As of May 11, 2011 Duan Recman has been appointed as the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Photon Energy replacing Tomá Vaník in this position. Duan Recman, a Czech national born in 1967, held managerial positions since 2001, at some point combining the posts of General Manager of Europ Assistance in the Czech Republic and Managing Director of Team Trackers.
Tomá Vaník has assumed the role of Head of Group Corporate Management, in which he will be in charge of managing Photon Energys fast-growing corporate structure with the objective of ensuring compliance with all laws and regulations in all jurisdictions where Photon Energy establishes subsidiaries and/or conducts its business.
As of May 11, 2011 Giulio Medda has been appointed as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Photon Energy replacing Georg Hotar in this position. Giulio (born in 1966) is an Italian national who has gained extensive international experience in financial management in Italy, UK, Nigeria, Iraq, Lybia, Kuwait, Qatar and Malaysia.
Living in Prague since 2003, Giulio oversaw 4,000 employees while working as a European Business Process Outsourcing Finance leader in Accenture.
Georg Hotar has replaced Michal Gärtner as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Photon Energy a.s. and will be in charge of defining and implementing the groups international expansion strategy while leading Photon Energy N.V., the controlling shareholder of Photon Energy a.s., through the planned exchange offer to minority shareholders, the planned capital increase and the listing on the main market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2011.
Michal Gärtner has assumed the double role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and the Country Head for Australia. As CTO Michal Gärtner will be tasked with watching over continuous reduction in photovoltaic system costs and being at the forefront of combining PV with energy storage in order to increase competitiveness of Photon Energy globally.
As Country Head Michal, who lived in Australia until 1992, will be in charge of driving Photon Energys entry into what is widely expected to be one of the fastest growing solar markets in the world over the next decade. After having overseen our growth from start-up to nearly EUR 100 million in revenues in 2010, I feel very excited to drive our market entry into Australia, which is on the verge of becoming one of the worlds first grid parity markets, based on its features such as an abundance of sun irradiation, a stable legal framework, a functioning financial and banking market and strongly growing energy needs, Gärtner notes.
In the words of Georg Hotar: Over the past three and a half years we have been able to exploit the favourable market conditions in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and to build a successful company with a strong team around a fully-integrated business model. With Giulio Medda and Duan Recman strengthening our management team, we are confident to hand over the daily operations in order to fully focus on driving Photon Energys growth strategy forward. Taking our company to the next level will require a lot of hard work, but personally I cannot imagine a more rewarding task than Bringing Solar Power to the People throughout the world.
Michal Gärtner adds: At Photon Energy we are putting our hearts and minds into achieving the vision of becoming a respected player in one of the most promising growth industries over the next decade.
Upon completion of the exchange offer for minority shareholders in Photon Energy a.s., which is scheduled in 2011, the management board of Photon Energy N.V. is expected to have the same composition, strengthening the companys chances to successfully meet the challenges of its ambitious expansion strategies.
