Spotlight on Toni: Cross-border collaboration
BayWa r.e. teams are packed with leading specialists in renewable energy technology. But applying such focused expertise takes a broad, diverse set of talents. Striking this careful balance was Toni’s job. As former Head of our Product Management in Munich, he was responsible for our floating-PV projects.
His responsibilities straddled both the solar projects department and segment support team, which helped him communicate more easily between the two. It was all about fostering collaboration, opening up the conversations which let success happen across the region and beyond.
Toni is finding new ways
Since joining us in 2018, Toni has seen some massive leaps forward in PV technology. He was there when Floating-PV was relatively new, both to us and to him. Existing designs on the market simply weren’t good enough for what we needed, Toni and his team needed to go back to the drawing board.
The results were incredible. In only three years, our people built almost 200 MW worth of Floating-PV projects. Unprecedented technology had to be developed. Prospective sites needed to be secured fast. Thanks to Toni, different elements of each project communicated closely and pulled together towards the right outcome.
“It’s an easy product to get excited about. We’ve got people who are each experts in their different backgrounds, there’s always someone able to pick up a task and do great things with it.
What I do, it helps people share knowledge. So, it gets easier every time we deploy in a new market; we can tap into what we’ve done before.”
Of course, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Toni is so good at getting to grips with new ideas. His academic and professional background reads like a who’s-who of solar power engineering. A master’s in power engineering from Munich set him up for a rapidly rising career.
With international experience in places like Shanghai, the US and Costa Rica, he’s the ideal person to help our projects expand into new markets. Here’s where his talent for communication really begins to shine.
It’s completely new technology we’ve developed here. It’s great to see what we can do when we’ve got all these great experts and the financial means to implement what they create. When we’re done, there’s something new in the market that wasn’t there before. That’s always a big motivation, it brings everyone together.
Toni
Head of Project Management EMEA, Germany
Toni is sharing success
A critical part of Toni’s job involves transferring knowledge from one market to another. When a project reaches successful completion, he immediately starts analyzing how it happened. What challenges were overcome here that we can apply to future jobs in other contexts?
That takes intimate product knowledge and deep familiarity with what makes each market unique. Without this process, we couldn’t continue to grow internationally. In the years Toni has been on board, he’s seen the approach to expanding across borders continually evolve. Now, we have him and his colleagues to thank for our presence in over 29 countries around the world.
In his personal life, he’s just as proactive about his health. Soccer and squash satisfy his love of team sports, while running and bike riding helps him clear his head and find some tranquility. We look forward to seeing what the future holds for Toni as he continues to progress upwards through the field of renewable energy.
In August, Toni continued his career path and is now working as our Head of Project Management EMEA.
I’m excited to take up this role and work with an amazing team on the realization of a multi GWp PV pipeline. Even if I’ll miss this wonderful time working on the FPV project, I’m ready for new challenges.
