SunPower CEO to retire, former Amazon executive named top boss

REUTERS: U.S. solar panel maker SunPower Corp said on Thursday Chief Executive Tom Werner will retire after 18 years with the company, and will be succeeded by former Amazon.com Inc executive Peter Faricy.

Shares of the company were down 3.2per cent at US$29.70 in early trading.

Under Werner's tenure as CEO, SunPower went public in 2005, sold a majority stake to French energy firm Total SE in 2011, and completed the spin-off of solar energy solutions company Maxeon Solar Technologies last August.

Total has a stake of 51.5per cent in SunPower, according to Refinitiv.

Faricy, 54, most recently served as CEO of global media company Discovery Inc from September 2018 to August 2020. Earlier, he spent 13 years at Amazon.com, lastly as vice president leading the e-retail giant's marketplace.

While Faricy will begin his new role on April 19, Werner will discuss the company's fiscal performance during its first quarter 2021 earnings conference call, the company said.

Werner will also continue in his role as chairman for six months, after which the company said its board would recombine the positions of chairman of the board and CEO.

(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)