Brian Grenko, President

Brian has over two decades of engineering and operations experience, mainly within the renewable energy industry. In 2016, he joined VDE Americas as a senior principal engineer and the company’s head of photovoltaic technologies. 

Early in his career, Brian served as quality manager for the pioneering solar company AstroPower, which GE acquired in 2004, and supplier quality leader for GE Energy’s Solar Technologies business. In 2009, Brian joined Yingli Green Energy Americas as a founding executive. As VP of technology, Brian led Yingli’s engineering organization, supported research and development efforts, and managed the company’s PV testing laboratory. Before joining VDE, Brian was the founder and CEO of Amplify Energy, a photovoltaic engineering services firm that DNV-GL acquired in 2016.

Brian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. He is a certified Lean Sigma Blackbelt.

Jon Previtali, Vice President

Jon serves as VDE Americas' vice president and product manager for the company’s Hail Risk Intelligence and other natural catastrophe advisory services.

An expert in risk mitigation for climate tech funding, Jon has worked with renewable energy and Internet technologies for more than 20 years. During a decade-long tenure at Wells Fargo, one of the largest renewable energy financiers in the United States, Jon contributed to bank-wide initiatives to significantly increase sustainable finance volume. He was also instrumental to the creation of funding programs for emerging carbon-reduction technologies. Jon served on the board of directors for the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator, which he helped found in 2014.

As a program advisor to Department of Energy-funded initiatives, he contributes to industry efforts to improve PV module durability and commercialize emerging perovskite cell technologies. Jon received engineering degrees from Stanford University and the University of Colorado, Boulder.

John Sedgwick, Co-Founder

John is a serial entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in the renewable energy industry. In 2013, he co-founded VDE Americas and served as its president for more than a decade. In addition to serving on VDE Americas' Board of Directors, John contributes to the strategic development of the company's award-winning natural catastrophe (NatCat) risk exposure advisory products.

In 2002, John co-founded Solaicx, a solar technology company that invented and commercialized a proprietary process for the continuous growth of high-quality silicon ingots. As the company’s EVP, John secured technology patents; negotiated a long-term supply agreement with SunPower; and later played a crucial role in selling the company to SunEdison (formerly MEMC).

Outside of work, John is an avid sailor and amateur astronomer. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from San Jose State University.

Our team has extensive experience reviewing distributed generation (DG) and utility-scale renewable energy and storage projects on behalf of project sponsors or banks providing various types of project financing. We maintain a core team of salaried technology experts and professionals to manage customer accounts and projects while also relying on a deep bench of contributing subject matter experts using personal connections and our 36,000+ member strong VDE Association which includes preeminent technology leaders from industry and academia. This approach has enabled us to establish a distributed network of talented and trustworthy resources across the world with diverse backgrounds and experience. Our deep bench of talent includes industry professionals who have dedicated their careers to the advancement of renewable energy.