VDE Americas announces leadership transition and expansion

 March 3, 2025—San Jose, California-based, VDE Americas, a global leader in technical advisory and catastrophic risk assessment and mitigation services for solar power generation facilities, today announced organizational changes and executive-level promotions to address the growing demand for the firm’s products and services. John Sedgwick, who co-founded VDE Americas and has served as its President and CEO since 2013, will remain on the Board of Directors. Brian Grenko, an accomplished executive with over 25 years of industry experience, has been promoted to serve as its next President and CEO.

Under Sedgwick’s leadership, VDE established itself as the market leader by developing proprietary methods of quantifying hail risk potential for solar power assets. “It has been an honor to work alongside my German colleagues at VDE to establish and grow VDE Americas, and I am excited for Brian to take the reins,” said Sedgwick. “Our talented team and differentiated technology platform, coupled with Brian’s unwavering focus on quality and experience developing strong customer relationships, positions us well for our next chapter of growth.”     

Grenko will lead VDE Americas having spent the last eight years successfully building out the company’s renewable energy technical advisory practice.

Before joining VDE, Grenko was CEO of Amplify Energy, an engineering firm focused on measuring and improving the operating performance of solar power generation facilities. Grenko previously held senior management positions at Yingli Green Energy and GE Energy after its acquisition of the pioneering solar panel manufacturer AstroPower. “I am humbled and excited to build upon the legacy John has created for our company and industry," share Grenko. "I am also excited to work with our amazing team of subject matter experts to further advance the deployment of renewable energy."

Bill Reaugh, who has an established track record of supporting growth-stage companies, has been promoted to Vice President of Consulting Services, assuming responsibilities previously held by Grenko.

Reaugh has been instrumental in building out VDE America’s reputation for delivering quality and value-added technical advisory services since joining in 2018. VDE Americas relies on his decades of electrical and electronics experience to provide unbiased and expert technical assessments regarding project design, construction, commissioning, and operations. “I look forward to further expanding our due diligence capabilities ensuring that the projects we review for our clients perform as expected over their economic useful life,” said Reaugh.

Jon Previtali has transitioned into the newly created role of Vice President of Digital Services, which includes oversight of VDE’s leading catastrophic risk products including the recently released Hail Risk Atlas, a weather mapping solution that forecasts hail risk for all commercial sectors and the economic risk of hail loss for solar power generation assets.

Prior to joining VDE Americas in 2022 as Senior Principal Engineer, Previtali established himself as a renowned renewable energy industry expert during his tenure at Wells Fargo, supporting financial investments while helping to standardize many of the technical due diligence and risk mitigation solutions banks use to safeguard solar and energy storage project performance. “The solar power industry has needlessly lost hundreds of millions of dollars to hail damage,” said Previtali. “It is critically important to take an analytical approach to understand hail risk and then ensure sufficient defenses are in place to minimize it.”