Senior Appointments for NPD Group's Solar Wing

Solar energy and photovoltaic industry specialist NPD Solarbuzz has hired Wolfgang Schlichting as Research Director, Downstream Markets; and promoted Finlay Colville Ph.D. to VP leading its solar research team.

Colville joined the firm in 2010 with five years' experience in the PV industry and has since been responsible for PV supply and manufacturing research, as well as leading strategic customer engagements. Prior to joining he was Director of Strategic Marketing for Coherent, Inc.'s solar business. He holds a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Glasgow and a Ph.D. in Laser Physics from the University of St. Andrews.

Schlichting has an M.S. in Optical Science from the University of Arizona and a Diploma in Physics from Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany. He joins from Wolf Research, which provides research and consultancy for the solar energy and power electronics markets among others. Prior to joining Wolf in 2009 he managed optical, removable and personal storage research services for IDC; and before this he managed the development of a liquid crystal based optical mass storage system. In his new role, he will manage analysts based in Europe, the USA and Asia.

Paul Semenza, SVP Analyst Services at The NPD Group, says Solarbuzz has significantly expanded its PV supply chain coverage over the past two years, including monthly tracking of the markets in China and the US. He adds: 'Under the leadership of Dr. Colville, who has been instrumental in the development of NPD Solarbuzz's industry-leading upstream research, we will be able to provide our clients with increasingly comprehensive coverage of the PV supply chain, from materials to installations.'
Part of The NPD Group, the firm was founded in 2001 and its publications include the annual Marketbuzz report on the global PV industry. Web sites: www.solarbuzz.com and www.npd.com .