Management

Shihab Kuran, CEO, President & Founder

Dr. Shihab Kuran is founder, president and CEO of Petra Solar. At the start of 2011, Dr. Kuran was named by NJBIZ as one of “The 100 most powerful people in New Jersey business,” and recently Petra Solar was awarded the American Technology Award in both the Smart Grid and Clean Tech categories. In 2010, Ernst & Young recognized Dr. Kuran as the NJ Green Tech Entrepreneur of the Year, and Fortnightly Magazine named him as a “top guru” in the solar industry.

Prior to founding Petra Solar, Dr. Kuran assumed various technical, executive and board positions in the semiconductor and cleantech industries. He was the Vice-President of Development at Fairchild Semiconductor, a multibillion dollar and world-leading power semiconductor company. Before joining Fairchild, he was the Senior Vice-President of Strategic Marketing at Sipex Corporation in California.

Dr. Kuran has devoted more than 20 years to academic and commercial interests in energy and water technologies. His efforts are fueled by a personal vision for a peaceful world with universal access to clean and sustainable sources of power and water. He is an active speaker at both the national and international levels with a focus on cleantech and sustainable development.

Dr. Kuran serves as a Board Member of the New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC) and is on the Advisory Board at The Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurship at Fairleigh Dickinson University as well as the External Advisory Board for Rutgers Innovation Park. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Charles Edison Fund and the Edison Innovation Foundation.

Dr. Kuran holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the City University of New York and a TGMP in Executive Management from Harvard Business School. He is an inventor and has published over 40 papers.

Dan Brdar, Chief Operating Officer

As Chief Operating Officer, Dan Brdar is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of the company's sales, marketing, operations, and engineering organizations. Mr. Brdar, a seasoned leader in global energy, industrial goods, and engineering sectors, brings with him over 30 years of combined technology development, new product introduction and sales leadership experience in a variety of executive positions.

Prior to joining Petra Solar, he served as president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of FuelCell Energy, the world's leading stationary fuel cell manufacturer with five facilities for production and service located in three countries. At FuelCell, Mr. Brdar led the growth strategies, financial planning and capital creation efforts, new product and market development initiatives, and provided strategic direction to manufacturing, engineering and service operations. While there, Mr. Brdar was responsible for raising over $100 million in corporate funds from institutional investors and partners, converting negative product gross margins to positive via a 51% improvement, leading a 220% increase in the manufacturing production rate, and driving a record sales order backlog.

Before joining FuelCell Energy, Mr. Brdar held management positions at General Electric where he focused on new product introduction programs for the GE Power Systems business unit and managed its gas turbine product lines, which generated multi-billion dollar annual new unit sales. Prior to GE, he was Associate Director, Office of Power Systems Product Management, at the U.S. Department of Energy where he was responsible for directing the research, development and demonstration of advanced power systems including advanced gas turbines, gasification systems and fuel cells. Mr. Brdar earned his BS degree in Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dan Davis, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Dan Davis, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, heads Petra Solar’s global initiatives serving customers around the world with unique electrical energy generation and distribution solutions encompassing state of the art smart grid and renewable energy source technology. Mr. Davis, a proven electrical industry executive, brings an exceptional breadth of experience in providing products, services, systems and solutions across essentially all markets from residential, commercial & industrial users to electricity, gas and water utilities served through complex direct and channel organizations.

Prior to joining Petra Solar, he had an extensive career at global industry leaders ABB and Schneider Electric along with Industrial Defender, cyber security pioneer for protection of industrial and utility real-time systems. Having held senior leadership positions global in scope and exceeding $1B in size with a balance of experiences in sales, marketing, engineering and general management he is knowledgeable across the global electrical industry. Visionary in style he is equally comfortable with rapidly emerging, changing or established markets across a variety of cultures looking for ways of positive advancement mutually beneficial to customers and suppliers.

Davis holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State University and completed Kellogg’s Executive Management Program, Northwestern University plus International Management at the University of Western Ontario.

