Vestas has hired Chris Brown as president of Vestas Americas and head of its U.S. and Canadian sales and service division. Brown will succeed Martha Wyrsch, who has decided to leave Vestas in early December.
Brown has decades of experience running electric utility and independent power operations. Most recently, he served as chief operating officer for the City of Detroit. Brown's energy background includes time in the offshore wind industry, as well as roles as a senior executive at a large U.S. utility and managing director at an international utility.
Brown's first task will be getting up to speed on Vestas as a company, its operations and its current implementation of cost savings and organizational adjustments.
Wyrsch joined Vestas in 2009. From 2010 to 2012, she directed record financial, sales and installation performance for the company in the U.S. and Canada. In her tenure, she led a team that increased its installed base of wind turbines in the region by more than 4.7 GW, according to Vestas.
However, Vestas has been scaling back its operations in the U.S. due to the lack of a production tax credit extension. The company has made several rounds of layoffs over the last few months, including in the U.S. Earlier this month, Vestas announced it was shuttering all three of its U.S. research and development offices, resulting in dozens more layoffs.
