ZOLA Electric appoints David Hatfield to board

His track record in disrupting industries with leading enterprise technology solutions and data-driven strategies will play a pivotal role in driving the company's vision for the future.

David has 30 years’ experience successfully navigating hyper-growth and profitability at innovative software and cloud infrastructure companies. David built such companies as Pure Storage, a data centre technology platform, which he led from an early stage to a multibillion-dollar data centre technology leader. Pure delivers a full stack, enterprise hardware/software solution to 11,000 companies seeking to capture, analyse and react to data rapidly.

Throughout his career, David has participated in four successful IPOs and one of the largest enterprise software mergers in history. He is an investor in many next generation technology companies and serves on the Board of Directors at Lacework, and BetterUp.

David’s track record and proven leadership in platform technology, worldwide scale and B2B partnerships will materially assist ZOLA in its rapid expansion across the 80 countries of the world currently suffering from Energy Inequality.

Data is a critical tool in addressing energy access challenges. Developed markets have showcased the power of data in optimising energy distribution and consumption. With David on board, ZOLA is committed to harnessing data to make energy access more efficient and effective in underserved regions.

The energy access landscape often suffers from fragmented data collection processes. ZOLA aims to change this paradigm by introducing its innovative SaaS platform. This platform will serve as a hub for collecting, analysing, and interpreting data to gain valuable customer insights. By unifying data collation, guided by David’s expertise, ZOLA is poised to create a more comprehensive and efficient approach to solving energy access issues.

Bill Lenihan, CEO of ZOLA Electric, commented: “We are thrilled to have David Hatfield join ZOLA’s Board of Directors. We have made significant strides over the years, providing sustainable energy solutions to millions of households and businesses in off-grid and under-electrified regions. Data and control have been instrumental in shaping our trajectory, guiding decisions on expansion, product development, and customer satisfaction. The addition of David to our Board reflects ZOLA’s commitment to taking this journey even further.

“David’s appointment brings unique benefits that set us further apart from the competition. His deep knowledge and experience in hardware/software solutions and data-driven strategies will be hugely valuable to ZOLA and complement our impact-driven mission – to develop enterprise technology solutions to deliver Energy Equality worldwide.      

“ZOLA aims to fill the ‘white space’ in the Energy Access industry landscape, through the development of our world-first Enterprise energy technology platform – purpose-built to bring reliable, affordable, and clean power to the 3 billion people and hundreds of millions of schools, clinics, farms, and businesses that lack it. This is one of the world’s great problems, and we look forward to David joining the mission to solve it.” 

David Hatfield, Board Member at ZOLA Electric, commented: “I am delighted to be joining the Board of ZOLA Electric as one of the leading technology companies today in the Energy Access space. I am impressed by the sophisticated architecture of ZOLA’s unique energy technology platform and the innovative technology solutions it is deploying to reduce Energy Inequality across the globe. I am even more impressed by the passion the organisation brings to solving this great problem. I look forward to contributing to the continuation of ZOLA’s success, both as a company and its mission to drive Energy Equality for billions of people and businesses worldwide that lack it.”