John E. Warren III, Vice President Human Resources

John E. Warren III serves as Petra Solar Vice President, Human Resources, responsible for development and implementation of global HR policies and programs. John brings a wealth of human resources and global administrative expertise in public and privately held high technology firms specializing in hardware and software products, consulting services, applications development, and semiconductor manufacturing. John recently returned from an assignment in Prague, Czech Republic where he was EVP, Chief Administrative Officer for KIT digital, a global IP video firm. At KIT digital, Mr. Warren globally led the human resources, legal, facilities/real estate, headquarters administration, communications, insurance, business systems, acquisition integration, and procurement departments with operations in the Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, U.K., Hungary, Romania, Poland, France, Italy, Spain, Egypt, UAE, India, Singapore, Taiwan, PR China, Australia, U.S. & Canada.

Before joining KIT digital, Mr. Warren was SVP Worldwide Human Resources and Corporate Services at ANADIGICS, a global semiconductor manufacturing company, where he developed and implemented human resources strategy, policy and procedures for U.S., European, and Asian locations. Previously John served as VP, Human Resources at Alphanet Solutions, an IT consulting firm, where he started the first HR function, developed and implemented human resources strategy, policy, procedures, payroll, administration, and facilities functions.

John has also held senior HR positions at Hayward Industries, and UNISYS. John has an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, an MA in Counseling and BS in Psychology from the University of Alabama.

Hisham Othman, Vice President Professional Services and Manager MEA

Hisham Othman, PhD, VP Professional Services and Manager MEA at Petra Solar; leads corporate consulting services globally, and manages corporate activities in the Middle East and Africa region. Dr. Othman leads consulting efforts in physical asset management, renewable energy, smart grid, power quality, system studies, and selection of supporting IT systems.  He blends executive management experience with technical expertise to sustainably raise the effectiveness and efficiency of the utility enterprise from technical, financial and customer satisfaction perspectives.

Basim Saleh, General Manager International Markets

Basim Saleh joined Petra Solar in March of 2011 and currently serves as General Manager of International Markets. In this role, Mr. Saleh is responsible for international expansion strategy and business development, building Petra Solar’s smart energy business around the globe. Prior to joining Petra Solar he was Director, World Class Selling at Microsoft Corporation where he directed a worldwide sales excellence initiative for 15,000 sales professionals. He previously led the consulting practice for the Gulf region for Microsoft in Dubai, where he grew the consulting revenue by 60% and headcount by 30% while tripling sales margins in two years.  

Mr. Saleh has over 18 years of business development experience and has covered a broad range of activities working with energy, defense, retail and public sector customers. He has held various roles ranging from business development consulting to directing multimillion dollar joint ventures.

Mr. Saleh is currently pursuing a doctorate in business administration with focus on emotional intelligence. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Jordan and an MBA from The California State University.

Joe DeLuca, Vice President Product Marketing

Joe DeLuca leads the definition, development, launch and lifecycle management of Petra Solar’s smart energy solutions, including the industry's first smart grid connected utility grade solar systems.

He has held senior management positions for over eight years in the communications industry where he led Conexant to a market leadership position delivering next generation DSL Technology for IP TV services. The products developed under his direction are now widely deployed for AT&T's U-Verse TV service.

Joe also spent eight years in the Missiles and Space Division of Lockheed in senior engineering positions in which he led the systems integration and test for a NASA earth science satellite, and Mars Probe.

His additional endeavors in the solar field include the design, construction, and piloting of a solar power race car for the first General Motors cross-country Sunrayce.

Joe received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University, and holds a masters degree in Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Dave Cook, Vice President Finance & Administration

Dave Cook serves as Petra Solar's Vice President of Finance and Administration. He has led the team in the development of financial and administrative best practices to ensure adherence to all federal, state, and local business requirements, internal business controls, and a financial planning model to deliver optimal near term budgets, results, and long term profitability.

Prior to joining the Petra Solar, Dave was the Director of Finance and CFO of Apogee Photonics, Inc., where he led the company from a startup in 2001 through two acquisitions, and ultimate sale to Cyoptics in March of 2007. Prior to the sale in 2007, Apogee Photonics had $12M in sales, with 100 employees. Before engaging in startup company financial challenges, he had a 32 year career encompassing Business Planning, Controllership, and Finance, within American Bell, AT&T Information Systems, AT&T Long Distance Services, and Lucent Technologies. In his last assignment for Lucent Technologies, Dave was Director and CFO of the Application Software Division, Global Sales and Support Teams, in addition to the DSL product division. He received an MBA in Finance, from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Tony Shay, Vice President Sales & Business Development

Tony Shay serves as Petra Solar's Vice President of Sales & Business Development. Tony has over 20 years of executive and sales management experience in the communications technology sector. His career spans the semiconductor industry, system integration, and next generation telecommunications network infrastructure.

Prior to joining Petra Solar he was instrumental in securing global partnerships with several Fortune 500 companies, as well as OEM relationships with many of the world's largest telecom equipment providers. He has lead Sales and Business Development organizations for both start up and publicly traded companies, managed M&A activities, and is responsible for leading strategic engagements, and securing emerging eco-system partners for Petra Solar.

Mary Grikas, Vice President Communications

Mary Grikas joined Petra Solar as Vice President, Corporate Communications and Public Relations, in October, 2010. She is responsible for the direction and strategic alignment of all Petra Solar communications worldwide, including external, internal and marketing communications and brand strategy.

Ms. Grikas formerly was Vice President of Product Management for Vonage, a leading provider of broadband telephone services, where she led the evolution of Vonage’s Core Residential service, the largest product in the Vonage portfolio. She defined, developed, launched, and lifecycle managed Vonage’s next generation consumer services including products, features and pricing delivered to Mobile, PC and other new internet connected devices. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Engineering for Vonage, and facilitated design, development and deployment of innovative voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) products and services.

Prior to that, she was the Director of global Technical Publications and Training for Globespan, a semiconductor solution provider for broadband communications and served as a consultant in the area of electrical equipment qualification engineering for the nuclear power industry.

Mary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire.

Board of Directors

Shihab Kuran, CEO, President & Founder

Dr. Shihab Kuran is founder, president and CEO of Petra Solar. At the start of 2011, Dr. Kuran was named by NJBIZ as one of “The 100 most powerful people in New Jersey business,” and recently Petra Solar was awarded the American Technology Award in both the Smart Grid and Clean Tech categories. In 2010, Ernst & Young recognized Dr. Kuran as the NJ Green Tech Entrepreneur of the Year, and Fortnightly Magazine named him as a “top guru” in the solar industry.

Prior to founding Petra Solar, Dr. Kuran assumed various technical, executive and board positions in the semiconductor and cleantech industries. He was the Vice-President of Development at Fairchild Semiconductor, a multibillion dollar and world-leading power semiconductor company. Before joining Fairchild, he was the Senior Vice-President of Strategic Marketing at Sipex Corporation in California.

Dr. Kuran has devoted more than 20 years to academic and commercial interests in energy and water technologies. His efforts are fueled by a personal vision for a peaceful world with universal access to clean and sustainable sources of power and water. He is an active speaker at both the national and international levels with a focus on cleantech and sustainable development.

Dr. Kuran serves as a Board Member of the New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC) and is on the Advisory Board at The Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurship at Fairleigh Dickinson University as well as the External Advisory Board for Rutgers Innovation Park. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Charles Edison Fund and the Edison Innovation Foundation.

Dr. Kuran holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the City University of New York and a TGMP in Executive Management from Harvard Business School. He is an inventor and has published over 40 papers.

