SunPower History

SunPower has been developing world record-breaking solar technology since the 1970s. Our history over these decades has been marked by creativity, craftsmanship – and confidence. Today we are the global leader in developing high-efficiency solar solutions for homes, businesses and governments, commercial buildings and utilities.

2010s
Through constant innovation and new partnerships, SunPower reaches new heights to become a global leader in the solar industry.

|2010: |SunPower announces a world-record monocrystalline polysilicon|
| |prototype cell with efficiency of 24.2%. |
|2011: |-- Total SA and SunPower partner to create a new global |
| |leader in the solar industry. |
| |-- SunPower® Maxeon™ solar cell technology powers Solar |
| |Impulse, a prototype solar airplane, that for the first time |
| |in aviation history succeeds in flying for 26 consecutive |
| |hours powered only by solar energy. |
| |-- SunPower launches the C7 Tracker which concentrates the |
| |sun's power seven times to achieve the lowest levelized cost |
| |of electricity (LCOE) for utility-scale solar power plants. |
| |-- SunPower launches the new SunPower AC Solar Panel, a |
| |cutting-edge solution for homes that maximizes energy output |
| |for each panel. |
|2012: |SunPower acquires French solar company Tenesol SA, further |
| |increasing our global footprint. |

2000s
This decade was filled with many accomplishments and milestones for SunPower. The company became publicly listed on the NYSE with CEO Tom Werner taking the company to new levels. SunPower set new world records in solar cell efficiency. |2001: |Our world-record efficiency A-300 solar cells power NASA’s |
| |Helios project, achieving a record altitude of 96,863 feet. |
|2002: |Cypress Semiconductor board invests $8 million in SunPower. |
|2003: |SunPower recruits Tom Werner as CEO, to take the company to |
| |the next level. |
|2004: |Our first manufacturing facility (Fab 1) comes online in the |
| |Philippines and the company’s first utility-scale power plant|
| |comes online in Bavaria. |
|2005: |A successful Initial Public Offering for fuels new growth and|
| |a solidified position in the solar market. |
|2007: |-- SunPower begins volume production of its record |
| |breaking high efficiency solar cell, averaging 22.4% |
| |conversion efficiency. |
| |-- SunPower acquires PowerLight, resulting in a vertically |
| |integrated company serving the residential, commercial and |
| |utility-scale power plant markets. |
| |-- A second manufacturing facility (Fab 2) with 330 MW |
| |capacity rating on 10 lines, comes on line in the |
| |Philippines. |
|2008: |SunPower announces a world-record monocrystalline polysilicon|
| |prototype solar cell with efficiency of 23.4%. |
|2009: |-- President Obama dedicates a 25 MW SunPower solar power |
| |plant system at Florida Power & Light’s Desoto installation. |
| |-- PlanetSolar chooses SunPower high-efficiency solar cells |
| |to power the world's largest solar catamaran. |

1990s
In the 1990s, SunPower received initial funding from Associate Venture Investors and Technology Funding and an R&D contract from EPRI and US DOE. SunPower solar technology was used to power some of the most innovative applications for solar power race cars and airplanes.

|1990: |SunPower receives initial funding from Associate Venture |
| |Investors and an R&D contract from EPRI and the U.S. |
| |Department of Energy. |
|1993: |SunPower all-back contact, high efficiency solar cells power |
| |a Honda car to victory in a car race across Australia, |
| |beating second place winner by one full day. |
|1997: |SunPower high efficiency solar cells power NASA’s Pathfinder,|
| |an unmanned, remotely piloted, solar-powered, high altitude |
| |aircraft. |

1980s

By 1985, Dr. Swanson (who by then was a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford) had been awarded grants from the Electric Power Research Institute and the U.S. Department of Energy to support his solar power explorations. With the help of these funds – as well as financial support from two venture capital firms – SunPower was officially incorporated.

1970s

Our record of solar innovation began nearly four decades ago, when our co-founder, Dr. Richard Swanson, was pondering ways to deal with the oil crisis. At that time, solar cells were being used on satellites, a concept he found intriguing. His engineering challenge was to figure out how to make the cells more cost-effective. So he began a quest that, almost 40 years later, has helped position SunPower as a leader in residential, commercial and utility-scale solar power production.

