Board and Management

Board of Directors

Shawn (Xiaohua) Qu

Shawn Qu
President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Shawn Qu founded Canadian Solar Inc. in October 2001 and has been its Chief Executive Officer and President since October 2001. Prior to founding Canadian Solar, Inc., Dr. Qu worked at Automation Tooling Systems Inc (ATS), Cambridge, Ontario Canada from 1998 to 2001, where he performed various responsibilities at ATS and at its subsidiaries in the solar power business, Matrix and Photowatt International S.A. including Director for Silicon; Procurement, Director for Strategic Planning and Business Development and Technical Vice President (Asia Pacific) of Photowatt International S.A. From 1996 to 1998, Dr. Qu served as a Research Scientist at Ontario Hydro (currently Ontario Power Generation), where he worked as a process leader in the development of Spheral Solar technology, a proprietary solar technology which Ontario Hydro acquired from Texas Instruments. Under Dr. Qu’s leadership, Canadian Solar Inc. became a publicly listed company on NASDAQ in 2006 and has grown into one of the largest photovoltaic solar product manufacturers and solar power project developers in the world. Canadian Solar Inc. now has delivered accumulatively more than 59GW of solar modules to thousands of customers in more than 150 countries. The Company and its subsidiaries have also connected accumulatively more than 6.1GW of solar power plants to the grid. These solar power plants are mainly located in Canada, the United States of America, Japan, China, Brazil, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom.

Harry E. Ruda

harry
Independent Director

Dr. Harry E. Ruda has been serving as an independent director of the Company since July 2011. He is the Director of the Centre for Advanced Nanotechnology, the Stanley Meek Chair in Nanotechnology and Professor of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada. His research interests focus on the fabrication and modeling of semiconductor nanostructures with applications in the fields of optoelectronics, energy and sensing. Dr. Ruda is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and holds a PhD in Semiconductor Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is Chair of the Research and Development Committee.

Andrew (Luen Cheung) Wong

andrew
Independent Director

Mr. Andrew (Luen Cheung) Wong has been serving as an independent director of the Company since August 2014. He has also served as a director of Chubb Life Insurance Company Ltd. since 2008, and is an independent director and the vice-chairman of Huazhong In-vehicle Holdings Company Limited, which is listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Previously, Mr. Wong served as a director of China CITIC Bank Corporation Limited, a director of Intime Retail (Group) Co. Ltd., and a director of China Minseng Bank, all three are companies listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. He also has held senior positions at the Royal Bank of Canada, the Union Bank of Switzerland, Citicorp International Limited (a merchant banking arm of Citibank), Hang Seng Bank Limited and DBS Bank Limited, Hong Kong. Mr. Wong holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) degree from the University of Hong Kong and a Master of Philosophy degree from Hong Kong Buddhist College. He is Chair of the Compensation Committee.

Lap Tat Arthur Wong

arthur
Independent Director
Mr. Arthur (Lap Tat) Wong has served as an independent director of the Company since March 2019.  Mr. Wong currently serves as an independent director and chair of the audit committees of Microvast Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MVST) and China Maple Leaf Educational Systems Limited (HKSE: 1317).  From 2008 to 2018, Mr. Wong served as the Chief Financial Officer of Asia New Energy Holdings Pte. Ltd, Nobao Renewable Energy Holding Ltd., GreenTree Inns Hotel Management Group, Inc. and Beijing Radio Cultural Transmission Company Limited, sequentially. From 1982 to 2008, Mr. Wong held various positions with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Deloitte) in Hong Kong, San Jose and Beijing, with his last position as a partner in Deloitte’s Beijing office. Mr. Wong received a Higher Diploma in Accountancy from Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Economics from University of San Francisco. He is a fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants; a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants; and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Lauren C. Templeton

LAUREN
Independent Director
Ms. Lauren Templeton has been serving as an independent director of the Company since January 2020. Ms. Templeton is the founder and President of Templeton & Phillips Capital Management, LLC, a global investing boutique located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She is also an independent director and member of the Audit Committee of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, a financial holding company engaged in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance and associated investment management, and its publicly-traded subsidiary, Fairfax India Holdings Corporation. Ms. Templeton serves on a number of non-profit organizations, including the John Templeton Foundation, the Templeton World Charities Foundation and the Templeton Religion Trust. She also serves on the Board of Trustees at the Baylor School, the Board of Trustees at the Bright School and the Board of Overseers at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Ms. Templeton is the former President of the Southeastern Hedge Fund Association, based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also the co-author of "Investing the Templeton Way: The Market Beating Strategies of Value Investing's Legendary Bargain Hunter", which has been translated into nine languages. Ms. Templeton holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from the University of the South, Sewanee.

