3Tier, Tracking the World’s Hotspots for Alternative Energy, Names New CEO

Seattle-based 3Tier Group, which has developed a map of the world’s best places for wind and solar power, has named Craig Husa as its new chief executive. Founder Kenneth Westrick, who previously served as CEO, remains with the company as chairman. The company announced in December that Westrick was moving away from day-to-day duties.

Husa is an experienced businessman who previously served as CEO of NeuralIQ, General Software, and Healia, and founded CourtLink Corporation, 3Tier said in a statement. Westrick said Husa has a record of guiding “similarly sized companies through aggressive expansion.” Husa also holds an MBA from Harvard and is a former Navy officer who trained in nuclear engineering and served on submarines, 3Tier said.

We last checked in with 3Tier more than a year ago, when the company had just reported $3 million in additional equity financing and was fresh from completing its map of promising solar-power sites. The map of wind currents was completed in late 2008, and the company raised $10 million to finish the project around that time.

The recession hit alternative energy companies hard, though, and 3Tier was forced to lay off an unspecified number of people in 2009. 3Tier is privately held and backed by venture investors, with Switzerland-based Good Energies as lead investor.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.