Recurrent Energy’s Leadership Team

Recurrent Energy’s leadership brings more than 85 years of solar and energy project experience in project development, engineering, structured finance, plant operation and construction management for companies such as Bechtel, Calpine, PG&E, American Electric Power, Honeywell, Siemens, Prevalent Power and Energy Innovations. Select biographies of the company’s executives are below.

  • Arno Harris

    Arno Harris, CEO

    Arno Harris is a solar industry veteran and successful entrepreneur. His career features a number of solar industry milestones, including the sale to Google of the largest US corporate solar generating system. Prior to Recurrent Energy, Arno was general manager of EI Solutions, serving large-scale commercial and government solar customers. EI Solutions was formed when Arno sold his pioneering solar business, Prevalent Power, to Energy Innovations in 2005. Arno’s previous experience includes founder and leadership roles for startups that include WineShopper.com, RedEnvelope (NASDAQ:REDE), and Novo Media Group. His background combines marketing, sales and consulting with experience serving such clients as Berlex, Toyota Motor Sales USA, GlaxoWellcome, MCI, Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Nikon Precision, IKEA International and NBC Digital Publishing. Arno writes about solar and renewable energy on his blog Clean Energy Future.

  • Brian Lynch

    Brian Lynch, VP, Sales and Development

    Brian Lynch joins Recurrent Energy with 19 years of energy industry experience. In his previous role as VP of Sales for Honeywell Building Solutions SES, Brian led and helped launch Honeywell’s solar energy offering throughout the US. He was also involved in numerous energy services projects and structured over $100 million in transactions. Brian has held various executive leadership and general management positions at Siemens Building Technologies and Sempra Energy Solutions. He has a Masters degree in Business from Pepperdine University and a Bachelors degree from UCLA.

  • Sheldon Kimber

    Sheldon Kimber, VP, Finance

    Sheldon brings a decade of experience in energy finance to Recurrent Energy. He most recently spent five years at Calpine, working on gas-fired power projects and power purchase agreements with large energy customers. He has also worked as an investment banker for industrial and natural resource companies at Goldman Sachs. Sheldon got his start in Accenture’s strategy consulting practice working on power price forecasting and asset valuation projects for utility clients. He holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a BA in Economics from Kenyon College.

  • Karl Knight

    Karl Knight, Managing Director, International Development

    Karl brings nearly 20 years of global financing, M&A, and strategic partnership advisory experience to Recurrent Energy. Most recently, he was Managing Director of Finance and Development for Regenesis Power, a commercial solar services company. He also founded researchSOLAR, a solar marketing services company. Prior to entering the solar industry, Karl held several senior roles in technology investment banking at GCA Savvian, Credit Suisse First Boston and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Karl holds an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business and a BA in Finance from the University of Wales.

  • Sateen Bhat

    Sateen Bhat, VP, Project Operations

    Sateen Bhat brings more than 36 years in program and project management, construction management, plant operation and engineering in the fields of telecom, energy, chemicals and residential construction. Sateen has worked at Bechtel, Bechtel Telecommunications, Bechtel Power, PG&E and American Electric Power. Sateen is a professional engineer, MSME and Six Sigma Yellow Belt.

  • Paul Wyatt

    Paul Wyatt, VP, Information Technology

    Paul brings 20 years of successful leadership in information systems engineering, R&D, and the design and operations of high-availability, high-volume transaction processing systems. Paul’s background spans IT leadership roles at such companies as Sigaba, WorldRes, TravelNet, ASK Group, Cygnus Solutions and Covalent Systems.

  • Matt Garlinghouse

    Matt Garlinghouse, VP, Business Development

    Matt guides the business development efforts of Recurrent Energy’s Solar as a Service offering, defining the key service features and benefits for the company’s public sector clients. Prior to co-founding Recurrent Energy, Matt held general management and product management positions in a variety of industries including computer hardware and software, publishing and wind energy. Matt has an AB in Economics from Stanford University.

  • John Schultheis

    John Schultheis, VP, Finance and Administration

    John is an experienced executive with more than 25 years experience overseeing operations and finance activities in energy, high tech, telecommunications and engineering/construction. John joined Recurrent Energy from Power Factors LLC where he was a partner, responsible for developing clean tech investment and business opportunities. Other recent experience includes senior operating roles for Ericsson, Solo Energy and Nexant, a company he helped to spin out of Bechtel in 2000. Prior to Nexant, John spent over 20 years in senior operating roles at Bechtel Corporation

Board of Directors

  • Neil Auerbach, Director

    Neil founded Hudson Clean Energy Partners, a private equity that invests in the dynamic and fast-growing clean energy market. Prior to starting Hudson, Neil was a partner at Goldman Sachs, where he founded and managed the US Alternative Energy Business and several other businesses. He invested over $1.5 billion of firm capital in numerous investments in wind, solar energy and biofuels. Neil and his partners at Hudson, Joseph Slamm and Daniel Gross, played pivotal roles in some of Goldman’s most notable investments in the clean energy sector, including Horizon Wind, First Solar and SunEdison. Before Goldman, Neil was a managing director at Barclays Capital in New York, and launched his banking career at Morgan Stanley, where he was a principal. Neil has a LLM from New York University School of Law, a JD from Boston University School of Law and a BS from SUNY at Albany. He is a member of the CEO Council of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE).

  • Daniel Gross, Director

    Daniel Gross is an investment partner of Hudson Clean Energy Partners. Formerly, Daniel was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs & Co. where he was a senior member of the US alternative energy investment business within the Special Situations Group. Daniel was instrumental in leading Goldman’s investment in SunEdison, First Solar, and Solar Integrated Technology. Prior to Goldman, Daniel was Senior Vice President in GE’s Energy Financial Services unit where he spearheaded the efforts to originate and execute renewable energy investments and closed over $1 billion of principal energy-sector investments during his seven year tenure. Daniel is a Fulbright Scholar and holds a Masters in Environmental Management, MBA and BA from Yale University.

  • Arno Harris, Chairman

    See biography above.

  • Erik Straser, Director

    Erik joined MDV in 1998 and specializes in investing in and building energy, materials and software companies. Prior to MDV, Erik worked at Interval Research Corp., a technology incubator funded by Paul Allen, and at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a technical staff member. He also consulted to several seed and early stage venture capital firms. While pursuing a PhD in mechanical engineering at Stanford, Erik led an interdisciplinary project between the electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering departments to develop a next-generation monitoring system for critical facilities. He holds a U.S. patent from his research work. From 1996 to 1998, he served as president of the Business Association of Stanford Engineering Students (BASES), Stanford’s largest student group focused on entrepreneurship and technology management.