Christopher Fountas

Christopher Fountas is a General Partner of MVP. Mr. Fountas has spent much of his career founding, building and funding early-stage technology companies, many at the intersection of the commercial and government markets. Mr. Fountas co-manages both MILCOM and OnPoint. Mr. Fountas serves as a Trustee of OnPoint and manages several of MVP’s investments, including those in SkyCross, The NanoSteel Company, Atraverda, Akermin and Petra Solar. Mr. Fountas has over 20 years experience founding, advising and capitalizing emerging growth companies. Mr. Fountas has co-founded several successful start-up companies, and continues to serve as a board member and advisor to many of these companies, including Alpine Fresh. Mr. Fountas graduated from The Ohio State University with a B.S. Degree in Finance and earned a JD (cum laude) from the University of Miami.

Robert W. MacDonald

Bob is a Managing Partner, member of the Board of Directors and a senior investment professional of Craton Equity Partners. Bob's experience varies from co-founding and leading the development of one of the country's first fully integrated independent power production companies to helping create two of the largest municipal joint action agencies in California.

Bob was with Salomon Brothers from 1972-1979 in the Municipal Bond Department and Public Finance Group. From 1979-1984, Bob co-founded a municipal financial advisory firm which acted as financial advisor to numerous municipal and local government clients.

In 1981, Bob together with two other former Salomon Brothers principals founded Catalyst Energy Corporation. Catalyst grew to become one of the largest IPPs in the country, worth over $1 billion with nearly 800 employees and revenues of $414 million. In 1988 Catalyst was sold to the Bronfman family for $1 billion. From this point Bob continued to finance the development of more innovative environmental technologies and power production. From 1988 to 1992, he was a co-founder and co-chairman of Eastrock Partners in New York where he provided private investment and financial consulting services to a variety of clients. In 1993, Bob joined William E. Simon & Sons L.L.C. Mr. MacDonald thereafter became President of Simon Private Equity and served on its investment committee where he was responsible for all aspects of the management of Simon Private Equity. Bob currently serves on the boards of the following portfolio companies, EnLink Geoenergy Services, GigaCrete, Inc., Petra Solar, and RYPOS. Bob was graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Finance from Fairfield University.

Jonathan Ebinger

Jonathan Ebinger is a Partner in BlueRun Ventures since September 2000 and is based in Menlo Park, CA. His focus is on communications, media, and mobility opportunities. BlueRun Ventures invests in scalable technology solutions with market changing ideas. Mr. Ebinger has 15 years of marketing and finance experience in the telecommunications industry. Previous experience includes Vice President of Marketing for Qwest Communications, and senior level positions at Bell Atlantic Internet Solutions and MCI Communications. In addition, Jonathan founded and successfully exited Simply Savings, Inc., an Internet shopping service.

Mr. Ebinger received his M.B.A. from Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and holds a bachelor's of science in finance from Virginia Tech.

David Lincoln

David has been an active investor in venture capital for over 18 years and has over 23 years of experience investing in energy and technology companies. David's areas of investment focus include renewable and alternative energy technologies, energy storage, advanced materials, resource optimization, and the upstream energy sector. Prior to forming Element, David was a co-founder and Managing Director of EnerTech Capital Partners, an energy technology venture firm formed in 1996. Under his leadership, EnerTech successfully managed over $290 million in two funds specifically focused on energy, communications, and clean technologies. David also founded and served as President and CEO of Deven Resources, Inc., a private equity firm dedicated to the acquisition and development of energy properties. From 1984 to 1991, David was a partner with CMS Companies, a Philadelphia-based private equity and financial services firm. David began his career at UGI Corporation, a diversified energy and utility holding company. David holds a BA with honors in Geology from Colgate University and an MS in Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Edmond Thomas

Edmond Thomas is an engineer and technology policy advisor to Wiltshire and Grannis LLP. He specializes in advising clients in the areas of telecommunications, business opportunity analysis and strategic planning. In his 37-year career, he has held senior positions in R&D, strategic planning, operations, regulatory matters, and telecommunication network design and implementation. On February 1, 2002, he was appointed as the Chief Engineer of the Federal Communications Commission. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Thomas served as President and CEO of MMRadiolink, a manufacturer of millimeter wave digital radio equipment based in the U.K. He also served as President and CEO of RSL USA, a $500 million dollar international telecommunications company.

