Chemical Engineer with a focus on operation and industrialization of innovative technologies. Karl Friedrich has more than 15 years of track record in highly automated PV manufacturing. As a COO at Shell Solar and as COO / VP Industrial Operations at Concentrix / Soitec Solar he built the most modern mass production facilities for silicon solar cells and for CPV modules from scratch. Realizing factories in Gelsenkirchen and Freiburg, Germany, and San Diego, USA, Karl Friedrich managed budgets of € 300 million.
Before entering into PV manufacturing business, he was an operations manager in the chemical industry, leading a production site with hundreds of tons of chemicals and related high safety and quality requirements.
Karl Friedrich received a diploma as a chemical engineer at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany.