World of Solar Thermal - Solar Thermal Energy Daily News, Events, Companies, Products, Jobs and more : GC Welcomes New Dawn in Solar Thermal Power

GC Welcomes New Dawn in Solar Thermal Power
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Pangea on 10/12/2009 22:00:00
 
Name and title: Debra Olson, executive vice president, general counsel and
corporate secretary, Ausra Inc.
Age: 48
Company profile: Ausra, a privately held company based in Palo Alto, Calif.,
develops and builds solar thermal power plants. The plants use arrays of mirrors
to reflect and concentrate sunlight to boil water. The resulting steam drives
conventional turbines while the heated water is useful in many industrial
processes. Ausra took its name from the Lithuanian goddess of the dawn, but it
also reflects the company's roots in Australia, where its core technology, the
compact linear fresnel reflector solar collector and steam generation system,
was conceived in the early 1990s at Sydney University. Ausra announced in
September that it has received $40 million in funding from Silicon Valley
venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.
"We've developed cutting-edge solar thermal technology that earned the backing
of significant venture capitalists, mostly in Silicon Valley but also
internationally," Olson said.
Unlike most solar electric applications that are small and dispersed, typically
on rooftops, Ausra builds relatively large generating plants that tie into
electrical grids. The company has a project in the testing and commissioning
phase in Australia, another breaking ground this year in Portugal and is seeking
permits for a plant in central California.
"There is a very large, strong industrial market for electricity and steam
generated with no [carbon] emissions," Olson said. "We can also make existing
power plants more efficient by providing steam from solar that would otherwise
have to be produced burning coal or oil."
Legal team and outside counsel: Two in-house attorneys, both focused on
intellectual property work, report to Olson. "Anything other than [intellectual
property], I manage that work," she said. Olson calls on Fenwick & West of
Mountain View, Calif., for "the mainstream, going-concern sort of work" such as
corporate governance and finance and for assistance with intellectual property.
Morrison & Foerster is available for litigation. "We don't have a lot of
litigation, I am happy to say."
Daily duties: "I am very much part of the executive team, but I probably move
from the business side to the legal side 20 or 30 times a day. I can be tracking
the stimulus bill from a macroeconomic point of view for the industry, then
dealing with a [human resources] issue," Olson said.
"I want to practice law proactively, doing the planning and structuring to avoid
legal issues or deal with them more efficiently," she said. "I am primarily
responsible for the legal area, but I have to be clear what is happening in the
business and how I can move it forward. How does legal support the business
plan? We want to avoid problems and use legal to a competitive advantage."
Route to present position: Olson graduated from Oregon State University in 1982
with a major in business administration, but her curiosity about science and
technology led her into so many classes that she earned a minor in general
science. Those paired interests have shaped her legal career since she joined
the former Bogle & Gates in Seattle as a litigator following graduation from
Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., in 1986.
"I really like science and technology, and in the course of litigating cases I
realized I really liked putting things together instead of taking them apart,"
said Olson. "I moved into transactional work focused on deals held up on an
environmental component. There were a lot of environmental unknowns at that
time, so I developed a good niche. I became more and more involved with client
business teams, and I liked that. I was drawn to be part of a business team more
than being in a law firm."
Olson left her partnership at Bogle in 1999 to move in-house with Inovise
Medical Inc., a medical technology startup during the heady years of the
technology bubble. "There was a great management and technology team. It was a
terrific couple of years, but that was during the dot-com bust, so that was not
a growth pattern."
Olson next went to work at Calpine Corp., among the largest independent power
producers with a substantial inventory of renewable geothermal power plants, as
senior vice president and assistant general counsel.
"Calpine was my first holistic energy experience," Olson said. "Energy and
environment are closely related. Energy was emerging as a societal issue and
Calpine was a tremendous opportunity."
As Olson became immersed in the energy business, she gave more thought both to
her future and the future of the energy economy. "My choice was either stay more
with the fossil fuel companies or move into renewables," she said.
Her deep interest in renewable energy brought her to Vestas American Wind
Technology Inc. as vice president and general counsel. Vestas, a Danish company
eager to expand in the United States, is the world's largest producer of wind
turbines.
"[Vestas was] interested because I have a traditional energy background but was
able to work in a dynamic development. I was the customer at Calpine that Vestas
was dealing with in the U.S. I helped them scale up to take advantage of the
tremendous market opportunity here in the U.S."
The desire to help yet another emerging renewable energy company prompted Olson
to leave Vestas for her position at Ausra in July 2008.
"It was a difficult decision. Vestas is a terrific company," Olson said. "I was
leaving a company with great opportunity, but solar thermal is very exciting and
I am in on the ground floor as it scales up. What makes this so attractive is
the opportunity to apply my experience in law and energy at a dynamic company.
There is the intrinsic personal reward of believing you are part of the solution
to climate change and energy independence challenges. We are doing well,
hopefully, because we are committed to building a viable business while doing
good things for the country and the world."
Personal: "I am inside working so much, when I can get outside one of my escapes
is riding motorcycles," Olson said. "I like to travel, and I consume reading
material."
Olson's husband, Serge McCabe, a photographer, is forgiving of her grueling work
schedule. "It's important to have that spousal support," Olson said.