US inverter manufacturer PV Powered hires new CEO

Bob Chamberlain is the new CEO and chairman of US grid-tied inverter manufacturer PV Powered, headquartered in Bend, Oregon. 

© PV Powered New gig: Bob Chamberlain brings international experience from the semiconductor business to PV Powered.

Chamberlain, who has served as a non-executive member of the company's board of directors since it was founded in 2003, comes to PV Powered from Electro Scientific Industries of Portland, where he was senior vice president of customer operations for three years. He relieves Bill Taylor, the company's founder, who remains as president and will continue to focus on engineering and R&D. Chamberlain brings to PV Powered substantial executive and semiconductor experience, having previously served as VP and manager of operations at Watkins-Johnson Company's Semiconductor Equipment Group, and CEO of Insystems, a patterned wafer inspection company in San José, California. He was also the European component sales manager of Intel International in Brussels, Belgium.

Even though Oregon has recently adapted its incentives to encourage more utility-interactive systems (see PI 9/2005, p. 38), the US enacted new investment tax credits, and PV Powered was contracted to produce the new inverter line for SunPower Corp., Chamberlain believes his company may need to grow outside of the US market. Currently the company sells inverters only in the US. »It's almost as if we have to chase the panels abroad,« he says.

Garrett Hering
© PHOTON International, December 2005