Manufacturing February 10, 2021 9:06:17 pm

Advanced Energy CEO to retire

By Dan Mika

DENVER and FORT COLLINS — Yuval Wasserman will retire from his post as CEO of power controls maker Advanced Energy Industries Inc. (Nasdaq: AEIS) at the end of the month after 14 years with the company.

In a statement accompanying its quarterly earnings, the company said it will hire Steve Kelley as its new CEO and board member starting March 1. Kelley was most recently CEO of semiconductor product developer Amkor Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: AMKR) from 2013 to last June.

In a call with analysts Wednesday morning, Wasserman said he is turning 67 this year and wishes to spend more time with family and on personal interests. He had planned to retire as part of a prepared succession plan.

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Advanced Energy, which produces power and control technologies that are used in making semiconductors and other electronics, was founded in Fort Collins in 1981. It moved its corporate headquarters to Denver last year to be closer to its white-collar service providers, despite Wasserman telling BizWest in 2019 that the company would keep its head offices in Northern Colorado.

However, the company has a multi-year lease on its research center in northeast Fort Collins.

Under Wasserman, Advanced Energy went from posting a net income of $47 million in 2014 to a loss of $158 million the following year as it sold off its solar energy business unit.

Afterward, the company posted profits ranging from $127 million in 2016 to $147 million in 2018 before dropping to $65 million in 2019 due to the acquisition of Artesyn Embedded Technologies that year.

Wasserman was also the company’s president since last November after former chief operating officer, Neil Brinker, left the company for undisclosed family reasons.

Separately, Advanced Energy reported revenues of $370.9 million in the final quarter of 2020, beating consensus estimates compiled by finance site Seeking Alpha by $6.31 million. Its earnings-per-share of $1.49 per share beat consensus estimates by 14 cents. Those revenues were primarily driven by large yearly growth in the semiconductor equipment and telecom businesses, which likely spiked due to the pandemic requiring more people to work and stay at home whenever possible.

The company also reported a record full-year revenue of $1.41 billion for 2020 and profits of $134.67 million.