Charging Up: A new series on women’s careers in cleantech

Caroline Cochran, chief operating officer of microreactor company Oklo, says that when it comes to careers and talent, ​“women are chronically undervalued.” Canary Media is looking to change that by shining a light on women’s cleantech career moves and diversity issues.

Neha Palmer, Google’s former head of energy strategy, is now CEO of the recently unstealthed TeraWatt Infrastructure. Founded in 2018 and funded by Keyframe and Cyrus Capital, the company develops, owns and finances EV charging infrastructure in the U.S. Palmer helped make Google one of the largest corporate buyers of renewable energy in the world.

Sila Kiliccote, co-founder of eIQ Mobility, is joining investor Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Carol Couch is joining Fluence as VP of operations support and services. Before joining Fluence, Couch was VP of supply chain operations at Itron.

Alexia Kelly is now director of Netflix’s Net Zero + Nature by 2022 commitment to reduce, retain and remove carbon. Kelly was previously director of sustainability solutions at Engie Impact.

Elta Kolo, previously with Wood Mackenzie, has joined energy investment fund Huck Capital as vice president. According to Huck:

The legacy utility model is an artifact of a world that no longer exists.

Kathy Heilmann, previously with Canadian Solar, has joined Shoals Technologies Group as VP of marketing. The solar, storage and EV balance-of-system specialist has guided 2021 revenue to be in the range of $230 million to $240 million, up more than 30 percent year-over-year.

The Women in Sustainability Leadership Award winners Alumnae Group announced this year’s sustainability leaders. Among the 10 winners was Elaine Hsieh, co-founder and head of corporate partnerships and marketing at Third Derivative.

EnergeiaWorks, this column’s sponsor, has the deep knowledge to locate the industry’s top engineers, scientists, consultants, contractors and executive managers in solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels, smart grid, sustainability or other emerging markets for renewable energy.

See EnergeiaWorks’ current job listings here.

Becca Ward is now legislative advisor for the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy. Previously, Ward was managing director of the Clean Energy Leadership Institute.

Lisa Hymas, previously with GRID-Arendal, Media Matters for America and Grist, is now senior editor at Canary Media, a new media outlet covering the global transition to clean energy.

Ashley Steele Yehuda was promoted to sales director at residential solar leader Sunrun. Sunrun expects to grow its new installed capacity by 25 to 30 percent over its 2020 figures, adding more than 750 megawatts in 2021.

“If we’re going to electrify our buildings and our transportation…the most efficient way to address that is to use the local infrastructure with rooftop solar, with batteries,” Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich told Canary.

Natalya Davick is now Palmetto’s chief financial officer. Palmetto is a software company focused on home energy spend. Most recently, Natalya was senior VP of finance at Postmates in advance of its IPO. Palmetto landed $29 million in venture funding last year.

Lori Ribeiro is now VP of business development at Mill Creek Renewables, a solar engineering, procurement and construction provider. Ribeiro was previously with Signal Energy Constructors.

Katarzyna Kajdas was promoted to interconnection and incentives manager at SunPower.

Jill Kirkpatrick is now events manager at Greentown Labs, a climatetech startup incubator. Kirkpatrick was previously with GTM.