Story by Steve Neumann
Image Courtesy Hans Zheng
A double major in finance and accounting equipped Hans Zheng ’10 for the twists and turns of an unpredictable industry.
In the 1950s, Bell Laboratories created the silicon solar cell, considered the first practical device for converting solar energy to electricity. Over the last few decades, photovoltaic (PV) technology has improved exponentially in cost, efficiency and scale. But at the same time, the solar energy industry has experienced so much volatility it has earned the moniker “the solar coaster.”
No one knows this better than Hans Zheng ’10, vice president of finance and operations at Sungrow Power Supply, the leading global power inverter and energy storage system supplier, with its U.S. headquarters in San Francisco.
“PV technology is a pretty intense ride for a lot of people in the business,” Zheng says. “The industry is heavily impacted by global trade, tariffs and incentives from the government. The leader in the U.S. of this PV tech arena changes every year. The industry is fast-moving and competitive.”
Sungrow, with its global headquarters in Hefei, China, has been in the industry for more than 25 years. Currently, the company sits at number 12 on Fortune’s latest Future 50 list.
Not only is Zheng riding the solar coaster, he’s wearing many hats along the way. In 2018, Zheng—whose bachelor’s degree at Lehigh was in finance and accounting—was one of only 20 people hired at Sungrow.
“When they hired me, they suggested I run finance and operations,” says Zheng. “I guess they figured I was hard working and I’d figure it out. Eventually, I managed supply chain and logistics, human resources and project management as well.”
Now that the company has grown—going from $25 million in sales in 2018 to $1.6 billion last year—they’ve been able to fill many more spaces on the organizational chart.
“I feel very blessed because I can learn a lot from these new people who join the company,” Zheng says. “I don’t oversee HR or project management anymore, but I still manage supply chain, logistics, customs compliance and IT,
in addition to finance.”
Zheng grew up in Shanghai, and when he was 18 years old, he entered an exchange program because he wanted to learn what it was like to have an education in a high school in the U.S.
He ended up at Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, with a host family that included a Lehigh alumnus—finance and accounting major Frank Marsteller ’73. Marsteller received his MBA from The Wharton School in ’79.
“I didn’t really have a plan to come back to the U.S. for a university education, but that high school experience really got me thinking,” Zheng says. “I asked Frank what he thought I should do, and he recommended I follow his path.”
“That’s exactly what I did. I went to Lehigh for my undergrad and Wharton for my MBA, and it worked out well for me.”
Zheng credits his Lehigh education for helping him to take on so many seemingly disparate roles at Sungrow.
“My career in finance is all about building financial models,” Zheng says, “and I learned all my financial modeling skills from the real estate program at Lehigh.”
“People at my company know that if they have Excel or financial modeling questions, they should come to me,” Zheng adds.
In the U.S., Sungrow continues to focus on what it does best—lithium battery energy storage and power inverters. At the global level, the company is expanding its reach into hydrogen generation, as well as powertrains and charging stations for EVs.
For Zheng, the global expansion means his solar coaster ride will only become more exciting.
“The industry is growing at a rapid pace and I’m with one of the best companies in the industry,” Zhen says proudly. “It’s an exciting field because it is constantly changing.”