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Date Announced: 15 Mar 2012
Former Down Corning executive to oversee expansion of the French company's concentrated photovoltaics business.
Bernin, France, March 15, 2012 — Soitec (Euronext Paris), a world leader in generating and manufacturing revolutionary semiconductor materials for the electronics and energy industries, has appointed Gaetan Borgers to the position of executive vice-president of the company’s Solar Energy Division. With more than 20 years’ experience in the industry with Dow Corning, including more than 10 years in charge of solar programs, Borgers joins Soitec to oversee the international expansion of its concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) activities.
In the face of global issues associated with climate change and the prospect of depleted fossil fuels, the deployment of efficient, cost-competitive photovoltaic solutions is crucial. Soitec’s CPV technology is currently the most efficient method of generating solar energy for the industrial solar power plant market in sunny regions of the world, a market segment that offers the company tremendous growth opportunities.
To tap into that market potential, Borgers will be in charge of developing solar power plant projects in various target countries and overseeing Soitec’s ramp up of production capacity to achieve the electricity price required by the market. In addition, he will direct the development of related products and technologies, in particular the further development of the Smart Cell, a novel technology innovation that will enable CPV systems to achieve 40% efficiency.
“We are delighted to welcome Gaetan to our team,” said André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, Soitec’s president and CEO. “With the ramping up of our solar energy market activity, Soitec will benefit from new competencies that will bolster our international leadership strategy. Our disruptive technology is currently an optimal solution in sunny countries and we fully intend to pursue our innovation policy in order to maintain our market leadership.”
Prior to joining Soitec, Borgers established Dow Corning’s Solar Division in 2001. He then managed the sales, marketing and technical support activities until 2011, from the United States initially and then Japan. Among his accomplishments, he oversaw the opening of a new manufacturing plant in Brazil and coordinated the development of partnerships with prominent technology institutes such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. Before that, he held various management posts with Dow Corning in production, purchasing, quality and customer service.
Borgers, 49, holds a master’s degree in chemical process engineering and an MBA from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.
Source: Soitec
E-mail: olivier.brice@soitec.com
Web Site: www.soitec.com
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