Karl E. Olsoni

karl
Independent Director

Mr. Karl E. Olsoni has been serving as an independent director of the Company since June 2020 and was a strategic advisor to the Board of Directors between January 2020 and June 2020. Mr. Olsoni has more than 30 years of international energy sector experience. He is currently an Operating Partner with Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure fund manager investing in clean energy infrastructure in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. He is also a Partner with the kRoad group of companies which invests in battery storage, waste transformation and e-mobility. He previously served as Managing Director of the Clean Energy and Infrastructure team at Capital Dynamics where he and his partners raised and invested approximately $1 billion in clean energy infrastructure projects. Mr. Olsoni was formerly Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of PPM Energy Inc. (now Iberdrola Renewables/Avangrid), a US-based energy company, and Chief Financial Officer of Koch Materials, Inc., a unit of the Koch Industries, Inc. Before that, he spent 16 years with the Southern Company where he was part of the original management team that built the Southern Company's independent power and merchant energy business (Southern Energy, Inc., later Mirant, Inc. and NRG Energy, Inc.) into one of the largest independent power producers in the world. Mr. Olsoni holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from George Washington University and an MBA from the College of William and Mary.

Leslie Li Hsien Chang

Chang
Independent Director

Mr. Leslie Li Hsien Chang has been serving as an independent director of the Company since September 2020. Mr. 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.

Yan Zhuang

yan
Director

Mr. Yan Zhuang has been serving as a director of the Company since September 2020 and is also President of CSI Solar, the Company’s Module and System Solutions subsidiary. Mr. 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.

Huifeng Chang

Huifeng
Director

Dr. Chang has been serving as Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer of Canadian Solar since May 2016, and as a director of the Board since September 2020. Before joining Canadian Solar, Dr. Chang brought over 17 years' experience in capital markets, corporate finance, investment and risk management, including as Co-Head of Sales and Trading of the U.S. subsidiary of China International Capital Corporation (CICC), CEO of CSOP Asset Management Limited based in Hong Kong, VP of Citigroup Equity Proprietary Investments in New York, and quantitative developer for derivatives pricing and risk modeling software at Kamakura Corporation based in Hawaii. Dr. Chang holds a PhD in Soil Physics, an MBA from the University of Hawaii and a Master of Science degree from Academia Sinica.

Management

Shawn (Xiaohua) Qu

qu
President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Shawn Qu founded Canadian Solar Inc. in October 2001 and has been its Chief Executive Officer and President since October 2001. Prior to founding Canadian Solar, Inc., Dr. Qu worked at Automation Tooling Systems Inc (ATS), Cambridge, Ontario Canada from 1998 to 2001, where he performed various responsibilities at ATS and at its subsidiaries in the solar power business, Matrix and Photowatt International S.A. including Director for Silicon; Procurement, Director for Strategic Planning and Business Development and Technical Vice President (Asia Pacific) of Photowatt International S.A. From 1996 to 1998, Dr. Qu served as a Research Scientist at Ontario Hydro (currently Ontario Power Generation), where he worked as a process leader in the development of Spheral Solar technology, a proprietary solar technology which Ontario Hydro acquired from Texas Instruments. Under Dr. Qu’s leadership, Canadian Solar Inc. became a publicly listed company on NASDAQ in 2006 and has grown into one of the largest photovoltaic solar product manufacturers and solar power project developers in the world. Canadian Solar Inc. now has delivered accumulatively more than 59GW of solar modules to thousands of customers in more than 150 countries. The Company and its subsidiaries have also connected accumulatively more than 6.1GW of solar power plants to the grid. These solar power plants are mainly located in Canada, the United States of America, Japan, China, Brazil, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom.

Huifeng Chang

Dr. Huifeng Chang
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Dr. Chang has been serving as Senior VP and Chief Financial Officer of Canadian Solar since May 2016, and as a director of the Board since September 2020. Before joining Canadian Solar, Dr. Chang brought over 17 years' experience in capital markets, corporate finance, investment and risk management, including as Co-Head of Sales and Trading of the U.S. subsidiary of China International Capital Corporation (CICC), CEO of CSOP Asset Management Limited based in Hong Kong, VP of Citigroup Equity Proprietary Investments in New York, and quantitative developer for derivatives pricing and risk modeling software at Kamakura Corporation based in Hawaii. Dr. Chang holds a PhD in Soil Physics, an MBA from the University of Hawaii and a Master of Science degree from Academia Sinica.

Ismael Guerrero Arias

arias
Corporate Vice President and President of the Energy business

Mr. Ismael Guerrero has been serving as Corporate Vice President and President of the Energy business since July 2019, and has over 15 years’ experience in the solar energy sector. Before re-joining Canadian Solar, Mr. Guerrero served as President and Head of Origination at TerraForm Global and CEO of SunEdison South East Asia. He also previously served as Canadian Solar’s Vice President of Global Projects and was instrumental in developing the Company’s global project development pipeline, including project sales, project financing and EPC activities. Mr. Guerrero holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Seville, was a graduate student at Yale University and graduated from the General Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Yan Zhuang

yan
President, CSI Solar

Mr. Yan Zhuang has been serving as President of CSI Solar, the Company’s Module and System Solutions subsidiary, since September 2020 and is a director on the Canadian Solar board. Mr. 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.

Guangchun Zhang

guangchun
Senior Vice President, Operations and Technology, CSI Solar

Mr. Guangchun Zhang has been serving as Senior Vice President of Operations and Technology of CSI Solar, the Company’s Module and System Solutions subsidiary, since September 2020. Previously, Mr. Zhang served as Canadian Solar's Chief Operations (Manufacturing) Officer since 2012 and he 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.