Company Announcement - Thorsten Ronge is the Managing Director of SMA Solar Technology, South Africa; a leading global specialist for photovoltaic system technology. He holds a Masters of Business and Engineering from Steinbeis University in Berlin and a degree in Environmental Engineering from Bremen Polytechnic in Bremen, Germany.  He also served as deputy President of the Berlin Solar Network in the past.

Thorsten has 10 years experience in the global solar industry and has spent more than 20 years working and studying across five continents. Prior to taking over as Managing Director at SMA Solar Technology South Africa, Thorsten established the SMA factory also housing the Solar Academy in Cape Town, South Africa, and still acts as its General Manager. This expertise followed two years as SMA’s Director Global Product Management, where he led an international team of eight solar experts while based in Germany. Prior to this, Thorsten spent five-years at INVENTUX Solar Technologies, a start-up  founded in 2007, where he served leadership roles in Marketing, Communications and Product Management. He was also responsible for growing the business, recruiting and overseeing nine sales staff across France, Italy and Spain to service its international clients. 

Thorsten began his career in solar technology in 2005 as the Product Manager for SCHUECO International’s Solar division responsible for the North America market. This followed project-work in quality management and process engineering at SCHUECO, as part of his MBE program. He went on to lead this German multinational’s market entry strategy into the USA and developed its portfolio in photovoltaics, solar thermal and BoS components. This success led to a broader portfolio at its headquarters in Bielefeld, Germany where he served as Head of Product Management and Technical Marketing in the solar division with a team of 14 employees. 

Prior to focusing his engineering skills on the solar industry, Thorsten enjoyed a two-year foray in consulting and academia, serving, amongst other projects, as sales manager for Steinbeis University’s Executive MBA and MBE programmes in Berlin.  While studying, Thorsten worked during the summer as a logistics and environmental manager at Kings Bay AS in Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen in the Arctic. He also served as a LIDAR operator for the INCA field campaigns of the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research. This project enabled Thorsten to work on international environmental campaigns in Prestwick, Scotland; Punta Arenas, Chile; and aboard the German research vessel `Polarstern´.

Strengths
Thorsten’s strengths lie in leadership, environmental management,  international marketing and sales. He is a skilled communicator and seasoned global team player who thrives on working in complex environments where his pragmatism, cultural sensitivity and agile thinking propel business success.

Thorsten naturally excels in leadership roles where his ability to chart foreign territory, negotiate and collaborate enables market access and the creation of new opportunities. 

Over the last twenty years, Thorsten has lived, worked and studied across five continents. He is married with two sons and enjoys reading, travelling and experiencing foreign cultures. He is an avid sportsman and former basketball coach and player. Says Thorsten: “When the chance came to lead SMA in South Africa, I did not need to think twice and my family did not need much convincing.” South Africa’s favourable environmental conditions, the South African Government’s policy framework for renewable energy and the growing energy demand amidst power cuts, enable SMA to make a solid contribution to socio-economic development. In South Africa, Thorsten leads a team of 25 managers,technicians and production staff. By meeting local content requirements for multinationals, SMA will help drive job creation, provide ongoing local employee education, transfer knowledge and promote engineering skills development.

Education
Although born and raised in Bremen, Germany, Thorsten graduated from Carson City High School in Nevada, USA in 1992. He returned to Germany and graduated from the German High School, Boerdestrasse Gymnasium in Bremen in 1995. Thereafter, Thorsten completed a year of military service in the German Air Force.

Between 1996 and 2000, Thorsten studied environmental technology at Bremen Polytechnic, Germany and completed a semester programme in environmental technology at Massey University in New Zealand. In 2001, Thorsten embarked on his Masters in Business and Engineering degree at Steinbeis University in Berlin and completed modules at Kelley School of Business (Indiana University, USA) and the University of Kitakyushu (Japan). He completed his master’s thesis on: “Structurisation of processes to ensure quality during the production of solar collectors and PV modules”.

Challenges
“I love the challenge of growing and building up a business organically and the learning it provides in different contexts. To lead a multinational team to achieve its goals in a new host market, requires sensitivity to the context, a healthy dose of pragmatism and a can-do spirit to push the limits.” Thorsten enjoys motivating a team towards a vision and aligning everyone behind it. For this, it is necessary to have good communication skills and be a team player. He says. “I am more like the captain on the field than the coach at the sideline.”

Values
Thorsten values integrity, candor, open communication and a work environment based on trust and fairness. He believes that people are the most important factor in any business.”It is a leader’s job to grow a winning team and keep it motivated,” he says.

Brand leadership
As a world market leader with an established brand, SMA seeks to acquire a large market share across all segments - across utility scale, commercial, residential, off-grid and fuel save applications. SMA has sophisticated solutions for each of the segments and caters to customers in Sub-saharan Africa with a strong focus on Southern and Eastern Africa. To maintain its position as innovation and quality leader, SMA provides continuous education to further employees’ knowledge and enable them to interact globally. Most of the training will happen locally via The Solar Academy, shortly being opened in Cape Town. This will serve as a knowledge hub for customers and employees alike to improve solar skills. Many of SMA’s customers are start-ups in South Africa’s emerging green economy and they lack mentorship and expertise to engage at a global industry level.

“It is important that we also educate the public to make solar power their first choice for energy provision to grow and sustain the industry’s absorptive capacity. SMA will support its customers in public awareness and messaging,” he says.

Lessons Learned
Thorsten has grown through the successes and failures he has experienced. He cites the example of how he was part of closing down the start-up INVENTUX due to market conditions, after it took five years to help grow the business and its 250 employees.  “During the times of downturn it was hard to communicate openly to my employees as some information was confidential and would have roused more fears of losing their jobs. Looking back I was not a good leader during these months and lacked the candor I have since acquired.” Today, he is embracing the challenge of leading a global solar company in a developing market with more than 300 days of sunlight a year. He recognises significant potential for South Africa to achieve its goal of 8GW of solar power by 2030.

He considers it an opportunity of a lifetime to be part of the growth of the African renewable energy sector, especially when decentralised energy supply from photovoltaics are playing a major role. “I experience South Africa as an open-minded culture with a positive business attitude, especially since the solar industry is just about to take off and it is still a rather small and informal community.” He says that from a cultural and ecological perspective the diversity is amazing. The notion of “rainbow nation” truly fits South Africa.