Our people

Dr. Karsten Wambach is head of the business unit SolarMaterial of Deutsche Solar AG, Freiberg, a subsidiary of SolarWorld AG. His main activities in SolarMaterial include the scaling-up of new technological processes like reclaimation of solar silicon and by-products, recycling of Solar Cells and Modules, acidic etching of wafers and silicon and development of new metallurgical purification processes for solar silicon.

He is a working group member in IEA PVPS Task 12, EHS issues in PV and is head of the working group “PV CYCLE” in BSW (German PV association) and EPIA. He has been working in PV for 20 years and on the recycling of modules for 15 years.

 
Dr. Martin Sommer is Director of global manufacturing module at Schott Solar. Dr. Sommer studied mechanical engineering and economics at RWTH Aachen. After his dissertation in laser technology he joined the Schott Group, where he worked in several management functions in the manufacturing field. Before taking over his current responsibility, he was Director of manufacturing at Schott Solar Inc. in the US.  

Robert Wright joined First Solar in June 2009 and currently serves as Director of Sustainable Development for the EMEA region. In this role Robert is responsible for First Solar’s EU regulatory and legislative affairs strategy on environment and sustainable development issues and as such helps define and lead First Solar’s sustainable development strategy with the EU’s Institutions and Member State Governments.

Robert has been working in Brussels for 16 years in the area of EU Environmental Policy making. Prior to joining First Solar he was Head of Intel Corporation’s Environmental Policy team in EMEA. Before that he worked as Head of the Environment and Energy Practice at APCO Europe, one of the largest Public Affairs consultancies in Brussels and from 1993 to 1998 worked for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Environment as co-ordinator of the EU Ecolabel Consultation Forum.

Robert received his B.A Hons degree in Political Science from the University of Warwick and his M.Sc (Econ.) with Distinction in Government and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has also undertaken Doctoral research studies in EU Environmental Regulation at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

Luis López graduated in Physics in 1987 from University Complutense of Madrid and obtained his Msc in Microelectronics in 1989.

He began his professional career as researcher in gas sensors based on CMOS semiconductors. In 1991 he moved into the semiconductor industry as process engineer in Lucent Technologies, after several years he became metrology and SPC manager and then deputy operations director.

In 2002 he joined the solar energy industry in the R&D department of Isofotón. Nowadays he is head of quality and environment department, managing all matters concerning Isofotón's overall quality and environment subjects and actively taking part about in global initiatives aiming towards sustainable development.

Shigeki Komatsu is a director of solar business division of Sanyo Component Europe GmbH, Munich. He has a degree of master of semiconductor from Chiba University, Japan.

Since 1997 he has worked for Sanyo as a engineer of solar module and a sales manager in Japan.

Before taking over his current responsibility, he was a sales manager to take care of worldwide market at Sanyo Japan.

Eleni Despotou is Deputy Secretary General and Policy director of EPIA (European Photovoltaic Industry Association). She joined EPIA in 2002.

She studies Mechanical engineering with specialization in energy and political sciences with specialization in international relations.  

She has been living, studying and working since 20 years in Brussels, and she is familiar with all EU institutions, European legislation especially dealing with energy issues and lobbying for renewable energy policy.

Furthermore, she is Coordinator of the EU PV Technology Platform and Member of the Executive Committee of IEA PVPS and Member of different scientific committees. 

She is involved in the management of different European projects within Altener, IEE, FP 5, FP6, FP 7 etc. and is actively participating in European and International Conferences dealing with technical and policy matters (European legislation, positions etc) and is responsible for RTD, standardization and certification issues within EPIA.

Jan Clyncke joined PV CYCLE as Secretary General as of 1 April 2008. 

He graduated with a Bachelor of Law from the University of Ghent in 1991.He continued his studies at Ehsal and Vlerick Management School .In his early career he worked as a manager of Production & Logistics in the meat industry before moving into the waste management sector. He was employed by the Dutch  AVR-Van Gansewinkel Group where he worked as project manager, legal environment and government affairs manager Benelux.In the last three years before joining PV CYCLE, he was in this Dutch company responsible for Health,Safety and Environment. 

He has experience in setting up of voluntary and mandatory take-back schemes in Belgium and the Netherlands in household and industrial packaging waste, tyre waste,vegetable oil & fat waste, waste oil (lubricants), waste on electrical and electronic equipment, empty paint tin waste ,flat glass waste ,photochemical waste,etc.

Dr. Virginia Gómez joined PV CYCLE as Scientific & Operations Engineer in January 2009.

In 2003, she graduated as a Telecommunication Engineer at Universidad Pública de Navarra. She received her PhD in Engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2008, specializing in the characterization and fabrication of plastic and semiconductor microlenses.

In the framework of her PhD, she fruitfully collaborated with research groups all over the world and worked together with important industry partners.

She has been an active member of the Network of Excellence on Micro-Optics (NEMO), the European Union Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) and she has acted as a reviewer for international journals.