Advancing Towards Full Commercialization of WindFloat® Technology, Principle Power Expands Executive Leadership Team

Emeryville, CA; Aix-en-Provence, France; Lisbon, Portugal, October 1, 2019 – As Principle Power advances towards the full commercialization of its flagship WindFloat® technology, the company today announced the appointment of four new members to its Executive Leadership Team, including a new Chief Technical Officer Steven Barras, Chief Operating Officer Cornelius Druecker, Chief Commercial Officer Patrick Lefebvre and Chief Financial Officer Felipe Drukaroff who will help usher in an era of global growth. 

“Principle Power is moving quickly into an exciting new stage of global deployment of our WindFloat® technology. We have been preparing for this stage by continually investing in our technology and engineering capabilities and, with our experienced global team, building the commercial strategy that will bring our pipeline of projects into full operation,” said Principle Power CEO João Metelo. “As part of our strategy for global growth, we are delighted to welcome these talented professionals who bring external engineering and business expertise, and decades of experience in the energy sector, including offshore wind. They are the right team to complement our existing in-house expertise and help lead the company into full commercialization and growth.”

Principle Power has several floating wind projects that will be operational in the next two years, such as the WindFloat Atlantic project, which has begun to be installed off the coast of Viana do Castelo and is expected to be operational by the end of 2019. The WindFloat Atlantic project will have 25MW of installed capacity, providing enough energy to supply the equivalent of 60,000 users each year. Following WindFloat Atlantic, the company’s Kincardine project off the coast of Aberdeen will be fully installed in 2020 and its Golfe du Lion project in France is slated to come online in 2021.

The company is also at the end of a 5-year integration process with the engineering company Marine, Innovation and Technology (MI&T). With the integration now completed, the two founders of MI&T, Dominique Roddier and Christian Cermelli are leaving Principle Power to pursue other professional opportunities. Steven Barras will replace Dominique Roddier as Chief Technical Officer and Cornelius Druecker will take over most of the responsibilities of Christian Cermelli in his role as Chief Operating Officer.

“We are immensely thankful to Dominique and Christian for their significant contribution to Principle Power over the past five years, especially for their important role in paving the way for the success of WindFloat technology,” said Principle Power CEO João Metelo.

About Principle Power’s New Executive Leadership Team Members 

• Chief Technical Officer Steven Barras is an engineer with 25 years of diverse experience in the Oil & Gas/Offshore/Subsea industry in key technical, technology, and strategy areas. His expertise includes the development and implementation of deep-water floating platform solutions, including Spars, TLPs, FPSOs, and semi-submersibles, encompassing the platform, mooring, and riser systems and covering the design, construction, and installation of these systems.
• Chief Operating Officer Cornelius Druecker is an engineer who comes to Principle Power with two decades of experience in offshore construction and project management in the Oil & Gas and wind space. Prior to joining Principle Power, Cornelius was the Senior Vice President Project Management of Senvion. Earlier he built Senvion’s Offshore Project Management area and had overall responsibility for the strategic development of the Offshore Wind business.
• Chief Commercial Officer Patrick Lefebvre joins Principle Power with a 25-year development and sales track record in the power business, principally in grid connection and wind energy. In the last decade, Patrick has held senior management roles across North and East Europe for two global wind turbine manufacturers. He led several new market entrances, winning projects for global utilities and IPPs, also being active in the development stage to secure transactions.
• Chief Financial Officer Felipe Drukaroff has worked for over 18 years in a variety of leadership roles within Finance, including SEC reporting, corporate finance, controllership, and corporate development, over a nearly 8-year career with LyondellBasell Industries, one of the largest petrochemical companies in the world. Earlier in his career, Felipe spent over a decade at PricewaterhouseCoopers in both Europe and the USA.

About Principle Power

Principle Power is a global energy technology company that enables solutions for harvesting the full potential of the world’s renewable energy resources, with a focus on unlocking the best offshore wind sites previously inaccessible due to water depths or bottom conditions. Principle Power’s proven technology, the WindFloat – a floating wind turbine foundation – enables a change in paradigm for the industry in terms of reduced costs and risks for the installation and operations of offshore wind turbines. Principle Power sells the WindFloat as a technology solution and acts as service provider to developers, utilities, and independent power producers, being present from the overall system design throughout fabrication, installation, and commissioning, and providing support to customers during the operation life cycle of the platform.
Principle Power's mission is to make the WindFloat the most competitive, safe, reliable, and environmentally friendly technology for deep-water offshore wind projects while enabling global offshore wind markets to reach their full potential.