SEIA Elects New Board Chair, Adds Solar Racking Manufacturer to Board of Directors to Kick Off Ambitious 2024

WASHINGTON D.C. — The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the leading voice for America’s solar and storage industry, today announced new changes to its board of directors.

Darren Van’t Hof, managing director of environmental finance for U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance, a subsidiary of U.S. Bank, was elected chair of SEIA’s board of directors.

PanelClaw, an Enstall Company and manufacturer of solar racking and mounting equipment, is also joining SEIA’s board as an at-large member. PanelClaw CEO Costa Nicolaou has served as an elected SEIA board member for ten years.

As we head into a consequential election year for clean energy, we’ll need strong leaders and advocates by our side, said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. Darren, Costa, and our new roster of board leaders have decades of experience working in renewable energy and are motivated to help SEIA deliver an abundant, prosperous clean energy future.

Darren Van’t Hof has served on SEIA’s board since 2011 and is a leading industry voice on solar and storage finance issues. Van’t Hof regularly appears at solar and storage industry events where he offers expertise on trends in project finance and tax equity.

Now more than ever, SEIA is one of the most well-positioned organizations to lead its members into the energy transition, said Van’t Hof. The solar industry is set to grow exponentially in the years ahead and SEIA’s commitment to ensuring equitable outcomes to that growth has always impressed me.

PanelClaw manufactures rooftop solar racking systems that have been installed on 13,000 projects worldwide totaling more than 3 gigawatts of capacity. In Costa Nicolaou’s tenure as an elected SEIA board member, he has served as chair of SEIA’s distributed generation and manufacturing divisions. Nicolaou is a longtime advocate for effective trade policies that promote the development of solar projects and investments in domestic manufacturing.

I am delighted PanelClaw is joining SEIA’s board, and I am committed to leveraging the company’s resources to help shape policies that spur innovation and sustainable growth in the renewable sector, said Nicolaou.

Van’t Hof and PanelClaw are joining SEIA’s board along with a slate of newly elected executive committee members. These individuals serve a one-year term on SEIA’s executive committee in 2024.  In addition, SEIA’s board of directors has approved three elected at-large members, as well as division chairs and vice chairs, to serve two-year terms.

SEIA Board Chair

• Darren Van’t Hof, U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance

SEIA Board Vice Chair

• Laura Stern, Nautilus Solar

Treasurer

• Ryan Pfaff, EDP Renewables

Secretary

• Ben Airth, Freedom Forever

Elected Executive Committee Representatives 

• Gilbert Campbell, Volt Energy Utility
• Yuri Horwitz, Sol Systems
• Scott Moskowitz, QCells
• Meghan Nutting, Sunnova

Elected At-Large Members

• Deepa Ananthakrishnan, Scale Microgrids
• Dana Clare Redden, Solar Stewards
• Karla Loeb, Loeb Consulting

Division Chairs and Vice Chairs

Distributed Generation Division

• Chair: Jennifer Mrzlack, PSG Energy Group
• Vice Chair: David Schieren, Empower

Utility-Scale Solar Power Division

• Chair: Gilbert Campbell, Volt Energy Utility
• Vice Chair: Frank DeRosa, DeRosa Advisors

Energy Storage Division

• Chair: Yan Brandt, FlexGen
• Vice Chair: Lauren Glickman, Encore Renewable Energy

Manufacturing Division

• Chair: Kendra Hubbard, FTC Solar
• Vice Chair: Ernest Gallegos, Unirac

Solar Services and Consumers Division

• Chair: Chris Diaz, Seminole Financial Services
• Vice Chair: Laura Jones, Hunton Andrews Kurth

Solar Heating and Cooling Division

• Chair: Will Giese, Sunearth
• Vice Chair: Tara Prieto, AET Solar

SEIA Affiliate Representatives

• Gil Hough, TenneSEIA
• PJ Wilson, SESA-PR

Learn more about SEIA’s board of directors and its goals for the Solar+ Decade.

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About SEIA®: 

The Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA) is leading the transformation to a clean energy economy, creating the framework for solar to achieve 30% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030. SEIA works with its 1,000 member companies and other strategic partners to fight for policies that create jobs in every community and shape fair market rules that promote competition and the growth of reliable, low-cost solar power. Founded in 1974, SEIA is the national trade association for the solar and solar + storage industries, building a comprehensive vision for the Solar+ Decade through research, education and advocacy. Visit SEIA online at www.seia.org and follow @SEIA on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Media Contact: 

Morgan Lyons, SEIA’s Director of Communications, mlyons@seia.org (202) 556-2872