable energy, legislative reform, technology innovation, and public affairs. His previous experience includes roles as an Operational Officer and Vice President for Atlas Pipeline Mid-Continent and as the Manager of Environment Health and Safety for Spectrum Field Services.
Andrew serves as the Vice-Chair of the State Policy Committee of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Board Vice President for the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition. He has served in appointed advisory capacities including the advisory board of SAFER PA, Virginia Governor Northam's Natural Gas Workgroup, and Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry's advisory council for the Oklahoma Commission on Marginally Producing Oil and Gas Wells. Andrew also serves on the board of Renewables Forward and the national BLADE Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Andrew received his B.S. in Environmental Science, Agriculture and Natural Resources and is an active member of the Oklahoma and Washington, D.C. bar association.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Experience
Brandon Freiman joined KKR in 2007 and serves on the Board of Directors for Sol Systems. He is the Head of North American Infrastructure and serves as a member of the Global Infrastructure Investment Committee, the Asia-Pacific Infrastructure Investment Committee, and the Infrastructure Portfolio Management Committee. Prior to joining KKR, he was with Credit Suisse Securities in its energy investment banking group, where he was involved in a number of merger, acquisition, and other corporate advisory transactions. Mr. Freiman holds a Bachelor of Commerce, with a Joint Honors in Economics and Finance, from McGill University. He is also on the board of Peninsula Bridge, a nonprofit organization that provides motivated low-income students with academic and personal support during middle school years through college graduation, where he serves as Chairman of the Finance and Investment Committee.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Project Management and Construction
Experience
Dan Diamond leads the Construction Team on negotiating, executing, and managing the PV Project EPC contracts. The team ensures projects remain on budget and on schedule by mitigating the technical and commercial issues that arise.
Mr. Diamond has supported development and managed construction for commercial distributed generation and utility-solar projects since 2009. His most recent role was project manager at SunEdison, where he supervised a portfolio of distributed generation projects on the east coast. Additionally, he managed construction and operations for other various solar developers, including the 265 MWdc Mount Signal Solar (MSS) utility scale PV project. The project included installation of 2.1M FS modules on trackers over 2,000 acres in southern CA. Prior to his experience in the solar industry, he worked as the project manager for a retail shopping center development near Atlanta, GA. The four-year,120M project, required 2.1 Mcy of earth moving and 800,000 cy of rock blasting for the 800,000 sf shopping center over 100 acres.
Dan holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Florida, and a Masters in Science in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from Georgia Tech. He also holds a professional engineering license.
Experience
David Vickerman serves as Chief Financial Officer for Sol Systems.
Vickerman most recently served as a Managing Director for Macquarie Capital, a global investment bank. Prior to this role, Vickerman spent six years as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer at Silicon Ranch Corporation, a US Solar IPP backed by Shell and Manulife Investment Management/John Hancock. Over his tenure at SRC, David also spent time, as Chief Corporate Development Officer, responsible for corporate finance, project finance, project development, EPC delivery and asset management.
Under Vickerman's leadership, Silicon Ranch completed an institutional equity investment exceeding $140 million into the company by Partners Group, executed a subsequent equity transaction with Shell, and closed over $1.5 billion in solar project finance transactions. While Vickerman was at Silicon Ranch, the company grew its portfolio from 50 MW in operating solar assets to over 2.2 GW in operating and contracted solar assets.
Prior to his time at Silicon Ranch, David held senior positions at TD Greystone and other private financial firms. Vickerman holds a BSc in Mathematics from Western University in Ontario and an MBA from Wake Forest University, where he currently serves on the business school's board of directors. Additionally, David completed the Rotman School's Institute of Corporate Director's Program at the University of Toronto.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Structured Finance
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Member of the Board of Directors
Experience
George Ashton, co-founder of Sol Systems, serves on Sol Systems' Board of Advisors and Board of Directors. In his time with Sol Systems, Mr. Ashton oversaw corporate strategy, financial management, and client success for Sol Systems' Development Business. Under his leadership, the company grew from an SREC aggregator in 2008 to a full-service solar energy finance, investment, and development firm serving some of the country's largest corporations, institutions, and municipalities today.