SunPower Leadership Team

[pic]Tom Werner
Tom Werner serves as SunPower’s president and chief executive officer, and as chairman of the SunPower board of directors. Prior to joining SunPower, he held the position of chief executive officer of Silicon Light Machines, Inc., an optical solutions subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. Previously, Werner was vice president and general manager of the Business Connectivity Group of 3Com Corp., a network solutions company, and has also held a number of executive management positions at Oak Industries, Inc., and General Electric Co. He currently serves as a board member of Cree, Inc., Silver Spring Networks, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and is a member of the Marquette University board of trustees. Werner holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Marquette University and a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University.

[pic]Peter Aschenbrenner
Peter Aschenbrenner is SunPower's VP of corporate strategy, and has served as VP of sales and marketing since June 2003. Prior to joining SunPower, he was senior VP of global operations at AstroPower, Inc., a solar product manufacturing company. Aschenbrenner has over 25 years of solar industry experience, including management positions at Siemens Solar, PV Electric GmbH, and ARCO Solar. He graduated from Stanford University in 1978 with a BA in product design.

[pic]Lisa Bodensteiner
Lisa Bodensteiner serves as executive vice president and general counsel for SunPower Corp., where she leads the company’s global legal organization. Prior to joining SunPower, Bodensteiner was general counsel, project development at First Solar where she was instrumental in creating the company’s project pipeline, and drove significant acquisitions. Previously, Bodensteiner served as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary at OptiSolar where she led the effort to sell its project development business to First Solar. Bodensteiner has extensive power industry experience, including more than a decade at Calpine serving in various legal related roles such as executive vice president, general counsel, secretary and chief compliance officer. She earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a JD from Santa Clara University.

[pic]Charles D. Boynton
Charles (Chuck) D. Boynton serves as executive vice president and chief financial officer for SunPower Corp., where he leads the company's treasury, project finance, investor relations, financial planning, accounting and corporate development organizations. Previously, he was the company’s vice president of corporate finance and corporate development, with global responsibility for finance, planning and analysis and leading strategic investments, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining SunPower, Boynton was chief financial officer for ServiceSource International, where he was responsible for all aspects of finance, accounting, legal and facilities. Boynton also held the position as chief financial officer at Intelliden where he drove finance, legal, IT, human resources and professional services. Earlier in his career, Boynton held key financial positions at Commerce One, Inc., Kraft Foods, Inc. and Grant Thornton, LLP, and is a current member of the board of trustees of the San Jose Technology Museum of Innovation. Boynton was a certified public accountant, State of Illinois, and a Member FEI, Silicon Valley Chapter. He earned his MBA at Northwestern University and his Bachelor of Science in Business from Indiana University.

[pic]Eric Branderiz
Eric Branderiz serves as SunPower senior vice president, corporate controller and principal accounting officer, responsible for all financial accounting, financial reporting, accounting shared services, regional controllership and global business finance manufacturing operations. Previously, he was vice president and corporate controller for the company. Prior to that, Branderiz served as vice president, corporate controller, treasurer and head of subsidy business operations for the Knowledge Learning Corporation (KLC), where he was responsible of all accounting, external reporting, internal controls, and treasury activities. Prior to KLC, he served in various positions at Spansion, Inc., including as the corporate vice president, corporate finance & corporate controller, where he drove the company's financial accounting, financial reporting, global manufacturing cost accounting, worldwide sales and marketing finance, global shared accounting services and analysis, corporate treasury and tax. Early in his career, Branderiz held various positions at Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Ernst & Young, LLP, and the Provincial Branch of Consumer & Corporate Affairs and Treasury Departments in Canada. Branderiz is a Certified Public Accountant and earned a Business Commerce Degree from the University of Alberta, Canada.

[pic]Jorg Heinemann
Jorg Heinemann serves as executive vice president of customer operations and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for SunPower. He also oversees the company’s shared services organization (SSO), which provides essential back office support for customers, dealers, and employees across a wide range of business processes globally. Heinemann drives the company’s core business process excellence program which enables SunPower to serve its customers better through effective and efficient business processes and IT systems. Prior to joining the company he served as executive partner at Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. During his 20-year tenure, Heinemann was responsible for Accenture's global business relationships with Hewlett-Packard and led the Clean Tech and Sustainability Practice for Accenture's Communications and High Technology Division. Heinemann earned a bachelor's of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles.

