Brentwood recently completed the Alta Devices, Inc. Chief Financial Officer search. John Batty, previously CFO/EVP Finance at Affymetrix, accepted the position and started today.  The Brentwood Group was honored to have been chosen as the executive search partners by Alta Devices on this critical position – our fifth successful search for Alta.

About Alta Devices, Inc.

Alta Devices was founded in 2007 and is focused on improving the production economics of high efficiency solar PV applications. Alta is currently a development stage company and has received venture capital funding from August Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Crosslink Capital, AIMCo, GE, and Technology Partners. The company is based in Santa Clara, CA. Visit the company’s web site at www.altadevices.com.

About The Brentwood Group, Ltd. 

The Brentwood Group, Ltd. is a boutique executive search firm with a global reputation for identifying high-performing senior executive leaders for our high technology and alternative energy clients. For over 25 years, The Brentwood Group has recruited exclusively at the CXO, Board of Directors, VP and Director level for some of the most innovative, public, private and early-stage entrepreneurial firms. Visit www.brentwoodgroup.com.

Brentwood recently completed the Ambassadors Group (NASDAQ:EPAX) Vice President of Digital Marketing search. The chosen candidate accepted the position and started at the beginning of May.  The Brentwood Group was honored to have been chosen as the executive search partner by Ambassadors Group on this critical position.

About Ambassadors Group, Inc.

Ambassadors Group Inc. (NASDAQ: EPAX) is a socially conscious, education company located in Spokane, Washington. Ambassadors Group, Inc. is the parent company of Ambassador Programs, Inc., World Adventures Unlimited, Inc., and BookRags, Inc., an educational research website. The Company also oversees the Washington School of World Studies, an accredited travel study and distance learning school. Additional information about Ambassadors Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries is available at www.ambassadorsgroup.com.

About The Brentwood Group, Ltd. 

The Brentwood Group, Ltd. is a boutique executive search firm with a global reputation for identifying high-performing senior executive leaders for our high technology and alternative energy clients. For over 25 years, The Brentwood Group has recruited exclusively at the CXO, Board of Directors, VP and Director level for some of the most innovative, public, private and early-stage entrepreneurial firms. Visit www.brentwoodgroup.com.

This is a confidential search. Please contact us for more robust position specification.

Our client is a global leader in business communications systems. The company provides unified communications, contact center, data solutions and related services directly and through its channel partners to leading businesses and organizations around the world.

This executive will own the P&L and will lead a globally dispersed team of 20 product management professionals to drive Unified Communications vision, revenue growth, margin enhancement, product roadmap, technology transition, and product management excellence across the entire Unified Communications Applications portfolio. This group includes all messaging, conferencing and soft client applications. He/She will lead the teams that drive market analysis (research, technology assessment, competitive/quantitative analysis, market sizing, product performance, operational metrics, win/loss analysis), product vision and strategy (business case, value proposition, customer/channel, pricing, buy, build or partner tradeoff analysis, market requirement documents, product innovation), product planning and execution (sales process, market requirements, product roadmap, lifecycle and migrations, user resources, product implementation, support plans, integrations and release milestones) and program strategy (customer acquisition, launch references/endorsements, customer retention, customer lifecycle and product naming) for this business that provides significant leverage across the entire enterprise.

He/She will drive product transition strategy and tactics, providing migration plans and tools for major customers to move to next generation of products and capabilities. This executive will bring a strong market based customer use focus, embracing social media across all product offerings. This VP will work with the global sales team to drive new product introductions, championing the products to initial customers and other major accounts. This executive will drive strategic alignment throughout the Unified Communications product portfolio, prioritizing product content and aligning Unified Communications products with the entire offering. He/She will drive the product management processes, partnering with engineering and product marketing to prioritize opportunities/activities that have the most significant impact and set the tone and culture for success.

This executive will staff to win, hiring, developing, mentoring, and training the next generation of product management and P&L executives at the company. He/She will have significant executive team and CEO visibility and will have ample opportunity based on success for broader responsibilities and upward mobility. This position reports to the VP/GM of  Unified Communications Applications.

