Stuart Davies will become CEO of Ocean Renewable Power Co. on Jan. 20, 2020.

Ocean Renewable Power Co. this week announced that is has hired investor and current board member Stuart Davies to succeed Chris Sauer as the company’s CEO.

Sauer announced in December that he would be retiring after 15 years with the company he co-founded in 2004.

“I am thrilled to turn over the reins of ORPC to such a passionate, intelligent and intuitive professional,” Sauer said in a statement. “Stuart is a sophisticated leader who will expand ORPC’s business development and sales focus in the U.S., Canada and Chile, and position the company for growth and profitability.”

Davies, who joined ORPC’s board in 2019 after advising and investing in the business, will take the reins on January 20.

“I have had the great pleasure of conversing almost daily with Chris over the past 18 months,” Davies said in a statement. “And I share his passion and enthusiasm for ORPC and look forward to his continuing involvement as an advisor to the ORPC team in his retirement.”

Davies was previously chief investment officer of Global Opportunistic Credit and an investment committee member of Sankaty Advisors, where he worked for 17 years. During his time there, he served on the boards of more than 20 companies in the energy, industrial manufacturing, food, consumer product, retail and packaging industries.

Founded in 2004, ORPC has grown to 30 employees located in three countries on two continents and has become a recognized leader in the field of marine renewable energy. In 2012, the company became the first in the world to generate electricity from the ocean’s tides and deliver it to a power grid when it installed its proprietary underwater turbine in Maine’s Cobscook Bay. It reached another milestone in 2014 when it became the first in the world to generate electricity from a river’s currents and deliver it to a remote grid when it installed its technology in Alaska’s Kvichak River.

In July 2019, the company deployed its first commercial product, the RivGen Power System, in the Kvichak River to provide power to the remote Alaskan village of Igiugig. The company plans to install a second RivGen device, along with smart microgrid controls and electronics, and an energy storage system, to create a renewable energy solution that ORPC estimates will reduce the community’s diesel fuel use by 90 percent.

“We are creating the opportunity to transition remote communities off diesel power by harnessing energy from river and tidal currents using ORPC’s proprietary RivGen and TidGen Power Systems,” Davies said. “Providing predictable baseload power as the key part of smart microgrids that also combine wind, solar, and energy storage to handle peak load demands will give these communities smart, emission-free, energy independence. I look forward to working to deliver ORPC’s innovative and practicable solution to our customers.”

The company late last year raised $7.5 million to expand its sales and marketing efforts in the United States, Canada, and Chile.