Three cheers for Mark Baldassari, who recently retired from Enphase. Mark has been with Enphase for 17 years (pretty much since Enphase's start).
Before Enphase, Mark worked on telecom hardware at Cisco. When Enphase founder Raghu Belur asked Mark to consider joining Enphase, Mark's initial reaction was: "I don't think so... power conversion doesn't seem that interesting." It turns out that the work was _very_ interesting.
Mark played a core role in the design of Enphase hardware. ...The microinverter (micro), the gateway, the system controller, the powerline communication (PLC), etc.
Over many iterations, Mark helped make the Enphase microinverter rock solid in the harsh rooftop environment.
Mark moved from hardware design to national codes-and-standards development. Thanks to Mark and Enphase for the industry leadership.
I had the pleasure of meeting up with Mark for breakfast last weekend. I'm happy to report that retirement is going swimmingly for him so far.
The night before our meetup, Mark started putting a model car together (he's had the kit for years, and hasn't had time for it).
He's fixing things around the house and travel trailer.
He's been enjoying drives in the North Bay countryside, stopping here and there to photograph the landscape. ...With a coffee-shop visit along the way.
And he's gone deeper into his interest in astrophotography (he showed me some of his stunning cosmos photos, taken from various remote desert locations).
Here's Mark showing me his sweet high-tech telescope:
And here's Mark's photo of the horsehead nebula (in the orion constellation):
Here are my technical notes from the breakfast meetup with Mark.
I'll outro with Mark's suggestions for my anticipated visit to the Sonoma Botanical Garden:
When you visit the Botanical gardens, take some time to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Flowering cherry bosoms - They are in full bloom white and pink in color.
Wild mustard, yellow in color, about 2 to 3 feet tall amongst the vineyards or filling a flat field.
Little white flowers low to the ground and between the rows of the vineyards.
Orange poppies are sprouting and they will open up to the sun.
Check out the different grape vine shapes and trellis' They are different depending on the grape varietal.
The grass is green all around, it will start turning brown in the next month. So now is the peak.
Stop and take a picture.
And most of all, have fun.
Jeff Spies:
Tell Mark I love him and will miss him at all the codes/standards meetings.