The qualified candidate will have the following:

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Congratulations to our client, Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH). On March 29, 2012, Enphase announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 8,969,697 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $6.00 per share.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Jefferies & Company, Inc. is acting as joint lead manager, and Lazard Capital Markets LLC and ThinkEquity LLC are acting as co-managers. The shares began trading on the NASDAQ Global Market on March 30, 2012 under the ticker symbol “ENPH.”

Said Paul Nahi, Enphase CEO, in a statement last week:

“This is an important milestone for Enphase Energy, but today would not have been possible without the community of installers and partners who helped launch the company and continue to support us.”

Revenue grew from $20 million to $149 million in the last two years.

Click here to read more about the IPO event.

EnerG2 makes the carbon that makes energy storage better. Advanced materials are the key driver behind energy storage system improvements. Whether it’s holding electrostatic charge in ultracapacitors or improving the cycle life of battery chemistries, it is the materials that will drive innovation. Competitive carbons used in energy storage systems today are typically derived from agricultural waste materials. These traditional carbon products are highly impure, inconsistent, and not optimized for energy storage end-use. EnerG2’s engineered carbons deliver unparalleled electrochemical performance and value not possible with competing materials. EnerG2 manufactures carbon materials for multiple applications within the rapidly growing markets for lead-acid batteries, ultracapacitors, lithium ion batteries, and next generation lithium chemistries. EnerG2’s business model creates value across a broad spectrum of applications in a rapidly growing and highly valuable new industry.

Through its Carbon Technology Platform, EnerG2 has developed the only technology that can exploit virtually all electrochemical energy storage market opportunities. The Company has deployed proprietary large-scale carbon processing technologies to control the structure and purity of carbons at the molecular level. These techniques result in optimized material performance, reduced costs, and rapid adaptability to application requirements. This technology dramatically improves the performance of each device type into which it is integrated and enables step-change improvement of storage technologies..

The qualified candidate will have the following:

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The Brentwood Group, the results-focused retained executive search firm, has unveiled its new website. This improved platform showcases the company’s experience, expertise and success and the value we help create for our technology and alternative energy clients through the acquisition of superior leadership.

The refreshed design, straightforward navigation and updated content at brentwoodgroup.com provide clients easier access to information and improved user experience. While the website is merely a window on what we do, it reinforces the compelling combination of local/regional knowledge and global reach.

For 25 years, The Brentwood Group has been the go-to retained executive search firm for the most intriguing technology companies. We are continuously impressed by the technology advances driven by our clients and are honored to be their partners in growth.

Please visit www.brentwoodgroup.com. Connect with The Brentwood Group on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Brentwood recently completed the FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLIR) Vice President U.S. Sales & Business Development – Surveillance group search. Roy Keeler, previously Director of Global Business Development-Military and Aerospace at General Electric Intelligence Platforms, accepted the position and started this month.  The Brentwood Group was honored to have been chosen as the executive search partners by FLIR on this critical position.

About FLIR Systems, Inc.

FLIR Systems, Inc. is a world leader in the design, manufacture, and marketing of sensor systems that enhance perception and awareness. The Company’s advanced thermal imaging and threat detection systems are used for a wide variety of imaging, thermography, and security applications, including airborne and ground-based surveillance, condition monitoring, research and development, manufacturing process control, search and rescue, drug interdiction, navigation, transportation safety, border and maritime patrol, environmental monitoring, and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNE) detection. Visit the Company’s web site at www.FLIR.com.

About The Brentwood Group, Ltd. 

The Brentwood Group, Ltd. is a boutique executive search firm with a global reputation for identifying high-performing senior executive leaders for our high technology and alternative energy clients. For over 25 years, The Brentwood Group has recruited exclusively at the CXO, Board of Directors, VP and Director level for some of the most innovative, public, private and early-stage entrepreneurial firms. Visit www.brentwoodgroup.com.