Prior to his tenure at RSL USA, Mr. Thomas was President of Science and Technology at Bell Atlantic. In this position he was responsible for Bell Atlantic's new products and service development. In this position he also had full operational and P&L responsibilities for Bell Atlantic's large customer data products and services.

In 2003, for his work in advancing digital wireless communication he was selected by Forbes Magazine's as one of five people in the magazine's E-gang. In the same year he was named by Wired Magazine as one of the five most influential technical people in Washington. In 1998 he was named as one of the 50 most influential people in long distance by Phone Plus Magazine.

Mr. Thomas has also served on the academic advisory boards of the University of Colorado, the Polytechnic University and the State University of New York College of Technology.

Dr. Greg Olsen

Greg Olsen was the third private citizen to orbit the earth on the International Space Station (ISS). After training for five months (900 hours) at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow, he launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket TMA-7 on October 1, 2005 with Cosmonaut Valeri Tokarev and Astronaut Bill McArthur (Expedition 12). He then docked to the ISS on October 3, and returned to earth on Soyuz TMA-6 on October 11 with Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and Astronaut John Phillips (Expedition 11). He performed more than 150 orbits of the earth and logged almost 4 million miles of weightless travel during his 10 days in space.

After an illustrious career as a research scientist and entrepreneur, Greg is now president of GHO Ventures in Princeton, NJ where he manages his "angel" investments, South African winery, Montana ranch, and performs numerous speaking engagements to encourage children - especially minorities and females- to consider careers in science and engineering. He is active in the New Jersey Technology Counsel (NJTC), NJTC Venture Fund, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the NJ Commission on Science and Technology.

Greg received a BS Physics (1966), a BSEE and MS Physics (1968) from Fairleigh Dickinson University, then was awarded a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Virginia (1971). He performed post-doctoral studies at the University of Port Elizabeth (South Africa), taught elementary physics classes, and then worked as a research scientist at RCA Labs (Sarnoff Center) from 1972 to 1983. He developed vapor phase epitaxial crystal growth of optoelectronic devices, including laser diodes and photodetectors for fiber optic applications based on the material indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs). He was awarded 12 patents, wrote more than 100 technical papers, co-authored several book chapters and has given numerous invited lectures to both technical and trade journal audiences. Greg is an IEEE LEOS Fellow and the first recipient of the prestigious IEEE Aron Kressel Award.

Greg founded EPITAXX, a fiber-optic detector manufacturer in 1984 together with Vladimir Ban. It was sold in 1990 for $12 million. He then founded Sensors Unlimited, a near-infrared camera manufacturer in 1992 with Marshall Cohen. Sensors was sold to Finisar Corp. for $600 million in 2000, repurchased by the management team in 2002 for $6 million, then sold again to Goodrich, Corp. in 2005 for $60 million.

Greg is active in many civic organizations including Trenton Big Brothers and Sisters, Trenton Boys and Girls Club, Trenton Soup Kitchen, Princeton Historical Society, Custer Battlefield Preservation Committee and Fairleigh Dickinson University and University of Virginia Alumni Associations. In his spare time he enjoys golf, country and western music and dancing, opera and horseback riding.

Advisors

Fred Butler, Advisor

As a highly recognized, respected, and admired industry expert and regulatory leader among state energy commissioners, regulatory commissioners, and utility executives around the world, Fred Butler helps with Petra Solar's strategic direction and the growth of our public and private utility partnerships. Fred served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) for seven years, which included three years as an Officer, and culminated in a year as President and Chairman of the Executive Committee and Board in 2008-2009. He also served as a representative on the Presidium of the Eastern European and Eurasian Regulatory Association (ERRA), and has consulted with energy ministries and regulatory bodies in Africa, Asia, and Europe. He worked as NARUC's representative to the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation Energy Regulators' Forum and is one of NARUC's representatives to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Fred also served for 11 years as Commissioner on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. He currently serves as Executive Vice President for Salmon Ventures, a New Jersey-based firm that provides national consulting services to utilities, government agencies, school districts, trade organizations, and businesses.