EQUIPO DIRECTIVO

Carlos Guinand is one of the founders of Sonnedix and has served as the company’s Chairman of the Board since 2012, managing all aspects of the company’s governance and performance. He is instrumental in setting the strategic direction and growth of the company, especially when it comes to providing his knowledge on international governance and operational issues. He is also the Chair of the Performance and the Human Resource & Compensation Committees.

Over the course of his career, Carlos has gained wide-ranging expertise across industries: he’s been a successful entrepreneur in various businesses over the last 20 years; has gained significant experience overseeing a portfolio of private equity investments in South America and Europe; and he’s also been a Managing Director of Editorial Arte, a leading printing and publishing company in South America, for the last 18 years.

Carlos attended Law School at UCAB Venezuelan.

Coming to work each day is exciting for Carlos because Sonnedix is all about passion and purpose to him. Participating in the global energy transformation is one of his great joys, as is seeing how the company he helped found is positively impacting society.

Axel Thiemann became CEO of Sonnedix in September 2018 after serving as a member of the senior leadership team and Board of Directors. Since joining Sonnedix in 2011, Axel has played a fundamental role in its evolution, initially based in London, as COO with responsibility for Asset Management, Finance, HR and E&C, and more recently based in Miami, overseeing M&A, integration and strategy during a four year period when the company experienced five-fold growth.

Prior to joining Sonnedix, Axel spent seven years in banking and held various senior roles with Barclays Bank in London. Before this he was a consultant with McKinsey and Company in Cologne, Germany. Axel graduated as an Electrical Engineer from Hannover University in Germany and holds an MBA from IESE Business School, Spain.

To Axel, the most special thing about Sonnedix is its team of bright and passionate people across four continents that have come together to create a sustainable future for the world.

Marc Lohoff joined Sonnedix’s leadership team in 2020 as Chief Operating Officer. In his new role at Sonnedix, Marc is responsible for overseeing all assets in construction and operation, from E&C, asset management, operational, commercial and technical perspective.

Originally from Germany, Marc has lived in Singapore for 14 years before moving to Madrid in 2020. His career spans over a decade of experience in the solar energy industry, with strong background in downstream businesses and vast international exposure. He played a substantial role in developing the Asia Pacific and Middle East region for Conergy, during his time as Corporate Vice President, from 2009 to 2012. In 2012, he was appointed Global Chief Operating Officer and later held various other global responsibilities such as Global Chief Operating Officer within Conergy. His recent role was CEO for Blueleaf Energy Asia (formerly Conergy).

Before Marc joined the solar industry, he has worked for more than decade in the semiconductor industry with Siemens and Infineon Technologies in senior management positions and among others, being responsible for joint venture management and manufacturing cooperations in Asia.

Marc holds an Engineering degree (aeronautical and aerospace engineering) from the Academy of the Armed Forces, and he has several years of experience as Technical Director/Head of Operations Control of a military airport in Germany.

Marc is excited about joining the Sonnedix team because there is a unique culture, driven by joint values of highly capable and motivated people across the globe who want to make a difference in the energy transition for the sake of future generations.

David joined Sonnedix’s leadership team as Interim Chief Financial Officer in April 2018. He leads the Project Finance team which is responsible for organizing all debt and other non-recourse financing for newly developed or acquired solar projects and optimizing the financing for the company’s existing project portfolios over the long term. David is based in London and Miami, and travels extensively in Sonnedix’s key markets.

David has over 15 years of diverse leadership experience in private equity, project finance, operations, portfolio management and business transformation on a global scale. His expertise spans working with the capital markets, banks and tax equity investors, recently financing photovoltaic solar in the US. He joined Sonnedix from Precision Agritech Inc., a Los Angeles based company, where he was CFO. Prior to that he was at several renewable power related companies, the most notable being AES Corporation, where he was the Vice President Finance for Solar Ridge Power. David graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from George Mason University and holds an MBA from the university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

David joined Sonnedix because of his passion for solar’s contribution to the global energy mix, the company’s delivery track record and the calibre of his colleagues.

Maurizio Grassi was appointed Chief Growth Officer in July 2021. His responsibilities include driving the growth strategy, and identifying, evaluating and delivering development and acquisition opportunities across all of Sonnedix’s territories. Since joining Sonnedix in 2013, Maurizio has played a critical role in developing the company’s Puerto Rico and Italian operations, before leading the M&A team during a period of significant growth.

Prior to joining Sonnedix, Maurizio spent a year as CFO of Enerqos, an EPC and O&M Italian company. Other previous roles include two years as the Country Finance Manager, REC Systems Italy, with responsibility for all aspects of investment and finance for the EPC contractor, and the Chief Financial Officer for Enfinity Italia. As Managing Director of Soleasy Srl, Maurizio oversaw the development, financing and construction of small scale renewable projects, with a particular focus on the photovoltaic sector. Earlier in his career, Maurizio held senior commercial and business development roles at Cisco Systems and also worked in the banking sector.

Maurizio has a degree in Economics and Commerce from Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Italy and an MBA from University of Glasgow, UK. Maurizio is fluent in English, French and Italian.

Maurizio is proud to part of the Sonnedix leadership because of the energy, reliability and focus, shared with all colleagues, for making a positive difference to the world and achieving the company purpose of building a bright future.

Stephen Taylor joined Sonnedix in 2018 and was appointed Chief People Officer in July 2021. With extensive HR and interim experience gained working in dynamic, high growth environments, Stephen has previously held HR Director roles at The Notemachine Group, HS2, Worldpay, Camelot, the BBC and Barclays.

With over 30 years’ experience, Stephen’s expertise lies in strategic decision-making, business integration, mergers and acquisitions and facilitating the growth and journey of companies as they scale. In addition to an in-depth expertise in change management, his specialist skills span Employee Relations, Reward, Organisation Design and Resourcing.

Stephen’s key achievements include leading both functional change programmes and business wide change programmes across a significant number of businesses. He is passionate about maximising people’s potential and performance, from developing Board effectiveness programmes to acting as a coach and mentor to top talent. Stephen has introduced a variety of job evaluation schemes to support pay and reward, flex benefit schemes and sponsored Organisational Design and change programmes. Stephen has developed reward strategies for Barclays, Camelot, Worldpay and most recently HS2, in addition to designing retention plans, LTIP’s, bonus schemes and pay structures for numerous organisations.

Stephen has led a large number of business acquisitions and integrations, undertaking pre-acquisition due diligence. He has supported organisations through various stages of growth, including the construction and programme management business of HS2, where the Managing Director and he formed the construction organisation and grew it from 2 to 1,250 employees over 2 years. He integrated two BT businesses which delivered synergy savings of £35 million per annum, managed the HR and Change workstreams of the acquisition and integration of a large plc into Serco Group and the Woolwich Building Society integration into Barclays Bank. Most recently, Stephen led the integration of three mid-sized businesses with a combined workforce of 2,000 into the Notemachine Group.

Stephen was excited to join Sonnedix because of the company culture and growth potential and its track record in a dynamic industry sector of attracting talented people. Whilst working at HS2 he became keenly interested in environmental issues and sees Sonnedix as a leader in clean and renewable energy helping to provide a bright future for generations to come.