CdTe innovator, First Solar has appointed Georges Antoun as Chief Operating Officer.

Reporting to Antoun will be Tymen DeJong, Senior Vice President of Global Operations; Raffi Garabedian, Chief Technology Officer; and Tom Kuster, Vice President of Product Management and Customer Support.

"Georges brings a depth of operational leadership experience that will help First Solar execute its strategy," says Jim Hughes, First Solar CEO.

Most recently Antoun was a venture partner at Technology Crossover Ventures, a private equity and venture firm. Prior to joining TCV, he was the head of Product Area IP & Broadband Networks for Ericsson. He joined Ericsson in 2007 when Ericsson acquired Redback Networks, where he had served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Operations.

After the acquisition, Antoun was promoted to CEO of Redback. Prior to Redback, he spent five years at Cisco Systems, where he served as Vice President of Worldwide Systems Engineering and Field Marketing, Vice President of Worldwide Optical Operations, and Vice President of Carrier Sales. He has also held senior management positions at Newbridge Networks and Nynex (now Verizon Communications), where he was part of its Science and Technology Division.

Antoun earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a master's degree in information systems engineering from NYU-Poly.