Solar leader joins Nextracker to support company’s next phase of growth.
FREMONT, CALIF. USA, February 16, 2022 — Nextracker™ today announced the appointment of solar industry veteran Howard Wenger to the position as the company’s President. Mr. Wenger will support technology, product, and new business model commercialization initiatives. Bruce Ledesma will continue as President, Strategy, Software and Administration.
Howard Wenger has worked for more than 35 years in the solar and utility power field and has served in leadership and board positions of industry-leading companies. Most notably, Mr. Wenger served as an executive officer of SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) for ten years, joining the company upon the acquisition of PowerLight Corporation. He served as president and CEO of SunPower Systems, responsible for the company’s turn-key power systems group, and had global responsibility for the company’s residential, commercial, and utility power plant businesses. SunPower (and PowerLight) grew from $20 million to over $3 billion in revenue with over 10,000 employees during Wenger’s tenure.
“I have had the privilege of working alongside Howard Wenger from our days at PG&E, PowerLight and SunPower, among many other joint business initiatives,” said Dan Shugar, Nextracker CEO. “I couldn’t be more excited to have Howard join our solar dream team. Solar domain experience matters to understand what customers need and what products deliver value. With Howard, our executive staff has more than 250 years of collective solar experience, and average 23 years of solar experience each.”
“Dan Shugar and the Nextracker team have built an amazing company,” said Howard Wenger, newly appointed Nextracker President. “It’s an honor to begin another chapter together to scale the company further and advance Nextracker as the leading power plant platform for solar and software optimization.”
In addition to Mr. Wenger’s company’s responsibilities, he serves an advisor and board member of several for-profit and non-profit boards including the California Solar and Storage Association, Solaria Corporation, Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), Vote Solar, and as a trustee for the University of California at Santa Barbara. Mr. Wenger holds a Master of Science in Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and has authored over 75 technical publications.
About Nextracker
Nextracker is the leading provider of intelligent, integrated solar tracker and software solutions used in utility-scale and ground-mounted distributed generation solar projects around the world. Our products enable solar panels in utility-scale power plants to follow the sun’s movement across the sky and optimize plant performance. With over 50 gigawatts shipped worldwide, Nextracker leads the solar industry with solar tracker technologies that optimize and increase energy production while reducing costs for significant plant ROI. For more information, please visit Nextracker.