Solar Universe

About SolarUniverse

Management Team

Bob Chaudhuri - CEO, Founder
For the previous five years, Bob was most recently a partner at Diablo Funding Group, one of the largest lender/brokers in California. Prior to which, he was Founder and President of Wireless Plus which was acquired by Securicor. Bob also participated actively in the awarding of cellular licenses by the Federal Communications Commission and has held equity ownership interests in multiple cellular licenses. As manager of the entities holding such licenses, Bob developed three MSA markets that were sold to McCaw Cellular Communications in 1987. He served as manager of Dial Two, a RSA partnership that won the A Frequency Block license for RSA Illinois-3. Bob holds a Master's degree from Stanford University.

Joe Bono - COO, Founder
Joe is responsible for developing the franchisor model, marketing, web technology platform and customer coordination. Prior to Solar Universe, Joe was a broker associate at Diablo Funding where he was responsible for originating over $25 million per year in sales. Joe was a multi-store operator for franchise chain Quiznos, where he was responsible for site selection, store build out, and operations. Joe has an extensive background in technology and has held management positions at ViaFone (acquired by Extended Systems), ICSG Consulting and at KPMG Consulting. Joe has an economics degree from UCLA and is involved in many charitable organizations including Rotary International.

Jonathan Solomon - CFO
Jonathan is responsible for fundraising and development of the distribution and supply chain for Solar Universe. In 1994 Jonathan and his partner founded JD Logistics, the premium provider of warehousing and logistics services to multi-national companies (General Motors, Colgate Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Kodak, Cadbury's, Merck, Boots Healthcare) in Moscow. In 1999, Jonathan established a joint venture between JD Logistics and DCA Distribution, a large U.K. based logistics provider. In 2000 Jonathan, as CEO, created the Tablogix group and acquired a controlling interest in DCA Distribution with a client base that includes Coca Cola, Tesco, and Nestle and an annual turnover of $40m. In 2002 Tablogix purchased controlling interest in iForce Ltd, the U.K's leading digital B2B and B2C fulfillment provider. The combined entity has turnover of approximately $90M with clients that include John Lewis, Boots Healthcare and Tesco. Since 2005 Jonathan has been an Angel investor and advisor to a number of start-up companies. Jonathan holds a BA in finance from Syracuse University and a Masters Degree (Sloan Fellow) from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Jeff Cavros - SVP of Finance
Jeff is responsible for building the finance program for the residential and commercial customers of our Franchisees. He has over 20 years of direct experience in Mortgage Banking, Real Estate Investment, and Financial Consulting. As Vice President at Indymac Bank, Home Construction Lending, Jeff grew and managed a team that increased origination volume from $1.5B in 2003 to $2.7B in 2006. He was then promoted to First Vice President in 2007 and launched a new Commercial Lending division. Jeff has also worked with companies Ellie Mae, eHealthInsurance.com, Intuit (QuickenLoans.com), PMI Mortgage Insurance Co, Terra Equity Investment Group, and Consolidated Financial Services. Jeff holds a BA degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Peter Gregory - Director of Training
Peter is creating and leading the training program for new franchisees. Before joining Solar Universe, Peter was the lead installer at Regrid Power and has been in the solar industry since 2002. At Regrid Peter was involved in the design, installation and sale of over 200 commercial and residential solar installations. Prior to his work in solar, Peter worked as a web developer and as a public high school English teacher in Alameda. He has a BA in Economics and teaching degree from the University of California Santa Cruz.

 

Advisor / Investor Team:

Francorp
Francorp is acknowledged as the world's leader in franchising. Since 1976 Francorp has provided full development programs to help insure the franchise success of over 2,000 businesses. Francorp offers clients coordinated strategic planning, legal services, operations, marketing, training and support services.

Laurie Baggio – 1-800-GOT-JUNK?
Laurie Baggio joined 1-800-GOT-JUNK? in December 2001 as Director of Franchise Development. He was promoted to VP, Franchise Development in September 2002. He currently owns multiple 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchises in Portland, OR and northern New Jersey. Prior to accepting this position, Mr. Baggio was a self-employed Consultant advising technology startups in strategy, market development, and corporate development in Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA.. From December 1999 until June 2001, Mr. Baggio served as Vice President of Business Development for eTunnels, Inc. in Seattle, WA. His role encompassed market development, business development, and technology and channel partnerships. From March 1995 until November 1999, Mr. Baggio founded and was the President and CEO of Helikon Technologies Inc., a diversified technology development company based in Vancouver, BC. While there, he established, grew, and sold an Internet Service Provider division and developed multimedia products for Hasbro, Inc.

David Pascually – Founder, President of Pacific Solar Energy
David has been involved has been involved in the renewable energy space since 1999. He started his energy career with Solar Hart and later founded Pacific Solar Energy in 2003. Through Pacific Solar Energy, David has installed or supervised the installation of over 200 Solar PV, Solar Hot Water and Pool Heating Systems. David is a California Licensed Solar Contractor License # 872167 and is certified by NABCEP – the North American Board of Certified Electrical Practitioners. David also holds a BS EE from UC Davis.

Stephen Cadet – President, CEO of Fidelity Roofing Company
Stephen has been in the roofing business for 35 years and Fidelity Roofing has been installing solar PV since 2002. During his business tenure, Stephen has worked with some of the top national and local people in both architectural and engineering segments to improve both roofing design of construction. He has also assisted numerous system manufacturers with their roofing products. Stephen has a BA from UC Berkeley.

Gary Kremen - Clean Power Finance
As an entrepreneur, inventor, executive and investor, Gary Kremen has over twenty-five years experience with emerging growth companies and developing information technology. He is a founder of several companies including Match.Com and his latest endeavor Clean Power Finance. Kremen is a well-known angel investor in companies and investment funds and sits on the board of numerous companies.

Paul James – Fulwiller/James Builders
Paul has been a licensed California contractor since 1976. In that capacity he created Fulwiler/James Inc. a construction firm focused on custom estate homes throughout northern California. Clients include Nolan Bushnell of Atari and Pong, Dr. Gordon Moore of Intel Corporation, Bob Swanson founder of Genentech, and Robert AM Stern Architects. Fulwiler/James homes have been published in trade publications such as Architectural Digest and Specialty Books.

Dean Harlow – President of North America Ricardo, Inc.
Dean spent over twenty years with General Motors in a variety of capacities including engineering, finance, planning and corporate / business development (mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures and technology licenses). Dean Harlow was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from GMI (now Kettering University) and also an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Christopher Lochhead – Founder, CEO of Lochhead Enterprises Inc.
Christopher has been an executive in four start-ups and has been an officer of three publicly traded technology companies: Mercury, Scient and Vantive and Mercury Interactive Corporation (a $1B enterprise software company, acquired by Hewlett Packard). At Mercury, he helped grow the company from approximately $400m to over $1B in four years. In 1998 Lochhead helped start the Internet consulting firm Scient. They achieved $21M in first year sales, and $156M in its second year. Lochhead joined Vantive, a customer relationship management (CRM) software company, in 1996 and helped the company grow from $25M in sales to $117M in two years. Prior to Vantive, Christopher was president of CRM Company Always an Adventure International.