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Pleasanton businessman Joseph Desmond has been named senior vice president of government affairs and communications for BrightSource Energy, a solar thermal technology company in Oakland.

He will have charge of communications, marketing and government and regulatory affairs

BrightSource Energy, a privately held company with operations in the U.S. and Israel, develops and sells solar thermal power systems to utilities and industrial companies.

Prior to joining BrightSource, Desmond served as an executive vice president at Ice Energy, Inc. and was also a senior vice president of external affairs at NorthernStar Natural Gas. He was the Deputy Secretary of Energy for the State Resources Agency under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, where he also served as chairman of the California Energy Commission and undersecretary for Energy Affairs.

Prior to public service, Desmond spent four years as president and CEO of Infotility, Inc., president and CEO of Electronic Lighting, Inc., and vice president of Parke Industries.

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3 Comments

  2. I don’t know. Them there kinna companies sound like they might be goverment supported with my tax dollars. Solar thermal? Hmph. Shouldn’t’ve I been asked about it since as a taxpayer I’m his boss?

  4. Senior Vice-President of Government Affairs….wow! that’s the main job for the company. Gotta keep those taxpayer dollars coming in the form of Obama gifts, grants, loans, special treatment catagories…probably some TARP STIMULUS $$ TOO, We know every day is Christmas for solar companies
    We certainly want them to continure receiving special treatment not available to all the other struggling smaller companies that have folded or are about to…,….more ‘green’ company preference.

  5. I do wish the company well, since they are being logical by going with towers..the only sensible options. Towers make so much more sense than covering all our land surface with panels, since we’re not making any more land ! !
    I only hope VP Desmond’s government connection doesn’t mean spending all his time on securing ‘government’ money. That could be the kiss of death. Everygreen Solar just filed bankruptcy, when as a startup stock flew to $108. in Jan ’08.
    I wish BrightSource well, and hope the towers are building ‘a better mousetrap’…we could all win. Success comes with being better and smarter in the marketplace, not becoming dependent on government handouts and just wind up topheavy. The company focus should be on the better mousetrap, I’m puzzled about the need for a fulltime ‘government’ entanglement position.
    Solyndra’s rooftop is OK, but I wish failure to anybody who intends to blanket our land with panels, which is up there on the stupidity scale…. with putting corn in our cars which has proven the least efficient of all other plant & grass BIO sources.

  6. China is eating our lunch in manufacturing jobs in solar, wind, and other green technologies. They can’t hire enough workers to keep their factories staffed. The Chinese government subsidizes this using the profits derived from selling us junk which we buy purchased by going into credit card and/or home equity debt since we don’t really produce anything anymore and can hardly maintain our personal income let alone personal income growth. We have high unemployment and they have none.

    So, where are the jobs going to come from? Most all American companies are either sitting our their cash horde, or investing it outside the US… Like in one example I can attest to is a $32 MM plant being built in the Phillipines. Everyone can’t be in health care, government employment, or retail and services. That’s not where a nation’s wealth derives.

    So, don’t be to quick to jump on this government affairs position. You may end up being fools – like as if the space race during the 60s had no benefit to our economy or the build out of the interstate system in the 50s was a waste of taxpayer’s money.

    The only thing manufactured in the US these days are Tea Party crises.

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