[pic]David Henry
David Henry serves as SunPower's chief marketing officer (CMO) and is responsible for driving the company's overall global brand and marketing strategies as well as product management. He joins SunPower with more than 25 years of marketing experience, general management and product line leadership in the consumer electronics and B2B markets. Previously, Henry held the position of CMO and SVP customer experience for Logitech, where he drove global advertising, brand, relationship marketing, quality, and customer care. While at Logitech, he established a new global marketing organization, revitalized the Logitech brand and leveraged Net Promoter Score (NPS) best practices to transform Logitech into a more customer centric business. Prior to that, Henry led a $1.2B business unit developing and introducing more than 40 new products per year for Logitech. He also has previous executive experience with Iomega, Lithonia Lighting and General Electric Company. Henry holds a bachelor's of science in mechanical engineering from Union College.

[pic]Marty T. Neese
As SunPower’s Chief Operating Office, Marty Neese is responsible for leading SunPower’s global strategic operations and worldwide materials sourcing, and cell and module research and development. He brings more than 25 years of experience driving cost effective, scalable manufacturing processes and policies. Most recently, Neese held the position of executive vice president, worldwide operations, for Flextronics International. Prior to that, he was executive vice president, operations at Solectron Corp., where he was responsible for the daily cost, quality, delivery, and end-to-end supply chain optimization and performance for customers who were partnered with the company. Previously, Neese held the positions of vice president, worldwide program management and sales operations at Sanmina-SCI Corp., and director, business development for Jabil Circuit Co. He also served in the U.S. Army for five years, reaching the rank of Captain. Neese is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He received his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Florida.

[pic]Jack Peurach
Jack Peurach serves as SunPower’s executive vice president, products where he is responsible for product management, program management, systems research and development, product marketing, monitoring and PV software services, and our concentrator product group. Previously, he served as SunPower’s executive vice president, research and development where he was responsible for all aspects of SunPower’s PV cell, module, and systems research and product development. Prior to the company’s acquisition of PowerLight, Peurach was PowerLight’s vice president, product development, where he drove systems product strategy and development for product execution and management, and built a pipeline for a number of new products. Earlier in his career, he was a strategy consultant for Mercer Management Consulting and director of engineering at Berkeley Process Control, Inc. Peurach holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University, a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master of business administration, finance and entrepreneurship from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

[pic]Douglas J. Richards
Douglas J. Richards serves as SunPower’s executive vice president, administration. In this role, he is responsible for leading all Human Resources (HR) initiatives, Information Technology (IT), Environment, Health and Safety services and the company’s facilities organizations worldwide. Prior to joining SunPower, Richards was vice president of human resources and administration for SelectBuild, a $1.8 billion wholly owned subsidiary of BMHC, a company that serves 19 of the top 25 high-volume builders. Previously, he held strategic positions at BlueArc, Compaq Computer Corp and Apple Computer, Inc. Richards has more than 21 years of experience developing and driving key HR programs for Fortune 100 companies and venture-backed startups. He graduated from California State University, Chico, with a B.A. in public administration.

[pic]Howard Wenger
Howard Wenger serves as SunPower president, regions and is responsible for the company’s global residential, commercial, utilities and power plants business, including sales, business development, customer operations, sales and finance operations, and engineering, procurement and construction. Wenger also serves as president of SunPower Corporation, Systems, the company’s turn-key power systems group. Previously, he was SunPower president, utility and power plant (UPP), and from 2007 through 2009, Wenger served as president, global business units, where he helped grow SunPower’s sales more than 500 percent. Prior to the company’s acquisition of PowerLight Corporation in 2007, Wenger held positions at PowerLight as executive vice president and a member of its board, and as vice president, North American Business, for AstroPower, Inc (acquired by General Electric.) During his career in the solar and utility power field, Wenger has authored dozens of papers and public policies to mainstream solar power and developed software programs and tools still in use today. Wenger holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.S. in Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Top Competitors

Solar Power, Inc.

SunEdison LLC

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd.

GT Solar International, Inc.

First Solar, Inc.

Renewable Energy Corporation ASA

Solon AG für Solartechnik

SCHOTT Solar GmbH

SES Solar Inc.

Q-Cells SE

Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited

Evergreen Solar, Inc.

First Solar, Inc.

Zongshen PEM Power Systems Inc.

Spire Corporation

Solar Enertech Corp.

Evergreen Solar, Inc.

BrightSource Energy, Inc.

Conergy AG