XL Fleet Announces New Executive Team Appointments

XL Fleet Corp. announced two additions to its executive leadership team to support the company’s rapid expansion plans in 2021 and beyond.

Colleen Calhoun has joined XL Fleet as vice president and general manager of the company’s XL Grid division. In this role, she will be responsible for leading and growing the XL Grid business, which provides commercial and municipal fleet customers with charging infrastructure, energy storage and power solutions for fleets, and advances XL Fleet’s electrification as a service offering.

Calhoun is a clean energy executive who spent over two decades at GE in senior leadership roles across its energy, power and finance businesses, During her tenure at GE, Calhoun held key leadership positions across several successful business units. She served as the head of GE Energy Ventures, leader of marketing & strategy for GE’s Power & Water business and head of the global growth markets platform for Energy Financial Services. 

She was also a senior member of the GE team that launched Current, a provider of energy efficiency and digital productivity solutions for commercial buildings and cities. She served as chief marketing officer and head of Business Development and was instrumental in the divesture of the business from GE in 2019. Most recently, Calhoun has been a strategic advisor to Commonwealth Fusion, Quaise Inc. and several other corporations, helping them grow and scale their energy-focused businesses.  

XL Fleet also announced it has appointed Jim Berklas, a senior legal and M&A executive, as the company’s general counsel and vice president of corporate development. In this role, He will oversee the company’s legal and compliance functions and help execute upon its corporate development initiatives, including strategic M&A investments. 

Prior to joining XL Fleet, Berklas founded a boutique investment bank representing smaller domestic manufacturers and served as the chief growth officer, head of M&A and general counsel of medical device and packaging manufacturer Westfall Technik, where he led the acquisition of 17 companies and improved profitability by over 40%. He brings 25 years of legal experience with 11 years of public company leadership and has closed over 200 acquisition and financing transactions.

“One of XL Fleet’s earliest post-merger priorities is to add the key leadership talent needed to help the Company execute on its rapid growth plans,” said Dimitri Kazarinoff, chief executive officer of XL Fleet. “Colleen and Jim bring a wealth of new experience and leadership capabilities to XL Fleet, and we are excited to bring them on board as we begin scaling the organization in 2021.”

Originally posted on Automotive Fleet