People In
the News
Detroit Thermal
announced that Victor
Koppang was promoted
to president of Detroit
Thermal LLC, effective
immediately. Since
joining Detroit Thermal
in 2008 as general
manager, Koppang has brought new life
to the company with the announcement
of nearly $100 million in new business,
including a 10-year, $80 million contract
with the Detroit Medical Center. During
his tenure, he has helped to increase customer satisfaction and create a long-term
strategy for growth and expansion involving more than $29 million in capital
improvements.
Jorgen M. Clausen, Danfoss chairman
of the board and former chief executive
officer, received the Cleantech Pioneer
Award April 29 at Cleantech Forum® XXII
in Copenhagen, Denmark. Clausen received
the award for spearheading Danfoss’s
strategy to minimize the consumption of
raw materials and energy in the manufacturing process. He was also instrumental
in the company’s policy to invest in new
clean technology companies. The Cleantech
Awards are the longest-running, most prestigious honors in the clean technology sector.
Sujit S. Parhar has been appointed
chief executive officer
of the Abu Dhabi-based National Central
Cooling Company PJSC
(Tabreed). The appointment, announced in
May, was effective
immediately. Parhar
joins the company with extensive experience
in the utilities and infrastructure sectors
and in delivering best-practice management
for listed companies. Prior to joining Tabreed,
he worked for SembCorp Industries, a
Singapore-based utilities company where
he was senior vice president and head of
regional business development. Former
CEO Karl Marietta will assume a new
role with Tabreed as a consultant to the
executive management team.
Earlier this year Nexterra Energy Corp.
announced the addition of three new executives to its North American sales force.
Jim McNamara was named senior
sales executive for the northeastern
United States. He brings to the job extensive executive experience in the renewable
energy sector, most recently as chief operating officer at New Energy Capital. In
addition, he spent 10 years in business
development and sales at Northern Power
Systems. McNamara holds a master of
engineering degree in mechanical engineering from Dartmouth College and a
bachelor of engineering degree in
mechanical engineering and design from
Vanderbilt University.
Jo-Ann Yantzis was appointed senior sales executive for Eastern Canada and
the Great Lakes region. Yantzis brings 25
years’ experience in business development
and environmental regulatory affairs,
including 12 years in the alternative fuel
industry. She has held senior sales management roles at Clean Energy, TeleflexGFI
and Lubrizol, and was air quality consultant at Autumn Wind Associates. She holds
a diploma in mechanical engineering technology from Dawson College.
Jonathan Harris was named senior
sales executive for new business development.
Harris joins Nexterra from Vancouver-based
Westport Innovations, where he was
responsible for market development and
sales, developing Westport’s OEM and
direct sales channels and working with
strategic customers like Wal-Mart. Prior to
that, Harris held numerous engineering
roles within the engine development division
at Westport. He holds a bachelor of engineering degree in mechanical engineering
from the University of Surrey, U.K.
Anders Rydaker, president of District
Energy St. Paul and its affiliate Ever-Green
Energy LLC, was named a Minnesotan on
the Move by Finance and Commerce
magazine. Rydaker was one of 40 Minnesota
business leaders to
receive the honor at an
April 29 awards presentation celebrating the
magazine’s 120th
anniversary. Special
Sections Editor Dan
Heilman said the magazine fielded award nominations from
throughout the state and solicited input
from staff reporters to “create a list of 40
people whose stars are on the rise.”
Kirk J. Duncan, manager of business
development for Sega Inc., was recently
presented with the Outstanding Engineer
2009 Award from the IEEE Power and
Energy Society (PES) Kansas City chapter.
Duncan received the award because of his
significant contributions to the chapter’s
continuing success. A 25-year IEEE member,
Duncan has actively volunteered and held
several leadership positions in the organization, including as PES Kansas City chair;
he currently serves as treasurer. Duncan
holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Kansas State
University and a master of science degree
in electrical engineering from the University
of Kansas.
The Combined Heat and Power Association (CHPA) has brought in Tom Fern as its
first communications manager. He joined
the association from his position as senior
account manager at Cohn & Wolfe. Fern’s
role will be to build the profile of the CHPA
and its members among stakeholders,
largely through communicating its policy
position through public affairs and media
relations activity. Fern will also oversee a
rebranding of the CHPA and development
of a new association Web site for launch
later this year. Fern reports to CHPA head
of policy Paul Gardiner.
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