SunPower CEO retiring, company to boost focus under ex-Amazon exec
On Thursday U.S. solar panel maker SunPower Corp said Chief Executive Tom Werner will retire after 18 years with the company and will be succeeded by former Amazon.com Inc executive Peter Faricy.
The company shares fell 3% at the departure of Werner, an industry pioneer who said solar panels were only associated with ”fridge environmentalists and off- gridders” when he became CEO in 2003.
In 2005 SunPower became a public company, sold a majority stake to French energy giant Total SA in 2011 and completed the spin-off of its solar panel manufacturing operations into a new company, Maxeon Solar Technologies, last year.
SunPower is enhancing its customer experience and marketing efforts as rooftop solar adoption increases and integrates with battery storage and electric vehicles.
”We’re anticipating what’s best for the company for the future,” Werner said he hopes to make SunPower ”the Amazon of solar.”
Faricy, have 13 years of experience at the online retail giants, last serving as president of its Marketplace, which allows third-party sellers to sell their goods through Amazon.
Faircy said,” In the solar business you don’t have complete direct control over the customer experience, you really need to work well and build up this ecosystem with the group of dealers and installers that do this work all over the nation. That is very similar to the business I ran at Amazon.”
He has no previous experience in the solar industry, Faricy has recently served as the CEO of global media company Discovery Inc.
Werner will continue to be chairman for six months, after which the company said its board would recombine the position of chairman of the board and CEO, and Faricy will starting working from April 19, 2021.
