Ocean Power Technologies appoints new CEO

18 January 2010

Listed wave power company Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has appointed Charles Frederick Dunleavy as the company’s CE0.

Dunleavy has served as a member of the OPT board of directors since 1990 and as served as the company’s treasurer and secretary since 1994. From 1993 to 2001, Dunleavy served as vice president of finance and he has also acted as the company’s senior vice president and CFO since 2000. Dunleavy succeeds Mark R Draper, who resigned from the OPT. The company plans to appoint a new CFO to take over from Dunleavy in due course.

While at OPT, Dunleavy has been key to the company’s progress in expanding operations in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan, and raising of over $140m in equity capital in the US and Europe.

Dr George W Taylor, executive chairman of OPT, said, ‘The board of directors is very pleased that Charles has agreed to accept the position of CEO to provide hands-on leadership and execution of the company’s growth strategy. He has already demonstrated a strong track record in the areas of operations, corporate management and finance. Building on his more than 15 years of experience in the renewable energy industry, Charles is well qualified to accelerate commercialisation of OPT’s technology in the global marketplace.’

Prior to joining OPT in 1994, Dunleavy’s career encompassed operational and financial management roles at both publicly-held international and private companies in the manufacturing and technology-based engineering sectors. He is also a certified public accountant.

Dunleavy said, ‘With demand for renewable energy set to increase dramatically over the near term and a leading position in the wave energy sector, I do not envisage a major change in OPT’s strategy. However, in order to seize this tremendous opportunity, we must sharpen the essential business implementation of the company’s plans.’

Headquartered in Pennington, New Jersey and with offices in Warwick, UK, Ocean Power Technologies is a pioneer in wave-energy technology with a track record in the advancement of wave energy and participates in a $150bn annual power generation equipment market. The company’s proprietary PowerBuoy system is based on modular, ocean-going buoys that capture and convert predictable wave energy into low-cost, clean electricity. OPT’s technology and systems are insured by Lloyds Underwriters of London.

Copyright © 2010 NewNet

Tags: wave power

This story was published on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 11:50 am and is filed under Europe, North America, companies, water. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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