Retail Supplier Names Six New Senior Hires; Will Support Growth Of Solar & Storage Development Business

Community Energy, which is licensed as a retail supplier in certain jurisdictions in addition to its renewable energy generation development business, announced the hiring of six new senior team members to accelerate growth in its solar and storage development business:

• Chris Caswell, Director, Structured Finance • Walter Crenshaw, Senior Developer

• Kevin Delaney, Senior Counsel

• Ola Olaniyi, Director of Origination

• Michael Warwick, Counsel

• Michael Wolset, Vice President of People and Culture

"This news immediately follows Community Energy’s announcement last month that Judy McElroy, national leader in energy storage and CEO of Fractal Energy Storage Consultants, joined its Board of Directors," the company said

Community Energy recently marked the milestone of two gigawatts (AC) of solar projects developed and financed since entering the solar development business in 2010.

Chris Caswell joined Community Energy as Director, Structured Finance, and is leading financial analysis for solar and energy storage development projects, supporting commercial transaction structuring, project financing and M&A transactions with third party investors. Prior to joining Community Energy, Chris was a Director, Finance and Capital Markets at Invenergy and managed the project financings for several of Invenergy’s thermal and wind assets in construction and operations. Before Invenergy, Chris worked in Asset Management and Business Development at NRG Energy, and began his career as an Energy Analyst at Tangent Energy.

Walter Crenshaw joined Community Energy as a Development Director leading development of new solar and storage project opportunities in Virginia and the Southeast. Walter has been in energy for more than 15 years and most recently managed Commercial Affairs for Dominion’s Cove Point LNG pipeline, liquefaction, and export facility. Prior to that he was the Director of Dominion Energy, Inc.’s unregulated generation business development group, responsible for originating and closing 1 GW of new unregulated solar additions to Dominion’s fleet.

Kevin Delaney joined the Community Energy legal team as Senior Counsel handling project development, asset disposition, finance and general corporate matters. Prior to Community Energy, Kevin spent 12 years working in the Corporate & Business Transactions Group at a global law firm, representing developers, equity investors and energy companies on all aspects of real estate matters in connection with renewable power generation and conventional power production projects.

Ola Olaniyi, Director of Origination at Community Energy, leads M&A and Project Finance transactions across utility-scale solar and distributed-generation. Prior to Community Energy, Ola served as Managing Director, Asset Acquisition at Safari Energy to oversee the strategic development of the business. Ola has two decades of professional experience in financial services, including leading solar acquisition and investment teams at SunEdison along with prior investment banking and private equity experience at JP Morgan, UBS and Temasek Holdings.

Michael Warwick joined Community Energy as Counsel and supports a wide variety of company legal needs including corporate issues, project development, and project disposition with a particular focus on real estate matters. Over the course of his career, Michael has assisted with the development, sale, purchase or finance of over 2 GW of renewable energy projects.

Michael Wolset joined Community Energy as Vice President of People and Culture and is responsible for driving a remarkable experience for the candidate and employee lifecycle, including talent acquisition, total rewards, performance management, talent development, and diversity and inclusion.