For 30 years, Levent Gun has maintained a proven track record of building teams and creating companies or businesses that make significant contributions to multiple industries. He is recognized as a pioneer by trade groups and trade publications for his work.
This success prompted AMPT, a solar energy company founded in 2007, to bring Gun in as the companys first CEO in 2009. The company had a solid core engineering team and some key IP, but otherwise, it was dysfunctional at the time, said Gun. I saw an opportunity to do some clean-up, build a strong culture and set out a vision and strategy for the company. It was my opportunity to make a positive difference in the world by working with a company seeking to improve the environment by accelerating the move from fossil fuels towards renewable energy.
For Gun, his vision for AMPT is to be renowned as the best strategy to build solar power plants. I focused the company on two emerging, but high-growth segments where we add significant value in lowering the cost of energy for our customers and fix incidental problems, said Gun.
AMPT is already leading in both of these segments. Gun credits the success in one segment that is feeding the success in another. These two segments will grow to become the market during this decade and AMPT will dominate the large solar power plant technology landscape, said Gun.
AMPT is projected to grow revenues 25x over the next five years, creating $1 billion of value to investors and employees.
Guns success as a leader was recognized long before he joined the team at AMPT. The first year he moved to Silicon Valley to run his first venture-backed company, he was recognized as the Geek of the Week by a leading technology journal. Last year, Gun was inducted into the Cable Pioneers Hall of Fame for his work that changed the cable industry. He lends his talent as a speaker at trade shows and panels. In addition, Gun holds several patents and has been published extensively in scientific and trade journals.
Leadership, to Gun, is only successful if you are leading by example. When you lead by example with both integrity and empathy this equates to employee loyalty, he said.
For his continued success as the CEO of AMPT, his vision and influence in the solar energy industry, Gun has earned a spot as a Titan 100.
