John Sedgwick, President

John is a serial entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in the renewable energy industry. In 2013, he co-founded VDE Americas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the VDE Group, where he serves as president and a member of the board of directors. John also directs the strategic development of VDE Americas’ award-winning natural catastrophe (NatCat) risk exposure advisory products, which specialize in hail and wind risk to solar assets and portfolios.

In 2002, John co-founded Solaicx, a solar technology company that invented and commercialized a proprietary process for the continuous growth of high-quality silicon ingots. As the company’s EVP, John secured technology patents; negotiated a long-term supply agreement with SunPower; and later played a crucial role in selling the company to SunEdison (formerly MEMC).

Outside of work, John is an avid sailor and amateur astronomer. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from San Jose State University.

Brian Grenko, Vice President

Brian has over two decades of engineering and operations experience, mainly within the renewable energy industry. In 2016, he joined VDE Americas as a senior principal engineer and the company’s head of photovoltaic technologies. 

Early in his career, Brian served as quality manager for the pioneering solar company AstroPower, which GE acquired in 2004, and supplier quality leader for GE Energy’s Solar Technologies business. In 2009, Brian joined Yingli Green Energy Americas as a founding executive. As VP of technology, Brian led Yingli’s engineering organization, supported research and development efforts, and managed the company’s PV testing laboratory. Before joining VDE, Brian was the founder and CEO of Amplify Energy, a photovoltaic engineering services firm that DNV-GL acquired in 2016.

Brian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. He is a certified Lean Sigma Blackbelt.

Our team has extensive experience reviewing distributed generation (DG) and utility-scale renewable energy and storage projects on behalf of project sponsors or banks providing various types of project financing. We maintain a core team of salaried technology experts and professionals to manage customer accounts and projects while also relying on a deep bench of contributing subject matter experts using personal connections and our 36,000+ member strong VDE Association which includes preeminent technology leaders from industry and academia. This approach has enabled us to establish a distributed network of talented and trustworthy resources across the world with diverse backgrounds and experience. Our deep bench of talent includes industry professionals who have dedicated their careers to the advancement of renewable energy.