Ascent Solar Makes Management Change

ASTI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Ascent Solar Technologies, a developer of flexible thin-film photovoltaic modules, announced that the Board and its President and CEO have mutually decided that a change of leadership presents the best path forward for the company, as it heads into the manufacturing phase of its development.

Effective September 19, Matthew Foster, its President and Chief Executive Officer, has resigned his position. Dr. Mohan Misra, Ascent Solar's Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, will serve as the company's interim President and Chief Executive Officer until a permanent replacement is found. Ascent Solar intends to initiate a search immediately, and Foster will continue in a consultant capacity focusing on global expansion and business development for a period of one year.

"Ascent Solar is transitioning from a research and development company to a manufacturing and commercially focused organization. I am pleased to have been the leader of Ascent Solar during this initial stage, and I felt that new leadership would be better at leading Ascent Solar's next phase of growth where operational and manufacturing expertise will be critical. I expect Ascent Solar to continue to grow as a leader in the thin film photovoltaics arena," Foster said.

"We thank Matt for his outstanding leadership during Ascent Solar's early and formative years," said Dr. Misra. "Under his watch, Ascent Solar has grown quickly from a private start-up company to a publicly traded company with a well-defined manufacturing and sales strategy. We are pleased that Matt has agreed to continue to support our development efforts in a consulting capacity."

Dr. Misra will begin transitioning into the role of interim President and Chief Executive Officer immediately. Dr. Misra, who has served as Ascent Solar's Chairman since October 2005 and as its Chief Strategy Officer since April 2007, previously founded and served as the chief executive officer of ITN Energy Systems, Inc. (ITN) since 1994. Ascent Solar's copper, indium, gallium, diselenide (CIGS) technology initially was developed at ITN before it was assigned and licensed to Ascent Solar. Before founding ITN in 1994, Dr. Misra spent 19 years with Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin Corp.) in the areas of material research, development and manufacturing. While at Martin Marietta, Dr. Misra worked as manager of Research and Technology (Materials and Structures), then led the company's development of long-term Materials technology strategies. He was a scientist for the Martin Marietta Solar Company's projects that developed solar thermal and concentrator-silicon photovoltaic plants. Dr. Misra has also helped develop and implement several key technologies for aerospace applications including thin-film photovoltaic, smart materials, advanced composites and lightweight structures.

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