The Juwi Wind Group names Michael Rucker, CEO for North America

Experienced managers complement management team for German and US-market

Wörrstadt / Cleveland – (May 28, 2010) —The juwi wind group has two new faces in its management team. Michael Rucker has been named the United States wind division’s Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Frank Finzel changed from the Theolia group into the executive team of juwi’s wind subsidiary. Finzel works together with Dr. Marie Louise Pörtner in dual leadership.

Michael Rucker (43) can look back on years of experience in the US wind market. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Business Development at Clipper Windpower. Prior to that, he was Western Region Commercial Director at GE Energy. Rucker’s experience also includes work with the International Energy Agency in Paris.

Dr. Frank Finzel (44) has been active in the wind energy industry for more than nine years before joining juwi. He worked as spokesperson for the executive team of Theolia, an independent international developer and operator of wind energy projects with approximately 50 employees. Finzel, who has a PhD in economic sciences, was responsible for Theolia’s entire activities in Germany. Working for juwi Finzel will take care of project financing, operation management and acquisition. Furthermore, he is in charge for the German and US-market.

"We are pleased that we could add two such highly qualified colleagues to our wind team. I am convinced that with their experiences Dr. Frank Finzel and Michael Rucker are the right people to further develop juwi’s position in the enormously important wind markets in Germany and the USA, thus further strengthening renewable energies,“ said CEO Matthias Willenbacher.

The US-team is steadily growing. In 2009 the number of employees of juwi Wind USA rose to approximately 20 – and the trend is upward. The US subsidiary maintains offices in Lawrence, Kansas and Cleveland, Ohio, and will open its headquarters in Boulder, Colorado this year. It oversees wind projects in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota and Michigan. In the coming years juwi plans to supply a total of 1.000 MW into the American grid. The US-market already belongs to one of the most important markets for the project developer.

About the juwi Group
juwi is one of the leading companies in the area of renewable energies. Since 1996 it has been designing, building, financing and operating plants that harness renewable energy. The CEOs and founders Matthias Willenbacher and Fred Jung transformed the company from a two-person operation into an internationally active group with about 900 employees and annual revenue of approximately 600 million Euros. juwi is active in the areas of solar, wind, bio, and geothermal energy as well as in hydro power. To date, juwi has installed more than 400 wind turbines producing a total output of about 600 megawatts. In the solar sector, juwi has built around 1,200 PV systems with a total capacity of over 400 megawatts. The company operates internationally and has subsidiaries in Germany, the United States, France, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, and Costa Rica. Together with a highly motivated team Willenbacher and Jung are pursuing the goal of a complete renewable energy supply: 100% commitment for 100% renewable energies.