Our Leadership Team
Our leadership team’s goal is to continually position PanelClaw to help enable the accelerated adoption of flat roof PV worldwide.
Thomas Ringler
Chief Financial Officer, PanelClaw, Inc. & EcoFasten Solar LLC
Thomas has overall responsibility for PanelClaw’s and EcoFasten’s finances. Thomas has been with PanelClaw since 2010 and directly or indirectly involved in the PV sector since the first InterSolar in Frankfurt Germany. Prior to joining PanelClaw and EcoFasten, Thomas spent 17 years with Robert Bosch, where he held senior level management positions in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan. Thomas holds a business degree from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He speaks German.
Constantino “Costa” Nicolaou
Chief Executive Officer, PanelClaw, Inc.
Costa has been with the company since its founding in 2007 and leads PanelClaw as it continues to grow as the dominant flat roof racking and services provider in the United States. He also serves on the Board of Directors of PanelClaw, Inc, the Board of Directors of the Solar Energy Business Association of New England and the Board of Directors of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), Chairs SEIA’s Manufacturing Division and serves on the Executive Committee of Tufts University’s Alumni Association. He is energetic and passionate about accelerating the adoption of Distribute Generation PV assets worldwide. Prior to joining PanelClaw, Costa held the position of Director of Research at Market Metrics®, a financial services consulting firm now owned by Strategic Insight. Costa holds a BA in Economics and International Relations from Tufts University. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese.
John de Papp
Senior Vice President, Product Management & Marketing
John de Papp leads PanelClaw’s clawOS cloud software development efforts. He has over 20 years of engineering, management and sales experience and served as PanelClaw’s Vice President of Sales for over 5 years. Prior to joining PanelClaw in 2009, John managed a team of consulting engineers in the U.S. for Xilinx, a global semiconductor company and world leader in programmable logic technologies and devices. He also worked in Xilinx’s French office where he held various field sales and technical support roles covering France, England, Holland and Belgium. John holds a BA in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College and a BE and ME from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth. He is an advisory board member of Yotta Energy and SkyCool Systems. He speaks French.
Paul Bitterolf
Senior Vice President, Sales
Paul leads PanelClaw’s sales efforts in the US with responsibility for the company’s Outside Sales, Field Technical Services and Sales Support functions. Paul joined PanelClaw in 2011 and has successfully helped partners navigate projects in some of the most challenging permitting jurisdictions in the United States. He is responsible for the deployment of over 400MW of PanelClaw’s flat roof mounting structures in North America. Paul has more than 20 years of business-to-business sales and service experience and holds a Masters of Business Administration from California Lutheran University and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and International Business from Pennsylvania State University.
Joseph Gondron
Vice President, Sales
Joe leads PanelClaw’s sales efforts in the eastern US spanning from New Jersey to Louisiana. Joe has over 15 years of sales and distribution experience. Since joining PanelClaw in 2014, Joe has grown the southeast territory to total flat roof deployment of over 400 megawatts. He is among the best in the industry at helping our partners navigate the treacherous landscape of insurance company requirements, AHJ requirements and third party engineering requirement for flat roof PV. Joe is passionate about accelerating the adoption of flat roof PV distributed generation assets in the US. Prior to joining PanelClaw, he held leadership positions within the renewable energy sector. Joe holds a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Louisiana State University.
Jon Blachly
Vice President, Sales
Jon leads PanelClaw’s sales efforts in the Northeastern US. Jon joined PanelClaw in 2019 and immediately took over one of the company’s largest territories. He has over 6 years of experience in working with PV partners. Jon is among the best in the industry at helping our partners navigate the treacherous landscape of insurance company requirements, AHJ requirements and third party engineering requirement for flat roof PV. Since joining PanelClaw, he has helped our partners successfully deploy over 400MW on flat roofs around the US. Jon is passionate about helping our partners accelerate the adoption of PV in the US and is a valued member of our extraordinary sales organization. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Entrepreneurial Venture Creation and Management.
