Company Profile

Solarcentury is a growing company of over 110 people. The team is made up of designers, engineers, project managers, consultants, logistics and support staff. We come from a broad range of backgrounds including the oil and power industries, environmental groups, construction, the armed forces, government, development and aid/environmental charities, the IT industry, and investment banking.

Despite this huge diversity we are united in our belief that solar energy is a key solution to alleviate the growing energy crisis, and is vital for sustainability and combating global warming.

Our Executive Chairman

Jeremy Leggett is founder and Executive Chairman of Solarcentury and founder and Chairman of SolarAid, a charity set up by Solarcentury. He is also a founding director of the world's first private equity fund for renewable energy, Bank Sarasin's New Energies Invest AG (2000-present), which was Solarcentury's idea, and in which the company has a stake. He was a member of the UK Government's Renewables Advisory Board from 2002-6. He has worked in the oil industry, among other things researching oil source rocks funded by BP and Shell, and in the environment movement, where he won the US Climate Institute's Award for Advancing Understanding. He has recently been appointed a CNN "Principal Voice," and described by the Observer as "the UK's most respected green energy boss." His critically-acclaimed books The Carbon War and Half Gone cover climate change and peak oil (http://www.carbonwar.co.uk/). They have failed to sell as well as Jeremy Clarkson's books. You can read Jeremy's regular Guardian blogs here.

Our Chief Executive Officer

Derry Newman is CEO of Solarcentury the UK’s leading solar energy company, joining the company in December 2006. Prior to Solarcentury, Derry worked in Sony Europe for over ten years, responsible for considerable transformational change in the rapidly evolving and competitive arena of consumer electronics. In 1999, he was appointed Director, Customer Information Group Sony Broadcast and Professional before taking the role of Vice President, E-Business Sony Europe in 2002. He was appointed Senior Vice President Operations, Sony Europe in 2003 and was subsequently appointed Managing Director, Sony United Kingdom in June 2004. Derry’s achievements have spanned leading large scale change projects and e-business, to commitment to social responsibility and education. Prior to Sony, he was Director, Operations, EMEA Motorola Inc. He has also worked as a consultant, providing advice to organisations undergoing significant change activities. His interests include active involvement with business charities and projects supporting sustainable development and social enterprise. Outside of work he likes mountain biking, sailing and swimming.

Our Chief Financial Officer

Neil Perry - Prior to joining Solarcentury in 2000 Neil had over 15 years' experience in the investment industry. Having been an analyst and portfolio manager for seven years, he joined Baring Securities Latin America in 1991. He was the Institutional Investor #1 ranked analyst in his sector for three consecutive years and, as Director of Latin American Research, headed the top equity team in the region. In 1995 he was included in Worth Magazine’s ‘The World’s Top 50 Financial Market Movers’ survey. Before returning to the UK, where he worked for BSCH, he was CEO of ING Baring Securities, Argentina.

Our Directors

Bill Green joined the CleanTech Practice Group after serving as CEO for a VantagePoint portfolio company. Prior to that, Bill was founding CEO of TeamFuel, an energy software and outsourcing company. In 1995 he developed the Strategic Chemical Management Group (SCMG), one of the nation's first outsourced chemical managers. SCMG forged partnerships with Dow Chemical, Shell Oil, Fisher Scientific, Praxair and other Fortune 500 companies, providing chemical risk-reduction services to large corporations. The world's largest chemical distributor, Van Waters & Rogers, purchased SCMG in 1998. Bill also founded Ecolink and served as its President from 1988-1995. Ecolink was one of the first businesses to develop alternatives to ozone layer depleting solvents and chemicals. He also founded ENFORM The Environmental Forum on Technology and Business and chaired the organization for five years as well as co-authoring the graduate text Hazardous Solvent Source Reduction (McGraw-Hill 1995).

Samer Salty has over two decades of experience in venture capital, investment banking and technology in the U.S., the Middle East and Europe. Samer co-founded zouk ventures ltd in 1999 and has successfully raised two technology venture funds including zouk’s current fund, Cleantech Europe. Samer worked on M&A and private equity transactions in the Telecom Media and Technology Group at J.P. Morgan. He was also head of Global Markets for the Middle East at J.P. Morgan, structuring large corporate finance and derivatives transactions with institutional clients. Before investment banking, Samer spent seven years designing and implementing communications and computer systems for the FAA of the US Government. He also led and managed large FAA projects whilst at Martin Marietta and worked both directly and as a consultant for AT&T, Lockheed, and Hughes Aircraft. He holds a BSee in Electronic Engineering from Cal Poly and a MSc in Finance from MIT. Samer is a member of the International Council of the Kennedy School Belfer Centre at Harvard University.

Marcel Nauer represents Grupo Ecos, a specialist sustainable equity fund (www.grupoecos.com) which is affiliated to Anova of Switzerland, the original investor in Solarcentury. Marcel is responsible for Anova’s private equity investment programme. Prior to joining Anova, Marcel worked within the merchant banking division of Swiss Re and also at Swiss Re Investors where he represented their investment division during the group-wide introduction and implementation of environmental management. Part of this brief included advising on and monitoring Swiss Re's environmental/sustainability portfolio. He also advised the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Credit Trading project team on business opportunities in the investment area and represented Swiss Re at Sustainable Investment Partners (SIP) - a company co-founded by Swiss Re whose goal was to fund sustainable investments. Marcel holds a Masters degree in economics from the University of Zurich and is a CFA charterholder.

Adrian Pike has worked within the Scottish and Southern Energy group for 23 years, starting as an apprentice electrician and working his way to his current position on the Scottish and Southern Energy executive. His role on the executive gives him responsibility for all the contracting activities with Southern Electric Contracting (SEC) as well as the Telecoms business which includes SSE Telecoms and Neos Networks, and the National Networks business which includes the gas connections business SSE Pipelines. Following the acquisition of Neos Networks in 2003, he has created one of the fastest growing and financially stable Telecoms companies within the UK.

Andrew Lee is a Managing Director of Good Energies following its acquisition of the Englefield Renewable Energy Fund, for which Andrew was responsible. Good Energies is a leading investor in solar power and manages an investment portfolio valued in excess of €5billion. Prior to joining Englefield, Andrew was equity adviser for the Zephyr transaction – the landmark financing of the UK’s largest portfolio of windfarms. Previously Andrew spent 15 years in investment banking, advising on and leading a wide range of transactions rising to the role of Managing Director of SG Hambros. Andrew completed a Masters degree in Engineering at Cambridge University and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He has a strong interest in sustainability and environmental affairs and the alleviation of poverty. Andrew is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.