Highlights of the seventh session of the international solar alliance assembly

Kulkarni brings uniquely broad expertise in essentially all relevant disciplines of business, including General Management, Technology, Strategic Analysis, Business Development, Mergers & Acquisitions, Finance, Marketing, Operations, and Supply Chain. He has extensive background in solar silicon processing from Polysilicon Production to Module Assembly and in semiconductor silicon processing from Crystal Growth to Silicon Epitaxy. His cross functional expertise enables him to contribute to various business sectors. Milind has extensively worked in both the US and India. His geographical business exposure is even broader, covering many countries in the northern hemisphere. Milind is serving as President of PV manufacturing in Reliance New Energy Solar, where he is responsible for setting the business vision and executing the overall Solar and PV business plan. He oversaw cell and module technology development and implementation as the CTO of Vikram Solar, before joining Reliance. From July 2017 to February 2021, Milind served as the CEO of Suzlon Renewable Technologies and its sister company, Svagos Technik, where he was responsible for the development of next generation semiconductor and renewable technologies and implementation of these technologies in HVM.

Milind’s prior experiences were in the entire solar and semiconductor value chains in MEMC Electronic Materials, SunEdison, and GCL-Solar Materials, all part of one family of companies with a common origin. Milind led (as the CTO and VP/EVP of Strategic Expansions) Technology and Strategic Expansions in SunEdison-Solar Materials and later GCL-Solar Materials, which was the materials technology division of SunEdison before its acquisition by GCL. Milind worked on developing collaborative and strategic business partnerships (JVs) to implement SunEdison's Polysilicon, Crystal Growth, Wafering, and Module technologies into HVM. He was also responsible for explorative development of solar cells with various collaborators. He oversaw the development of turnkey solutions from technology selection to HVM. He represented SunEdison’s interests as a member of the Board of Directors of SunEdison’s polysilicon production joint venture with Samsung Fine Chemicals, SMP. In the past, Milind also directed sales and operations management, demand and supply forecasting, capacity and inventory management, supply chain mapping and optimization, operations research and production optimization, lean initiatives, and technology driven procurement across the solar materials value chain, along with cross-functional quantitative research in the entire semiconductor and solar value chains. Milind and his teams have developed new technologies that can create more than $10 B in value. Milind also facilitated M&A activities valued more than $100 M.

Milind is an author or co-author of more than 70 international journal publications, patents, conference presentations, invited plenary talks, and book chapters, collectively. He also started the Solar Silicon Symposium in China (2009) that has grown into China Photovoltaic Technology International Conference (CPTIC). Both his doctoral work and industrial research have received special recognitions by The AIChE Journal (Paper of the Month) and The Journal of The Electrochemical Society (Technical Highlight). Milind actively served as an official reviewer for various journals. He was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of The Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research (an ACS publication) and served as a member of The National Council of Engineering School of Washington University, St. Louis, USA. Milind holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Mumbai (ICT/UDCT), master’s degree from Oregon State University, doctorate from Washington University, all in chemical engineering. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration, from Washington University. Milind won the Alumni Achievement Award of Washington University in 2012. For details, visit the following websites:

https://engineering.wustl.edu/offices-services/alumni/McKelvey-Engineering-Award-Years/2012.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULjOybRmXGg