Sunverge Caps Strong 2016 with New COO, Board Expansion

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Intelligent energy storage provider Sunverge Energy today announced the appointment of three experienced energy executives to key roles with the company, positioning Sunverge to build rapidly on its 2016 growth trajectory. Sunverge named former Nexant CTO and General Manager Martin Milani as its first Chief Operating Officer. He is responsible for the company's strategy, development and delivery of Sunverge's advanced energy storage platform. 

The company also named two new members to its Board of Directors: John Di Stasio, former CEO of Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and current President of the Large Public Power Council (LPPC); and Elisabeth Brinton, Executive General Manager of Australian energy retailer AGL Energy Limited (AGL). Elisabeth joins her colleague, AGL Executive General Manager Alistair Preston, on the Board of Directors.

"Both visionaries in their own right, John and Elisabeth bring tremendous industry and operational expertise and leadership to our company as we extend our partnerships with utilities to make intelligent storage a cornerstone of the next-generation grid," said Sunverge CEO Ken Munson. "Under John's leadership, SMUD earned a reputation for being one of the most progressive and innovative utilities in the world. We're honored to count SMUD among one of our earliest customers. Elisabeth brings global industry experience through her work at SMUD, PG&E and AGL, where she is chartered with developing and implementing the 180-year-old retailer's next generation new energy innovation strategy."

The addition of Martin Milani as COO brings additional strength to Sunverge's seasoned executive team. He has spent more than 20 years in the industry with executive responsibility in product design, development and distributed systems architecture. Prior to joining Nexant, he served as a CEO, CTO head of products and strategy and Chief Architect for a succession of leading companies including Tidal Software, Intersperse, iBuilding, Times Mirror Corporation and Wells Fargo. He also held development roles at Retix, IBM and Locus Computing. During that time Milani built and sold two companies, successfully built and marketed more than twelve leading products, and helped solve critical business issues and enable companies to undertake the task of digital transformation.

"Martin brings valuable operational and technology expertise to Sunverge," said Munson. "His impressive career and experience with cloud and autonomic computing, artificial intelligence technologies, massive parallel systems and enterprise application integration will be crucial to our work as we expand our product offerings and analytics to meet the growing demand for distributed energy storage."

Di Stasio, who serves as Chairman of Sunverge's board, joined SMUD in 1981. He was appointed General Manager and CEO in June 2008 and retired from that position in 2014. While leading SMUD, Di Stasio represented the municipal utility prominently in the political arena. He is the past president of both the Northwest Public Power Association and the California Municipal Utility Association, and the vice chair of LPPC. He also served as a board member of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and the American Public Power Association, as well as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's Members Representative Committee.

Brinton has more than 25 years of experience growing companies and leading innovation across sectors, including energy, technology, consumer food products and agriculture. Most recently, she was Corporate Strategy Officer for Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), one of the largest utilities in the U.S. with over 15 million customers. At PG&E she was responsible for establishing the strategic direction for regulated electricity and gas utilities and for leading the company's strategic investments and mergers and acquisitions. She also led development and implementation of new utility business models in California. Previously, she served as Chief Customer Officer for SMUD, the number-one ranked United States Utility by J.D. Powers, and ran global marketing for web infrastructure company LoudCloud, including during its initial public offering.

"I'm extremely pleased that we've been able to make such powerful additions to the leadership of Sunverge as we enter an important time for the company," Munson said. "We will leverage their expertise, and our momentum coming out of a successful 2016, to take full advantage of the incredible and growing opportunity in the marketplace for intelligent, distributed storage."

About Sunverge Energy
San Francisco and Brisbane, Australia-based Sunverge Energy allows homeowners efficient management of their own renewable energy generation and helps utilities, retailers and solar power providers manage those renewable power sources and aggregate them into virtual power plants across neighborhoods, communities and entire service areas — reliably, effectively and intelligently. Founded in 2009, the company makes the Sunverge Solar Integration System (SIS), a distributed energy storage and management appliance comprised of powerful storage batteries, power electronics, and system-management software running in the cloud. The Sunverge SIS lowers costs, increases energy reliability, strengthens the grid, and accelerates the adoption and integration of distributed renewable energy. Investors include AGL, the Southern Cross Renewable Energy Fund backed by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and SB China Venture Capital (SBCVC), Kokam, MITSUI & Co., Siemens Venture Capital, Total Energy Ventures International and VisIR. For more information, please visit www.sunverge.com.

SOURCE Sunverge Energy