SKYFUEL, INC.

SkyFuel, Inc., manufacturer of the SkyTrough® parabolic trough solar concentrator, has promoted Alison Mason to Director of Marketing Communications.

The Arvada company is in the process of scaling up manufacturing and Mason’s will include interaction with the media, industry, government, and academia to ensure that a clear and accurate picture of SkyFuel is widely communicated. “Alison has shown herself to be a valuable team player,” said Rick LeBlanc, SkyFuel’s President and CEO. “Her diverse skill set is a tangible asset to the business side of a technology company like SkyFuel.”

Mason holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University and a B.S. in Materials Science and Environmental Engineering from Rice University. She is the Chairperson of the American Solar Energy Society’s CSP Division, and LEED accredited by the U.S. Green Building Council.

UQM TECHNOLOGIES INC.

Arvada-based electric-motor maker UQM Technologies Inc.has named former Chrysler COO Eric R. Ridenour as its next CEO, succeeding William G. Rankin. Ridenour will serve as president and COO of the company from September 1st to December 1st, when he will take the reins as CEO  with Rankin’s retirement after 11 years as CEO. Ranking will stay on with the company as chairman of the board.

“We are excited to have Eric join the company as we begin the next phase of our growth,” Rankin said in a statement. “Eric’s decades of experience in the automobile industry and extensive experience as a senior manager in a variety of important roles at Chrysler make him the ideal person to lead our company into the future.”

Ridenour was COO of Chrysler when it was a unit of German company Daimler AG from 2005 to 2007. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA from the University of Michigan.