GUELPH, ON, Sept. 30, 2020
/PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. (the "Company", or
"Canadian Solar") (NASDAQ: CSIQ), announced today the appointment
of Leslie Li Hsien Chang as an independent director to Canadian
Solar's Board of Directors, effective September 25, 2020.
Additionally, and in preparation for the planned carve-out IPO
in China of Canadian Solar's
Module and System Solutions ("MSS") subsidiary, or CSI Solar Co.,
Ltd. ("CSI Solar"):
- Yan Zhuang is appointed as
President of CSI Solar, stepping down from his role as President
and Chief Operating Officer of Canadian Solar. Mr. Zhuang remains
as a director on the Canadian Solar board.
- Guangchun Zhang is appointed as
Senior Vice President, Operations and Technology, of CSI Solar,
stepping down from his role as Senior Vice President and Chief
Manufacturing Officer of Canadian Solar.
Both appointments are effective September
29, 2020.
Concurrently, Leslie Li Hsien Chang, Yan
Zhuang and Guangchun Zhang
are appointed to the board of CSI Solar, effective September 25, 2020.
Mr. Leslie Li Hsien Chang has been serving as Senior Advisor to
CITIC Capital (Holdings) Limited since 2014. Prior to that, Mr.
Chang served as a senior corporate executive and board director at
several listed companies in Hong
Kong. He joined CITIC Pacific limited as General Manager,
Finance in 1994 and later became the Executive Director and Deputy
Managing Director of the company responsible for the Group's
financial management, accounting and treasury functions. Mr. Chang
also served as the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer
of HKC (Holdings) Limited; Executive Director and Vice Chairman of
China Renewable Energy Investment Limited; Alternate
Director on the board of Cathay Pacific Airways Limited and
Independent Non-Executive Director of Pou Sheng International
(Holdings) Limited, among other roles. Mr. Chang started his career
after graduating from George Mason
University business school in 1984 and joined the New York
Office of KPMG. He became a partner of the firm specializing in the
financial services industry and served as the Director of the
Chinese Practice. Mr. Chang served as a certified public accountant
in the State of New York and
member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants,
Chartered Global Management Accountants and the Hong Kong Institute
of Certified Public Accountants.
Mr. Yan Zhuang joined the
Canadian Solar management team in 2009 after initially joining the
Company as an independent director in 2007. Over the past 11 years,
he has served various leadership roles, most recently as President
and Chief Operating Officer, and previously as Acting Chief
Executive Officer, Senior VP and Chief Commercial Officer, and VP
of Global Sales and Marketing. Mr. Zhuang has been instrumental in
Canadian Solar's international expansion, building up the Company's
global brand, sales teams, business development channels and
support operations. Prior to joining Canadian Solar, Mr. Zhuang
brought over 20 years' experience, running his own business
startups as well as serving in a number of leadership roles in business development and
strategy, corporate branding, and sales and marketing in
multinational companies, including as Asia Pacific regional director of marketing
planning at Motorola Inc. and regional head of Asia at Hands-on Mobile Inc., a global media
and entertainment company. Mr. Zhuang holds two Master of Science
degrees in Applied Statistics from the University of Alberta and in Marketing Management
from the University of Guelph.
Mr. Guangchun Zhang served as
Canadian Solar's Chief Operations (Manufacturing) Officer since
2012 and has over 18 years of experience in the solar photovoltaic
industry. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Zhang worked for
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd, as senior vice president for
research and development and industrialization of manufacturing
technology since 2005. From 1994 to 2005, Mr. Zhang worked at the
Centre for Photovoltaic Engineering at the University of New South Wales in Australia and Pacific Solar Pty. Limited. Mr.
Zhang was an associate professor in Shandong Technology University
in China from 1982 to 1994. Mr.
Zhang received his bachelor's degree from the School of Electronic
Engineering at Shandong Industrial Institute.
Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and
CEO of Canadian Solar, commented, "I am very pleased to welcome
Leslie to both Boards of Directors, as he brings exceptional
expertise on global and Asian financial markets, critical to
Canadian Solar and our MSS business as we prepare for the
China listing and future growth. I
would also like to congratulate Yan and Guangchun in their new
roles in CSI Solar. Both colleagues have been instrumental in the
Company's development over the past many years and I have no doubt
that their contributions will take Canadian Solar and CSI Solar to
new heights."
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Canadian Solar was founded in 2001 in Canada and is one of the world's largest solar
power companies. It is a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic
modules and provider of solar energy solutions and has a
geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale solar power
projects in various stages of development. Over the past 19 years,
Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 46 GW of
premium-quality, solar photovoltaic modules to customers in over
150 countries. Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies
in the solar industry, having been publicly listed on NASDAQ since
2006. For additional information about the Company, follow Canadian
Solar on LinkedIn or visit www.canadiansolar.com.
Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking
statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially. These statements
are made under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can
identify forward-looking statements by such terms as "believes,"
"expects," "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," the negative of
these terms, or other comparable terminology. Factors that could
cause actual results to differ include general business and
economic conditions and the state of the solar industry;
governmental support for the deployment of solar power; future
available supplies of high-purity silicon; demand for end-use
products by consumers and inventory levels of such products in the
supply chain; changes in demand from significant customers; changes
in demand from major markets such as Japan, the U.S., India and China; changes in customer order patterns;
changes in product mix; capacity utilization; level of competition;
pricing pressure and declines in average selling prices; delays in
new product introduction; delays in utility-scale project approval
process; delays in utility-scale project construction; delays in
the completion of project sales; delays in the process of
qualifying to list the MSS subsidiary in the PRC; continued success
in technological innovations and delivery of products with the
features customers demand; shortage in supply of materials or
capacity requirements; availability of financing; exchange rate
fluctuations; litigation and other risks as described in the
Company's SEC filings, including its annual report on Form 20-F
filed on April 28, 2020. Although the
Company believes that the expectations reflected in the
forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee
future results, level of activity, performance, or achievements.
Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements. All information provided in this press release is as of
today's date, unless otherwise stated, and Canadian Solar
undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required
under applicable law.
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SOURCE Canadian Solar Inc.