Nanosolar Expands Executive Team to Drive Global Go-To-Market Strategy

Nanosolar Inc. announced that it hired three key executives to lead sales and marketing initiatives for expanding the company’s market share of its low-cost, efficient thin-film solar cells and panels in the U.S., Europe, Asia and beyond. Joining the Nanosolar executive team are Stephan Hansen, executive vice president of worldwide sales; Roy Shaw, head of North America sales; and Stefan Zschiegner, vice president of worldwide marketing.

“We welcome Stephan, Roy and Stefan to the Nanosolar team,” said Eugenia Corrales, CEO of Nanosolar. “While other companies are constricting, Nanosolar is growing. We are actively hiring in all functions globally and have expanded our German workforce by more than 17% since October 2011. And now with a world-class leadership team in place, we are well on our way to fulfilling our go-to-market strategy of delivering leading edge solar technology that enables a world less reliant on fossil fuels.”

Prior to joining Nanosolar, Hansen led the European sales organization of First Solar for more than seven years, during which time he grew the company’s European business to more than $1 billion in annual sales and more than 4 gigawatts of cumulative sales. Before joining First Solar, he spent five years in the U.S., starting as general manager of an R&D venture. He began his career in the photovoltaic industry, first as COO of Schott Applied Power, followed by serving as vice president of sales and ,arketing for the RWE Schott Solar Holding America. Hansen earned a master’s equivalent in mechanical engineering from the University of Stuttgart.

Shaw brings more than 25 years of successful sales management experience in the solar industry, as well as the construction and building products industries, having served in various sales management roles in both industries. Shaw most recently was director of USA sales at Jinko Solar, a global PV manufacturer, producing high quality crystalline ingots, wafers, cells and mono- and multi- crystalline PV panels.

Prior to Jinko Solar, he was head of western sales at Suntech Solar Corp., a global producer of silicon solar modules. He also spent 16 years at Otis Elevator Company, domestically and globally; and 10 years at Steelcase Corp., managing Fortune 100 global accounts. Shaw earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Zschiegner most recently was vice president of global product management and applications at First Solar, where he focused on solutions for emerging markets, balance-of-system and module product management. From 2001 to 2010, he served in a variety of roles at FormFactor Inc., including senior vice president and general manager of various product business units, as well as vice president of marketing and vice president of global support and solutions.

Prior to FormFactor, Zschiegner spent 10 years in various management roles in marketing, business and engineering at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies. He earned a master’s equivalent degree in electrical engineering from Technical-University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany, and he completed the executive Ssrategic marketing management program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.