Phoenix Solar USA
Our Team
The people behind Phoenix Solar
At Phoenix Solar, we have the experience to meet the complexities of today’s energy needs. The North American leadership team of Phoenix Solar has profound experience in photovoltaic and renewable energy national and international levels.
Table of Contents
Paul J. Caudill
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- Paul J. Caudill
Chief Executive Officer and President
Paul is a proven senior executive with 25 years of leadership experience with leading companies in conventional utility-scale power generation, transmission, and distribution. A significant portion of his professional training and work experience is founded in the U.S. commercial nuclear power generation business. Since 2006 he has served at the executive level in operations positions with two corporations in the emerging sustainable energy and renewable fuels industries. Paul joins Phoenix Solar from SunPower Corporation, an industry leading, vertically integrated photovoltaic module manufacturing corporation. With SunPower, he served as head of global solar power plant engineering, construction and operations and directly supported a number of strategic sales and business development initiatives in North America and Europe. Paul began his career in project management and project controls with Bechtel Power Corporation, one of the world’s most successful engineering, procurement and construction companies.
Paul holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Public Management from the University of Arizona.
Paul and his wife have three children and a granddaughter. Paul enjoys riding quarter horses and team roping, and counts the Sand Hills of western Nebraska as his “favorite” getaway travel location.
Peter Beucke
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- Peter Beucke
Chief Operating Officer
As a licensed architect, real estate broker and contractor with over 25 years of design, engineering, and construction experience, Peter brings a critical customer focus and hands-on perspective to Phoenix Solar. Prior to joining Phoenix Solar, he was the Director of Global Design and Engineering Services for SunPower Corporation, with responsibility for creating the design and providing the engineering services required to build solar power plants. In this role, Peter was deeply involved in the development of several solar plants in the U.S. and Europe. Prior to SunPower, Peter was SVP for the San Francisco Bay Area division of Lennar Homes, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders.
Peter holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Design from Arizona State University’s College of Architecture.
Peter and his wife have two kids. He enjoys spending time outdoors with family and friends.
Bryan Meier
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- Bryan Meier
Chief Financial Officer
Bryan joins Phoenix Solar Inc. from Verasun Energy Corp., where he served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for this large, publicly traded ethanol company. Prior to Verasun, Bryan was Vice President and Corporate Controller and responsible for global finance functions at ViaSystems Group, Inc., a leading provider of complex multi-layer printed circuit boards (PCBs) and Electro-Mechanical Solutions to OEMs. Over the course of his 23-year career in finance, Bryan has also held senior financial management positions at several other firms, including the accounting firm Arthur Andersen.
Bryan is a CPA and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Accounting and Finance from the University of Missouri in St. Louis.
Bryan and his wife have three children. When he is not managing the company’s financials, Bryan enjoys bicycle racing, golf, cooking, traveling and going to his children’s activities which include band competitions and ice hockey.
Les A. Lifter
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- Les A. Lifter
Chief Marketing Officer
Les brings over 22 years of corporate and brand marketing expertise to Phoenix Solar Inc. Prior to joining Phoenix Solar, he was Vice President, Strategic Marketing for Lennar, one of the nation’s largest public homebuilders, overseeing marketing and sales efforts for the company’s residential solar initiatives. Throughout his career, Les has leveraged his strong customer-focused approach while leading marketing efforts for small, mid-sized and large organizations, holding key marketing and leadership positions within Fortune 500 companies including Unilever, Hasbro and AutoZone.
Les holds a Masters in Business Administration in Marketing & International Business from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in Management from Emory University.
Les is a movie buff, wine enthusiast, and avid sports fan who very happily lives in the East Bay area of San Francisco with his wife, two daughters and their Labrador Retriever.
Arra Yerganian
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- Arra Yerganian
Chief Sales Officer
Arra brings broad senior management experience to Phoenix Solar, having held key leadership roles in sales, marketing and general management at a range of customer-focused companies. Over the course of his 25-year career, Arra held senior sales and marketing roles at Procter & Gamble, Dial Corp., and Infogrames Entertainment (Atari). He was a senior executive at two of the nation’s largest homebuilders and President of both a business marketing solutions firms and a web-based consumer marketplace. Under his leadership, both firms were acquired.
Arra received a Bachelor of Science degree in International Marketing & Operations Management from Boston University and upon graduation earned the Scarlet Key distinction for academic excellence and campus leadership, and completed an Executive Education Program in Strategic Marketing Management at Harvard Business School.
Arra and his wife have three children and live in San Jose, California. Arra is an active volunteer and Board Chair Emeritus of the Silicon Valley American Red Cross and is a trustee at the St. Andrew Armenian Church. He enjoys participating, along with his family, in many extra-curricular activities in the Armenian community.
Chip Pospisil
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- Chip Pospisil
Vice President, Project Controls
As a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Charles 'Chip' J. Pospisil has been a project manager and project control specialist on dozens of successful implementations of large-scale projects in the energy field and several other industries. Chip has actively managed and provided project control support for such diverse projects as large scale Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) projects, enterprise project management solution implementations, information technology projects, project offices and company start-ups. Chip draws on over 30 years of experience in project controls, project management and consulting in formulating and implementing cost saving solutions for project portfolios. He has held positions with SunPower Corporation, consulting firm Innovative Management Solutions, Inc. and Utility Resources, Inc.
Chip received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Connecticut.
Chip and his wife of 36 years have two grown sons. When not working, Chip can be found tinkering on his antique pickup truck, hiking in Arizona and occasionally surfing with his family in Southern California.
Nick de Vries
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- Nick de Vries
Vice President, Plant Operations & Engineering
Nick has over 15 years of solar energy, semiconductor and military experience. He comes to Phoenix Solar from Applied Materials, a technology leader in both the solar and semiconductor industries. While there, Nick was a Director of Field Operations in the Solar Business Division, where he developed, sold and ramped the company’s first thin-film solar factories. Most recently, Nick was involved in the design, installation and operation of utility scale thin-film solar plants worldwide. Prior to Applied Materials, Nick was an Infantry Captain in the United States Army and served in active duty in Kuwait and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Nick graduated from Lehigh University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He holds two patents related to photovoltaic technology and one patent related to semiconductor technology.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Nick enjoys bicycling and camping with his wife and two young children.
Tami Afdahl
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- Tami Afdahl
Office Manager
Tami joins Phoenix Solar Inc. following a 17-year career in the real estate, mortgage and banking industries. She co-founded Welcome Home Real Estate, a family-owned real estate company and held management positions at several mortgage and banking companies. Most recently, she was Vice President of Fixed Income at Credit Suisse.
Tami and her husband of nearly 13 years have two young sons. When she is not working, Tami enjoys the outdoors by water skiing, boating, snow skiing, camping, biking with her kids and riding dirt bikes. Indoors, she enjoys spending time with friends & family.