Enphase Energy is the market leader in the microinverter category and has grown rapidly since its first commercial shipment in mid-2008, with over 1,000,000 units shipped to date, representing more than 30,000 solar installations. Revenue growth is exceptional: $1.7 million in 2008, $20.2 million in 2009 and $61.6 million in 2010. Enphase delivers microinverter technology for the solar industry that increases energy production, simplifies design and installation, improves system uptime and reliability, reduces fire safety risk and provides a platform for intelligent energy management. To date, the solar industry has relied on the traditional central inverter approach that has largely remained unchanged for the past two decades. Enphase has built from the ground up a semiconductor-based microinverter system that converts direct current (DC) electricity to alternating current (AC) electricity at the individual solar module level, and brings a system-based, high technology approach to solar energy generation leveraging its design expertise across power electronics, semiconductors, networking and embedded and web-based software technologies.

The company’s microinverter systems has been installed in all 50 U.S. states and eight Canadian provinces. It sells its microinverter systems primarily to distributors who resell them to solar installers. Over 2700 installers in North America have installed Enphase’s microinverters through June 30, 2011. Enphase also sells directly to large installers, equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and strategic partners. A substantial majority of its revenue has been generated by sales within the United States. Sales to customers in Canada commenced in 2009. In early 2011, Enphase established sales offices in France and Italy.

By integrating the Enphase microinverter technology with Envoy, the company’s proprietary communications gateway, and its Enlighten web-based software, the company offers significant design and operating benefits beyond the core power conversion functionality. Enphase has also established industry leading reliability. Based on data from a sample of 2009 and 2010 North American residential and small commercial installations, Westinghouse Solar indicates that Enphase’s microinverters have a failure rate of 0.207% compared to a significantly higher failure rate of 9.43% for traditional central inverters. …Read More

We are retained on a Chief Financial Officer search for Alta Devices, our fifth search for Alta.

Alta Devices is driving a new dawn in solar energy by developing solar cells up to 30% efficient at a module cost below 50¢/watt. Alta will be successful without government subsidies because their lightweight, flexible, high energy density solution is unique and extraordinarily compelling across a wide array of applications. Alta has developed a foundational thin-film technology that delivers the world’s highest efficiency/lowest cost solar modules. Alta’s solar cells are based on high efficiency compound semiconductor materials and proprietary manufacturing equipment to grow thin film solar cells. The technology is compatible with both rigid modules and roll-to-roll processing.

The firm’s technology is based on Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), a single-crystal, direct bandgap compound semiconductor with high conversion efficiency, good performance in low light and across temperature ranges. Founded by renowned solar experts Harry Atwater of Cal Tech and Eli Yablonovitch of UCB, and headed by CEO Chris Norris, Alta has filed 71 patents and has assembled a world-class solar technology and operations team. Alta has produced an NREL-confirmed GaAs cell with world record efficiency of 28.4%.

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Brentwood recently completed the Ambassadors Group (NASDAQ:EPAX) Vice President/Chief Information Officer search. Doug Creeley, previously Director of Technology Solutions at Dell, accepted the position.  The Brentwood Group was honored to have been chosen as the executive search partner by Ambassadors Group on this critical position.

About Ambassadors Group, Inc.

Ambassadors Group Inc. (NASDAQ: EPAX) is a socially conscious, education company located in Spokane, Washington. Ambassadors Group, Inc. is the parent company of Ambassador Programs, Inc., World Adventures Unlimited, Inc., and BookRags, Inc., an educational research website. The Company also oversees the Washington School of World Studies, an accredited travel study and distance learning school. Additional information about Ambassadors Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries is available at www.ambassadorsgroup.com.

About The Brentwood Group, Ltd. 

The Brentwood Group, Ltd. is a boutique executive search firm with a global reputation for identifying high-performing senior executive leaders for our high technology and alternative energy clients. For over 25 years, The Brentwood Group has recruited exclusively at the CXO, Board of Directors, VP and Director level for some of the most innovative, public, private and early-stage entrepreneurial firms. Visit www.brentwoodgroup.com.