Pineapple Energy Enhances Board of Directors in Preparation for Public Listing
February 14 2022 - 4:24PM
Pineapple Energy LLC (“Pineapple”), today
announced two additional appointments to its anticipated
post-merger Board of Directors. The new directors bring significant
experience in financing and residential solar, further preparing
Pineapple for post-merger life as a publicly traded company. In
March 2021, Pineapple and publicly traded Communications Systems
Inc. (“CSI”) (NASDAQ: JCS) entered into a merger agreement, that
upon closing, would create a new company focused on the residential
rooftop solar and storage business in the U.S. CSI has scheduled a
shareholder vote to approve the merger on March 16, 2022.
Kyle Udseth, Co-Founder and CEO of Pineapple noted, “We are
preparing Pineapple Energy to ‘hit the ground running’ after our
anticipated merger closes. The additions of Marilyn Adler and Tom
Holland to the post-merger board brings us deep expertise in
financing and residential solar. We expect both individuals to be
significant contributors to our success. With their appointments,
our seven directors would represent a wide range of talent and
energy, and would help us pursue our objective to grow into one of
the largest rooftop solar and storage companies in the U.S.”
New Directors
Upon the anticipated closing of the merger, the combined company
will formally appoint the following to its Board of Directors:
Marilyn Adler is a founder of Mizzen Capital, a
private credit fund, and has been a Managing Partner there since
March 2019. Prior to launching Mizzen, Ms. Adler held senior
management roles with several Small Business Investment Company
funds. Prior to that, she worked in the fixed income group at
Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, a Fortune 100 financial
services organization, and before that was an investment banker at
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Ms. Adler earned an MBA from The
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and a BS
with distinction from Cornell University in 1987.
Tom Holland is currently the Chief Operating
Officer of Homebound Inc., a California-based housing company.
Previously, he had two stints as a partner with management
consultant Bain & Company, from 2018 to 2021 and 1989 to 2013.
Holland also has significant operating experience: he was the CEO
of Century Snacks, LLC, a California-based food manufacturing
company, and was COO and later President of SunRun Inc., an
industry leading provider of residential solar panels and home
batteries. Mr. Holland holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the
University of California, Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the Stanford
Graduate School of Business.
Post-Merger Board of Directors
Ms. Adler and Mr. Holland round out an exceptionally strong
Board that will also include:
Kyle Udseth, Founder and Chief Executive
Officer of Pineapple, who previously served in multiple executive
roles at SunRun and Sunnova, which are leading national residential
solar companies.
Roger Lacey, executive chairman of the CSI
board of directors, who also served as CSI’s chief executive
officer or acting chief executive officer from February 2015
through November 30, 2020 and from August 2, 2021 until the
present. Mr. Lacey has served as a CSI director since 2008.
Previously he served in executive positions at 3M Company, a
multinational industrial and consumer products company.
Randall Sampson, CSI director since 1999 and
lead independent director since December 2018. Since 1994, Mr.
Sampson has been the president, chief executive officer, and a
board member of Canterbury Park Holding Corporation, a horse racing
and pari-mutuel betting venue based in Minnesota.
Scott Honour, Managing Partner of Northern
Pacific Group, a Wayzata, Minnesota based private equity firm,
where he has served since 2012. Northern Pacific is a significant
investor in Pineapple Energy. Previously, he was a Senior Managing
Director of The Gores Group, a Los Angeles based private equity
firm, and before that was an investment banker at UBS Warburg and
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
Michael Zapata, director of CSI since June
2020. Mr. Zapata has led Schmitt Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMIT)
since December 2018. Mr. Zapata is also the founder and Managing
Member of Sententia Capital Management, LLC, an investment
management firm. Prior to Sententia, Mr. Zapata served nearly 10
years in the U.S. Navy.
About Pineapple Energy LLC
Pineapple Energy was founded to acquire and grow leading local
and regional solar, storage, and energy services companies
nationwide. Pineapple’s vision is to power the energy transition
through grass-roots growth of solar electricity paired with battery
storage on consumers' homes. Pineapple puts the customer at the
heart of everything it does, building long-term relationships to
create and share in recurring revenue from the electric grid of the
future. Pineapple's cornerstone acquisitions of certain assets of
Sungevity and Horizon Solar Power in December 2020 brought an
installed customer base of 44,000+ solar customers across 12
states.
On March 16, 2022, Communications Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: JCS)
(“CSI”) will hold a special meeting of shareholders to vote to
approve the definitive merger agreement entered with Pineapple in
March 2021. If approved, the merger is expected to close within two
business days, at which time the merged entity will continue to be
publicly traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol PEGY. Furthermore,
Pineapple expects to close its purchase of Hawaii Energy Company
and E-Gear concurrently with the closing of the CSI-Pineapple
merger transaction. For more information about the CSI-Pineapple
merger transaction and certain factors related the merger, please
read the Prospectus filed on Form 424B3 on February 3, 2022. The
Prospectus can be accessed on the SEC EDGAR website.
Contacts: |
For Pineapple Energy
LLCKyle UdsethChief Executive Officer+1 (952)
582-6460kyle@pineappleenergy.comThe Blueshirt GroupGary Dvorchak,
CFAManaging Director+1 (323) 240-5796gary@blueshirtgroup.com |
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