Shawn (Xiaohua) Qu
Dr. Shawn (Xiaohua) Qu founded Canadian Solar Inc. in Guelph, Ontario, Canada in 2001 and has been the chairman and chief executive officer of our company since then. He is also the Chairman of CSI Solar, and has been serving as a director of CSI Solar since September 2020. Canadian Solar went public on the Nasdaq in 2006 and is one of the world’s largest solar technology and renewable energy companies, with approximately 17,000 employees globally. We are a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules, provider of solar energy and battery energy storage solutions, and developer of utility-scale solar power and battery energy storage projects with a geographically diversified pipeline in various stages of development. Over the past 23 years, our products and services have benefited thousands of customers in over 160 countries, and provided clean electricity to millions of households. Prior to founding Canadian Solar, Dr. Qu worked at ATS Automation Tooling Systems in Canada and its subsidiary Photowatt International in France. Before that, Dr. Qu was a Research Scientist at Ontario Hydro (now Ontario Power Generation). Dr. Qu received the EY Sustainability Excellence Award 2023 for individuals and was named an Innovator on the TIME100 Climate List of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action of 2024. Dr. Qu received a BSc degree from Tsinghua University, an MSc degree in Physics from the University of Manitoba and a PhD degree in Materials Science from the University of Toronto. Dr. Qu continued working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto, focusing on semiconductor optical devices and photovoltaic cells. Dr. Qu has been a fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering since 2019.