Carlos Guinand is an entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Sonnedix, an international renewable energy producer. He has been instrumental in setting the company’s strategic direction and growth while overseeing its governance and performance through his expertise in international governance and operational matters. Carlos also chairs the Performance Committee and the Human Resources and Compensation Committee.
Sonnedix was founded in 2009 as a small player in the nascent solar industry. Under his leadership, the company entered a partnership with J.P. Morgan Asset Management in 2014. Sonnedix has over $8 billion dollars in assets, a total capacity of over 8GW across ten countries with over 500 operating power plants.
Carlos has been fundamental in establishing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles for Sonnedix and has guided the company’s entry into new energy markets. His deep knowledge of the renewable energy industry, international business acumen, and keen capacity to anticipate market trends, has also helped Sonnedix deliver high-performance, cost-competitive, renewable energy technologies to many countries around the world.
In 2022, Carlos was appointed Chairman of Ventient Energy. With 2.8 gigawatts of wind generation across six countries, Ventient is one the leading independent generators of renewable energy in Europe and a sector leader in ESG. Ventient is owned by institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
Over the course of his career, Carlos has gained wide-ranging expertise across industries including the solar sector and has had significant experience managing a portfolio of private equity investments in South America and Europe.
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.
Karen Boesen joined Sonnedix in August 2021 as Chief Financial Officer. In her role as CFO Karen is responsible for Finance, Tax, Project Finance, Financial Planning and Commercial/Power Marketing.
Prior to joining Sonnedix, Karen has spent more than 20 years in the Upstream Oil & Gas industry. She has latest been Country Manager for TotalEnergies’ operations in Myanmar and prior to that CFO for TotalEnergies’ UK businesses. Her experience also includes leading Strategy and M&A functions in Maersk Oil and DONG Energy, and she’s been in charge of several post-merger integration and change management projects. Karen is Danish of origin and is passionate about building and preserving a strong company culture, leading change, driving growth and the transition to renewables.
Karen holds a Master of Science in Business Administration and Commercial Law from Copenhagen Business School and has supplement her studies with strategy and leadership training at IMD.
Karen is proud to join the Sonnedix team with its strong culture and values, and excited to deploy her skills and experience in actively driving the energy transition by growing the Sonnedix portfolio of solar power producing plants to the benefit of its shareholders, team members, and the world in general.
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.
Sonnedix Power Holdings Limited (de forma conjunta con sus filiales, “Sonnedix”) es propiedad mayoritaria de inversores institucionales, atestiguando la estabilidad, el valor y el potencial a largo plazo de nuestra empresa. Nuestro objetivo es crecer de forma sostenible y generar valor, aprovechando nuestra prudente estructura de capital y patrocinio e invirtiendo en activos de alta calidad con flujos de caja predecibles. También estamos desarrollando y ejecutando continuamente una cartera de proyectos nuevos y oportunidades de fusiones y adquisiciones.
La sociedad matriz de nuestro Grupo es Sonnedix Power Holdings. El Grupo prepara cuentas consolidadas bajo las NIIF para este Grupo. Por separado, el Grupo también prepara cuentas consolidadas para Sonnedix Italia S.p.A (Italia), VE Sonnedix Equityco, S.L. (España), Sonnedix España Equityco, S.L. (España) y Sonnedix España Finance 2, S.L. (España). Estas están disponibles aquí en nuestro sitio web.
El Grupo tiene 4 bonos que cotizan en bolsa, que se utilizaron para financiar activos en los grupos mencionados anteriormente.