Together with the CEO, Mr. Ashton built out expert teams, innovative financial models, and intensive project management systems that have delivered 650MW of solar projects across 13 states. The firm now manages over $650 million in solar energy assets, and was listed among Inc. 5000's fastest growing private companies for a fourth consecutive year in 2016, increasing revenue by over 800% in just four years.
Prior to Sol Systems, Mr. Ashton spent more than a decade in the capital markets sector working with investments, securitization, trading, and financial analysis. At Fannie Mae, he managed more than $20 billion in asset purchases.
In 2016, Mr. Ashton was appointed to the Mid-Atlantic Board of GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit organization that provides job training and solar power to families in low and moderate income communities across Maryland, D.C. Virginia and Delaware. In 2012, he was appointed Treasurer of the Maryland Clean Energy Center by Governor O'Malley, and in 2014, he was named Chairman of the Board. Mr. Ashton was awarded Washington Business Journal‘s (WBJ) 2013 CFO of the Year Award, and was named one of WBJ's 40 Under 40 in 2014.
His charitable activities include supporting the Washington Jesuit Academy, a middle school for promising disadvantaged male youths in Washington, DC, and the Community Ministries of Rockville.
Mr. Ashton has an MBA from the University of Maryland and a dual B.S. from the College of William and Mary.
Hans Dyke - Chief Legal Officer
Experience
Hans Dyke joins Sol Systems as General Counsel.
Prior to Sol, Hans worked at international law firm Bracewell LLP, where he helped lead the firm's renewable energy practice. Over the past 15 years, Hans has represented clients throughout the energy sector in connection with transactional, finance, commercial, corporate and regulatory matters. He regularly advises on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, divestitures, equity investments and financings. Hans dedicates a substantial portion of his professional time to pro bono representations, including a long-standing relationship with a District of Columbia-based social impact incubator.
Hans received his law degree from Washington & Lee University School of Law.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of the Asset Management Department
- Vice President, Asset Management
Experience
James Machulak is the Vice President of the Asset Management Department, where he oversees efforts to proactively manage risks associated with Sol Systems' portfolio of commercial assets and to maximize returns for investors.
Prior to joining Sol Systems, Mr. Machulak worked as a portfolio manager in the Loan Programs Office within the Department of Energy ("DOE"). There he was directly responsible for managing a multi-billion dollar portfolio of loan guarantees to innovative renewable energy projects. Mr. Machulak was responsible for managing several of the DOE's highest risk transactions, a responsibility that required regular presentations and reporting to senior members of the Department. Mr. Machulak was also responsible for the division's annual efforts to compare internal risk ratings with values provided by external ratings agencies.
Before his tenure at DOE, Mr. Machulak worked in the Asset Management Division at the US Export-Import Bank, where he provided financial analysis and portfolio reporting services. He also worked for Taylor-DeJongh where he provided financial analysis in support of several energy project finance transactions.
Mr. Machulak has earned a BSFS degree in International Economics from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service as well as a MBA from American International College and a M.Phil. in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Experience
Kate Casey serves on Sol Systems Board of Directors. Ms. Casey joined KKR in 2018 and is a member of the Infrastructure Private Equity team where she has been involved with the Firm's investments across renewable energy and energy transition. Prior to joining KKR, Ms. Casey was with J.P. Morgan's investment banking practice in New York where she was involved in a number of merger, acquisition, and financing transactions. She holds a B.S., summa cum laude, in Management from Boston College
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer
Experience
Michael Gibson oversees all aspects of Sol Systems' IT efforts, from network infrastructure to application development to strategic planning. Mr. Gibson works tirelessly to ensure that Sol System's technology continues to support the company's rapid growth.
