Company Overview

The combination of second generation CIGS thin films and an ultra low cost proprietary manufacturing process and equipment will enable NuvoSun to produce solar cells and modules in high volume at cost points that are below Silicon and other thin film providers. This will also enable solar electricity to replace fossil fuels, including coal and natural gas. The result is a clean, locally generated source of electricity. Located in Silicon Valley and Shanghai, NuvoSun is focused on CIGS thin film cell and module development and manufacturing.

Management team

Dave Pearce, President & CEO

Dave serves as the President, CEO and a board member of NuvoSun, a company he founded in January 2008.  He has more than 30 years of experience serving as an officer of both public and private companies.  Prior to NuvoSun Dave founded and served as President and CEO of MiaSolé, a thin-film solar company he founded in 2001. Mr. Pearce has founded and served as CEO or President of five venture backed companies including NuvoSun and MiaSolé, both solar companies; OptCom, an optical component company; SciVac, a vacuum system capital equipment company; and JTS Corporation, a disk drive company.  Mr. Pearce came to Silicon Valley in 1985 as CEO of Domain Technology, a pioneer in thin-film media for the data storage industry, a company he took public in 1987.  Mr. Pearce holds a BS in Industrial Management from Georgia Tech and an MBA from the University of Texas.  Mr. Pearce has co-authored several photovoltaic solar patent applications.

Dennis Hollars, Ph.D., CTO and Co-founder

Dennis and Dave have been together for more than twenty years when Dave hired Dennis out of Lockheed in 1987 to develop the world’s largest throughput disk sputtering system while at Domain Technology. These systems where in use for 18 years at Seagate Technology where three vacuum systems produce more than 70 million hard disks per year. Dr. Hollars was Mr. Pearce’s CTO at OptCom, SciVac, and MiaSolé. Dr. Hollars earned a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from New Mexico State University; a Master of Science in Astrophysics from the University of Arizona; and a Bachelor of Science, Basic Science, USAF Academy. Dr. Hollars is the inventor of numerous sputtering processes and hardware. Over the past five years, Dr. Hollars has become a recognized technical expert in the field of CIGS thin-films.

Bruce Hachtmann, Sr. VP Engineering and Co-founder

Bruce has over 20 years of management experience in key leadership positions in high volume manufacturing and engineering roles. Prior to joining NuvoSun in 2008 he was Vice President of Engineering at MiaSolé from 2005 where he was the principal architect behind MiaSolé’s high volume production process and equipment design.  Prior thereto, Mr. Hachtmann was a co-founder of MMC Technology, the media-manufacturing arm of Maxtor Corporation, where he advanced to the level of Sr. Vice President/COO for this $400M operation. Prior to MMC, Mr. Hachtmann served as Senior Engineering Manager for IBM, where he was responsible for managing IBM's worldwide disk technology integration.  He managed IBM's entry into the OEM market for disk media and managed process and hardware development for IBM’s large form factor disks, an activity for which he was awarded an IBM outstanding achievement award. Mr. Hachtmann holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Santa Clara University.  Mr. Hachtmann holds three published patents and various others in process.

Leroy Luo, Managing Director, Shanghai and Co-founder

Mr. Luo previously held a similar position at Miasolé.  Mr. Luo has over twenty years of international senior management and engineering experience in high technology companies. He has been successful as both an entrepreneur and a corporate contributor in the US and in China.  Prior to entering the solar industry Mr. Luo co-founded AMEC, a venture capital funded Shanghai company focused on the design and manufacturing of semiconductor vacuum equipment. Before AMEC, Mr. Luo was the Vice President of Engineering at SciVac, a company that designed and manufactured thin-film vacuum-deposition equipment in Silicon Valley. He also worked for Mattson Technology and Lam Research with increased management responsibilities in the US. Mr. Luo is fluent in both Chinese and English. He currently resides in Shanghai. His extensive relationships in the Chinese high technology market are vital to the company's success in Asia. Mr. Luo holds multiple degrees in solid-state physics and electrical engineering (BS, MS, MSEE and Ph.D. candidate) from Zhongshan University and The University of Texas.

Art Wall, P.hD., Vice President Process Development and Co-founder

Dr. Wall held a similar position at Miasolé.  Prior to entering the solar industry, Dr. Wall held several senior engineering management positions over a 19-year period at IBM/Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, including world-wide development responsibility for disk media and wafers for thin-film heads. During this time, Art drove the development, integration, and manufacturing ramp of many innovative technologies in media, heads, and hard drives. While at IBM Art was responsible for overall manufacturing, engineering and development for all of IBM’s media substrate operations. Dr. Wall holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from Gustavus Adolphus College.

Tom Valeri, Vice President Test, Cell Integration and Module Assembly

Tom joined NuvoSun a few months after the company was formed to focus on product test, cell integration, and module assembly.  Immediately prior to joining NuvoSun, Tom served as Director of Product Management for Optisolar. Prior to joining NuvoSun Tom was the Executive Director of U.S. Operations for MMC Technology, the media manufacturing subsidiary of Maxtor Corporation. He was a founder of MMC and spent 11 years with the company. In his last position with MMC Mr. Valeri was responsible for production operations, test, and equipment development with a total staff of 1,300 employees. Prior to MMC Tom was employed for 8 years by Seagate Technology. He served in a variety of positions including test development, maintenance management, and the management of an applications laboratory. Before Seagate, he helped start Guzik Technical Enterprises, a capital equipment company serving the data storage industry.