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HelioVolt Corp of Austin, TX, USA which is moving to commercial application of its transfer printing process for copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cells, has supplemented its board of directors with E. Kenneth Pentimonti, principal at Paladin Capital of Washington DC, and Ronald D. Bernal, partner at Sequel Venture Partners of Boulder, CO. Both participated as investors in HelioVolt’s recent $101m Series B round of financing, which will be used to help fund global scale-up.

Bernal and Pentimonti will join CEO and founder Dr BJ Stanbery, as well as venture partner Jimmy Treybig and general partner Scott Sandell of New Enterprise Associates and Builder Homesite CEO Tim Costello on HelioVolt’s board.

“As we move beyond proof of concept to commercial production in the coming year, Ken and Ron bring the invaluable market insight, strategic relationships and operational know-how necessary to successfully translate a promising solar technology into a world-class commercial enterprise,” says Stanbery.

At Paladin Capital, Ken Pentimonti guides private equity investment in early-stage companies. He has extensive experience with the Paladin Homeland Security Fund, where he is involved in Paladin’s investment activities in alternative energy and renewable fuels.

Bernal brings diverse and extensive expertise in scaling operations at high-growth companies. Prior to Sequel, Bernal was a venture partner at Sutter Hill Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s oldest-established venture capital firms. Previously, he was VP of operations at Cisco Systems and senior VP and general manager at Silicon Graphics.

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Visit: www.heliovolt.com