Prior to joining Sol Systems, Mr. Gibson worked as a software engineer with Ariadne Genomics, LLC, where he built systems to help the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) improve their tools for data collection and research collaboration. Mr. Gibson also carries more than 6 years of experience as a software consultant, both with Falling Creek Design Group, a company which he helped found, and as an independent consultant.
Mr. Gibson holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Virginia, where he graduated with honors.
Job Titles:
- Treasurer
- Vice President, Finance
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President of Utility - Scale Solar Development
Experience
Patty Rollin serves as the Senior Vice President of Utility-Scale Solar Development and leads Sol's utility-scale solar development business unit. Ms. Rollin is responsible for establishing an acquisition and development strategy to advance Sol's portfolio of development assets, focusing on acquisition of assets in all stages of development and further development of these assets to NTP.
Ms. Rollin has over 30 years of development and finance experience and has successfully closed over $2.5 billion of transactions across the electric sector. Ms. Rollin has served as Vice President at AES Solar/Silver Ridge Power where she led the origination, development and contracting of 900MW of solar projects, of which 500MW were financed and constructed. Previously, she served as Vice President at ACEI (American Capital Energy and Infrastructure) where she originated and managed global power investments. Ms. Rollin also worked at The AES Corporation for 20 years, in roles including investor relations and global project development and project finance.
Ms. Rollin graduated from Bucknell University with a BA in Economics and English Literature and Stanford University with an MS in Engineering Economic Systems.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Vice President, Risk and Operations
Experience
Phil Priolo serves as the Vice President of Risk and Operations and leads the risk management and trading operations teams. The team builds the risk management framework for the trading organization. This includes implementing a risk and credit policy, leading the risk committee and developing a comprehensive risk framework for the business.
Prior to working at Sol, Phil spent the last 15 years at Exelon in roles in credit and risk. During his time at the company he developed and implemented Exelon's credit risk policy, negotiated long term structured transactions and monitored Exelon's $5B credit portfolio. In the role Phil had prior to leaving Exelon, he led the market risk team that focused on managing portfolio metrics like V@R, GM@R, position limits and stop loss. His team also handled trade confirmations, cash application, FCM reconciliation and compliance activities.
Phil graduated Penn State University where he received a Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Business Analysis and Temple University where he achieved an MBA in Finance.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Chief Financial Officer of Roark Capital Group
Experience
Pritpal is Chief Financial Officer of Roark Capital Group, an Atlanta based private equity firm with $33 billion in assets under management focused on investments in consumer and business service companies, with a specialization in franchised and multi-location business models in the restaurant, specialty retail, consumer and business services, and health, wellness and beauty sectors. Prior to Roark he was Chief Financial Officer and Advisory Board member at EIG Global Energy Partners, an approximate $24 billion AUM, Washington D.C based global investment firm focused on energy, energy transition and infrastructure. Prior to his time at EIG, Pritpal spent the early part of his career in the Assurance practice at PwC, formerly in the United Kingdom, of which he is a native and later in the United States. Pritpal received a B.Sc in Applied Sciences from the University of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom. He is a U.K. Chartered Certified Accountant.
Yuri Horwitz - CEO, Chairman, Founder
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Founder
Experience
Mr. Horwitz is a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Sol Systems. Since establishing the company in 2008, he has worked with Sol's corporate, municipal and institutional clients to enable them to invest in sustainable infrastructure and procure renewable energy to drive community and environmental impact. Under his leadership, Sol Systems has helped develop and/or finance over 1GW of solar projects across the country and provides environmental commodity portfolio management services to over 18,000 customers across the United States.
Mr. Horwitz serves on the Board of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), he is an active participant the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, and is a founding member of Renewables Forward. He was an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and was previously named one of Washington Business Journal‘s 40 Under 40.
Yuri holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia and a dual B.A. from the College of William and Mary.