Energy Industry Veteran Alex Thornton Joins Linux Foundation Energy as Executive Director to Drive Next Phase of Decarbonizing Energy Systems Through Open Source
Thornton will focus on recruiting new contributors from across all energy stakeholders while growing the open source tech stack needed to complete the energy transition
SAN FRANCISCO – December 12, 2023 – LF Energy, the open source foundation focused on harnessing the power of collaborative software and hardware technologies to decarbonize our global economies, is pleased to announce Alex Thornton has joined the foundation as Executive Director.
Thornton brings a wealth of experience in the field of renewable energy, most recently serving as CTO at Cleartrace, a leading carbon and energy management software company that provides actionable data companies need to proactively decarbonize their operations. A graduate of Penn State University, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Thornton previously held senior positions at innovative energy technology companies including Locus Energy and Sunrun. He additionally serves as an advisor to the board of directors of Bodhi, a software company focused on improving the experience of using solar energy for consumers.
LF Energy was founded by Dr. Shuli Goodman in 2018, who served as Executive Director until her passing in early 2023 following a battle with breast cancer. Arpit Joshipura, the Linux Foundation’s General Manager of Networking and Orchestration, served as Interim Executive Director prior to Thornton’s appointment.
“The challenge of and opportunity for transformation in the energy sector is immense, and requires the participation of a large and vibrant community,” said Thornton. “I am grateful to the work of my predecessor, the late Dr. Shuli Goodman, in building this community from nothing, and creating a powerful ecosystem to collaboratively drive the energy transition forward.”
“Power systems are incredibly complex, with a huge amount of legacy infrastructure that needs to work alongside renewables and other new technologies,” commented Joshipura. “The LF Energy board of directors took a methodical approach in the search for a new Executive Director to ensure we located someone highly qualified and respected who understands the scope of the challenge, as well as the opportunity presented by open source to address it. I strongly believe we have achieved that goal with Alex.”
“LF Energy has laid the foundations of a community with active participants from utilities, vendors, technology innovators, researchers, regulators, and other stakeholders,” continued Thornton. “I look forward to working with the entire LF Energy team to take the work done to date by this community to the next level. By growing the foundation’s membership amongst all energy stakeholders while expanding our ecosystem of hosted open source energy projects, we can strengthen the impact the community is having on energy systems and decarbonization globally.”
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About LF Energy
A first-of-its-kind initiative, LF Energy provides a 21st century plan of action to solve climate change through open frameworks, reference architectures and a support ecosystem of complementary projects. Strategic Members include Alliander, Google, Microsoft, RTE and Shell, in addition to over 60 General and Associate Members from across the energy industry, technology, academia, and government. Find further information here: https://www.lfenergy.org
