Management Team / Advisory Board Bios
Hansjoerg Weisskopf
Global CEO and Founder
Hansjoerg has an Electrical Engineering degree and began his career as an electrical engineer, quickly transitioning to sales and marketing. Hansjoerg spent much of his early career heading up the international sales teams for large electronic companies in Europe. He spent 8 years in as International Business Manager for the US firm Esterline before branching out on his own and forming his own contract manufacturing company Allied Panels. After 8 successful years where Allied Panels was the #1 manufacturer of Ultrasound Machines for GE Medical, Siemens and others, Allied Panels was bought by the large Global contract manufacturing company Celestica. Hansjoerg stayed on with Celestica as head of international sales and after 1 year (in 2012) he founded BlueSky Energy, who’s mission is clean, green, safe energy storage.
Horst Wolf
Global Founder
Horst Wolf – Global Founder started his career with the automotive supplier Bosch in Germany heading departments with thousands of employees before he started his own Wolf Group company. The Wolf Group is an international leading metal high tech company with companies in China, US, India besides the headquarter in Germany. Horst holds advisory board seats in multiple organizations and is the strategic mind behind BlueSky’s manufacturing and technology agenda.
Thomas Krausse
President of Global Operations
Thomas was leading multiple companies in his roles as Managing Director or/and CFO since his graduation from university where received his PhD in Finance. As an entrepreneur he was successfully developing start-up companies and is passionate about real estate investments. Thomas is speaker of international congresses on the topic of alternative energy and energy storage. Within the BlueSky Energy Group he is heading the R&D efforts as well as the international business development besides his Finance core functions.
Lyle Gold
President/CEO of North America Operations
Lyle has a degree in Physics and managed several engineering teams for military and aerospace contractors such as AVX and Lockheed. In 1995 Lyle joined Esterline corporation in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho where he spent 9 years working with Hansjoerg Weisskopf as part of the international business team. He then joined Weisskopf and Krausse with Allied Panels, including 1 year at Celestica and now Lyle is the CEO of BlueSky US, Inc.
Christian Trucco
Director of Operations, Officer
Christian has a BS (2005) in Natural Resource Conservation and advanced degrees in both Landscape Ecology and Construction Management in 2010 and 2015 respectively. Christian has been part BlueSky US, Inc for one year. Christian is the Production manager.
Lorrin Chang
Engineering Manager
Lorrin received a BS in Mechanical engineering in 1998 and also has a professional engineering license since 2003. After university Lorrin worked with Boeing for several years and NASA for 6 years as Sr. Design Engineer. Lorrin has been with BlueSky Energy US, Inc for 6 months.
Emily Erickson
Director of Marketing
Emily earned a BA in Sociology in 2015 and began professionally writing in 2018. Emily’s writing career expanded into marketing and brand development, and she founded her own online design and content studio in 2020. Emily has been working for BlueSky Energy, USA for one year, and is serving as the Director of Marketing for US operations.
Brian Snow
Engineering Manager
Brian has a BS (1986) in Mechanical Engineering and worked for General Dynamics Space Systems Division for 7 years, designing launch vehicles. In 1993, Brian joined Esterline corporation in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho where he worked for 24 years as an engineering department manager and as a business unit manager. While at Esterline, Brian worked closely with Lyle Gold and Hansjoerg Weisskopf on a number of international projects. In 2018-2019, Brian worked as a Sr. Program Manager for Jabil, Inc., a global contract manufacturer. Brian is now an advisor for BlueSky US, inc.
Stanley Birnbaum
Legal Advisor
Stanley has practiced law for more than 40 years. He has structured, negotiated, documented, evaluated and closed transactions of many types including securities transactions, real estate purchases and sales, real and personal property leases, secured and unsecured loan transactions, employment agreements and purchases and sales of businesses. Prior to attending law school, he developed software to support reconnaissance satellites in the aerospace industry. Stan has a Martindale Hubble “AV” rating.
Stan is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and has a Master's Degree in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Stan practiced in California before moving to Idaho and joining the Sandpoint law firm of Berg McLaughlin & Nelson. He began his legal career with Perkins Coie in Seattle, Washington. In San Francisco he was a partner in Steefel, Levitt and Weiss, which is now a part of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, a large multinational law firm. Stan was Corporate Counsel for North American Mortgage Company, a large independent residential mortgage banking company which is now a part of Chase Bank.
John Clutter
Advisor
John has over 25 years of hands-on experience in account development for custom manufactured products for medical, industrial automation, and military industries. He spent a majority of his career with Esterline/Advanced Input Systems (with H. Weisskopf, B. Snow and L. Gold) in various leadership roles including: Business Development, Sales, Customer Service/Order Entry, Account Management, Quality Assurance, Contracts/Compliance, and ERP implementation. John received a B.A. in Business Administration/Accounting from Washington State University.
Kevin Waldher
Finance Advisor
Kevin received his finance degree with an emphasis in Financial Institutions in 1987. Since that time, he has developed over 350 residential and commercial projects for his own account. Owned several finance and mortgage companies focusing on creative real estate finance and contract brokerage. Most recently from 2010 forward he has raised in excess of $55M from High Net Worth Individuals and institutional debt totaling $17.5M for ViZn Energy, functioning as the EVP of finance and Investor Relations, founder and director of the company. Kevin also founded and raised the initial A round of $2.5M for ZAF Energy Systems.
