Dr. Neil Morris joins AVA Solar as Senior Vice President of Engineering
Successful High-Tech Executive to bring 25 years of Technology and Operations experience to Senior Management Team
Fort Collins, Colorado - April 14, 2008 - AVA Solar, Inc., a manufacturer of advanced, low-cost, cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic modules, recently added Dr. Neil Morris as Senior Vice President of Engineering. In this role, Dr. Morris will direct the company's manufacturing process scale-up and product development.
Dr. Morris brings more than two decades of senior technology and operations experience from various world-leading semiconductor and high-tech companies. He most recently held a senior management position at Palm Inc. - a world leader in mobile smart phone products - and was previously Chief Technical Officer and Senior Vice President of Operations at WJ Communications, Inc., a publicly traded RF semiconductor company. Dr. Morris' experience also includes responsibility for global technology development at Philips Semiconductors and at numerous high-profile corporations, including LSI Logic (UK) and GEC Plessey. In addition, Dr. Morris recently served on the Board of Directors for Wherify Wireless, a publicly traded location-based service company. Through these leadership roles, Dr. Morris has developed expertise in ramping new product introductions to large-scale manufacturing with emphasis in productivity and quality of advanced semiconductor process technology and tool design.
"Having looked at a number of emerging thin-film photovoltaic companies, I was extremely impressed by the technology and team at AVA Solar," said Dr. Morris. "The simplicity and robustness of their process, combined with their short-term roadmap to grid parity for solar PV, are what make me most excited about this opportunity."
"Dr. Morris brings to AVA Solar a wealth of experience developing robust semiconductor-quality tools and bringing up fabs on tight timelines," said Dr. Pascal Noronha, CEO of AVA Solar. "He also brings a very seasoned, strategic viewpoint to large-scale manufacturing that will help us build AVA Solar into an industry-leading enterprise. We are very pleased to have him on board."
Dr. Morris graduated from the University of Surrey, U.K. with an Honors Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Semiconductor Technology. He also holds a Full Technological Diploma in Telecommunications from the University of Wales, U.K.
He will be based at AVA Solar's corporate headquarters in Fort Collins, Colorado.
About AVA Solar
AVA Solar, Inc. was founded in 2007 with the goal of commercializing an advanced process for manufacturing cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic modules. Using experience gained from 15 years of development at Colorado State University's Material Engineering Laboratory, AVA Solar has perfected a robust, industrial-scale, continuous manufacturing process for producing solar PV modules with a very low cost per watt. For additional information, visit www.avasolar.com.
For media requests, please contact:
Russell Kanjorski
4563 Denrose Court
Fort Collins, CO 80524
Phone: (970)472-1580
Email: rkanjorski@avasolar.com
Successful High-Tech Executive to bring 25 years of Technology and Operations experience to Senior Management Team
Fort Collins, Colorado - April 14, 2008 - AVA Solar, Inc., a manufacturer of advanced, low-cost, cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic modules, recently added Dr. Neil Morris as Senior Vice President of Engineering. In this role, Dr. Morris will direct the company's manufacturing process scale-up and product development.
Dr. Morris brings more than two decades of senior technology and operations experience from various world-leading semiconductor and high-tech companies. He most recently held a senior management position at Palm Inc. - a world leader in mobile smart phone products - and was previously Chief Technical Officer and Senior Vice President of Operations at WJ Communications, Inc., a publicly traded RF semiconductor company. Dr. Morris' experience also includes responsibility for global technology development at Philips Semiconductors and at numerous high-profile corporations, including LSI Logic (UK) and GEC Plessey. In addition, Dr. Morris recently served on the Board of Directors for Wherify Wireless, a publicly traded location-based service company. Through these leadership roles, Dr. Morris has developed expertise in ramping new product introductions to large-scale manufacturing with emphasis in productivity and quality of advanced semiconductor process technology and tool design.
"Having looked at a number of emerging thin-film photovoltaic companies, I was extremely impressed by the technology and team at AVA Solar," said Dr. Morris. "The simplicity and robustness of their process, combined with their short-term roadmap to grid parity for solar PV, are what make me most excited about this opportunity."
"Dr. Morris brings to AVA Solar a wealth of experience developing robust semiconductor-quality tools and bringing up fabs on tight timelines," said Dr. Pascal Noronha, CEO of AVA Solar. "He also brings a very seasoned, strategic viewpoint to large-scale manufacturing that will help us build AVA Solar into an industry-leading enterprise. We are very pleased to have him on board."
Dr. Morris graduated from the University of Surrey, U.K. with an Honors Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Semiconductor Technology. He also holds a Full Technological Diploma in Telecommunications from the University of Wales, U.K.
He will be based at AVA Solar's corporate headquarters in Fort Collins, Colorado.
About AVA Solar
AVA Solar, Inc. was founded in 2007 with the goal of commercializing an advanced process for manufacturing cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic modules. Using experience gained from 15 years of development at Colorado State University's Material Engineering Laboratory, AVA Solar has perfected a robust, industrial-scale, continuous manufacturing process for producing solar PV modules with a very low cost per watt. For additional information, visit www.avasolar.com.
For media requests, please contact:
Russell Kanjorski
4563 Denrose Court
Fort Collins, CO 80524
Phone: (970)472-1580
Email: rkanjorski@avasolar.com