Former renewable energy analyst joins Google-funded provider of solar services
NASDAQ-listed SolarCity has announced the hiring of Aaron Chew to the position of vice president of investor relations, reporting to CFO Bob Kelly.
Chew joins SolarCity from New York-based investment boutique Maxim Group, where he was a senior vice president, serving as an equity analyst covering the clean-tech and solar power sectors since 2011. Prior to this, he worked at Hapoalim Securities, part of Israel’s Bank Hapoalim, as a senior alternative energy analyst.
An MBA graduate of NYU’s Stern School of Business, Chew started his career working as an associate analyst for JPMorgan. In 2008 he was hired by US radio network Westwood One (now Dial Global) to manage financial planning and analysis, later joining SustainableWorks NYC, a business incubator, as a research analyst.
Chew’s arrival at the company was announced alongside the appointment of a new vice president of structured finance, Jimmy Chuang, who was previously chief structured finance officer at solar developer GCL Solar Energy.
SolarCity is headquartered in Santa Monica, California and provides solar services to residential, business, government and non-profit clients. The company, which was founded in 2006 and is the US’ largest residential solar installer, attracted a $280 mn investment from Google in 2011. SolarCity saw its customer numbers increase by 243 percent in 2012 and generated $128 mn in revenue, up from $59.1 mn the previous year. The firm has yet to return a profit, however.
