BARRE, Vt., Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Northern Power Systems, Inc., a next-generation wind energy company, announced today that John P. Danner has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer. This appointment marks a significant step in Northern's transformation into a major commercial force in the wind power industry.
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Mr. Danner brings more than 20 years of leadership experience to Northern Power and was previously President and CEO of Codon Devices, a privately-held, high-growth biotechnology company. Prior to Codon, he held number of executive positions at PerkinElmer, Inc. , including Vice President and General Manager of a $450M group of global life science businesses. In addition, Mr. Danner was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, serving in both the United States and Europe, with a focus on strategy development, operational excellence, and organizational development. Earlier in his career, he served as an officer on a US Navy nuclear submarine and was a DOE-qualified engineer for a 148MW S6G nuclear power plant. Mr. Danner holds a BS with distinction in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and an MBA with distinction from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
"We are delighted to have attracted a Chief Executive of Mr. Danner's caliber," said John Simon, Chairman of the Board at Northern Power and Managing Director at Allen & Company LLC. Hap Ellis, General Partner at RockPort Capital Partners and Board Director at Northern, agreed: "John's proven track record of successfully growing many different kinds of companies will be a tremendous asset for Northern."
"I am very pleased to join Northern at this exciting time," said Mr. Danner. "Northern Power is a tremendous growth platform with top-notch investors, extremely talented employees, next-generation technology, and a highly promising product portfolio."
Northern Power was established as stand-alone wind energy company when private investors acquired the business from Distributed Energy Systems in August 2008. A subsequent funding round in September 2008 brought the total available capital to more than $50MM. The company is now moving to aggressively commercialize its suite of cutting edge wind turbine technologies, highlighted by a unique combination of permanent magnet generators and direct-drive design that delivers lower unit cost, higher energy capture, and greatly reduced maintenance and downtime costs.
About Northern Power
Northern Power has been a leader in wind power technology for over 30 years and continues to set the standard for advanced technology and high reliability in wind power. The company has a long history of providing a clean, low maintenance alternatives to costly diesel-powered grids. Residents in remote communities and islands around the world directly benefit from Northern's experience and the leading edge, yet proven, technology that is embodied in the Northwind 100, the company's mid-sized wind turbine for the community wind market. And while the Northwind 100 is the centerpiece of Northern's wind-for-diesel solution set, it is also positioned perfectly to satisfy the needs of a fast-growing worldwide distributed energy marketplace. Distributed energy -- installing grid-connected but local and locally owned power production to load center sites -- is widely recognized as an important component to energy independence and the development of clean, low cost energy alternatives. Northwind 100s are being planned and installed in various applications such communities, schools/universities, municipal utilities, wastewater treatment plants, and power intensive small businesses such as retailers, garden centers, and light manufacturing companies. Northern is currently developing a utility-scale turbine with the same gearless architecture to deliver increased energy capture and reliability, lower O&M, and improved grid power quality to the large and growing wind farm market.
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