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| A Thank You Note from d.light |
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d.light would like to thank you, our newsletter subscribers, for continuing
to support our mission to deliver clean, safe and cost-effective solar energy
to the 2.6 billion people in the world who don't have access to reliable
grid electricity.
We feel especially honored that many of you took the time to advise us by completing the
newsletter survey we sent in November. We have learned a great deal from your suggestions,
which included calls for more stories about our customers, new partnerships and new hires.
We will include those stories in subsequent newsletters.
In the meantime, we thought we'd start off our newsletter for 2012 with a
wrap-up of 2011. To sum it up, 2011 was a year of growth and expansion
across the company.
Read on for details!
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| Top Talent Leads to Year of Growth |
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d.light secured top talent from around the world, accelerating our efforts to
transform the lives of 100 million people by 2020. In all, d.light added almost three dozen
highly qualified professionals to our global team.
In addition to Chairman and CEO Donn Tice, last year d.light welcomed Roy
Ricommini, Vice President of Product Development; Chester Chen, Vice President of Operations;
David Small, Managing Director, Africa; and Tim Rump, Director of Marketing, Africa.
d.light's senior management team brought decades of experience in consumer
goods at companies like Motorola, Apple Computer, Unilever, Philips, and Colgate Palmolive,
which made 2011 one of the best years in our company's history, achieving record sales.
d.light founders Ned Tozun and Sam Goldman remain at the company as President, and Chief
Customer Officer, respectively.
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| New Products, New Distribution |
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To better serve our customers, d.light added a barrier-busting product in mid-2011 to its
product line: the S1. The S1 is one of the world's most affordable solar lanterns. The product
combines d.light's high quality with extreme affordability, making it an excellent value for
off-grid families.
In addition to expanding our range of products to meet customer needs, d.light significantly
expanded its distribution network in 2011, making it even easier for people living without
access to reliable grid power to find clean, safe and cost-effective off-grid energy.
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| d.light's Opens Africa Regional Headquarters |
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In May 2011, d.light opened a new sales and marketing office in Nairobi, Kenya, to serve our
customers and partners throughout the entire continent of Africa. Under the leadership of
Managing Director David Small, the office has become an important frontline in d.light's quest to
bring clean, affordable and renewable lighting to Africa, where more than 70 percent of people
don’t have access to reliable electricity.
In the next newsletter we'll give you an update from our team in India.
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d.light Featured in 'A History of the World' and 'Top 30 Social Entrepreneurs'
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Ranging from inclusion in
A History of the World in a 100 Objects to a feature on the NPR's Marketplace,
2011 marked another banner year for d.light in the media. One of the highlights was seeing d.light founders
Sam Goldman and Ned Tozun on Forbes' list of top 30 social entrepreneurs "who are changing the world." Known
as the "Impact 30," the list was the first of its kind in the magazine's 94-year history. Read the
Impact
30 list. For more coverage, please see
our news page.
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d.light Wins Spark Award; Finalist for Zayed Future Energy Prize
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In October, d.light won a prestigious Spark design award for our new product, the S1. Just last week,
d.light was honored as a finalist in the 2012
Zayed Future Energy Prize, which was awarded at the
World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. We are honored to have been on a list of amazing
finalists, alongside winners Carbon Disclosure Project,
Orb Energy, and Environmental Defense.
We are grateful that d.light continues to receive recognition for the work we are doing to provide clean,
safe and cost-effective solar energy to the billions of people in the world who don't have access to
reliable electricity. For more information on our awards, please visit
our website.
In 2012, look forward to hear from us much more often... and we'd like to hear from you! Please click on the buttons below to share this newsletter, or to stay in touch with us through Facebook and Twitter.
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