As Vice President of Project Development at Hodson Energy, Frank Hopkins leads solar project development in Virginia from Hodson’s Glen Allen, VA office.

Frank is a land use professional with over ten years of local government experience. He most recently served as the Planning Director for Powhatan County, overseeing the planning department and advising local elected leaders on land policies. Frank has worked on complex conditional use permit applications, including utility-scale solar, and has a talent for communicating complex material to elected boards. Before being Planning Director, Frank served the City of Winchester as their Zoning Administrator, where he frequently amended their zoning ordinance to assist economic development in attracting new business.

Frank brings a deep knowledge of Virginia land use policy and is a lifelong resident of the state where he has lived in Northern Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, Hampton Roads, and now Richmond. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from James Madison University, where he studied general management and environmental policy.

Kim Jawanda brings over 20 years of community and urban planning experience as a VP , Community, Outreach and Development at Hodson Energy.

Her community development background has involved working with public, private, and non-governmental sectors. Her track record proves that proactive involvement and positive support lead to measurable success for individuals, clients, and projects.

Kim’s core strengths lie in stakeholder and partnership relations, local community economic development, project management, marketing, and influence management. Her primary focus has been community development projects that improve the economic lives of the surrounding communities, resulting in an environment where all stakeholders feel ownership of the project.

Kim holds an MA in Community & Regional Planning and a BA in Urban Geography.

As the founder of Vega Renewables, Kyle West provides his clients and partners with extensive experience in the renewable energy industry. A native-born Virginian, Kyle lives in Charlottesville, VA, with extensive experience in the Virginia renewable energy market. Since 2015, Kyle has successfully developed over 200MWs of operational projects in Virginia and continues to work on 2GW+ solar projects in Virginia currently under development.

Before founding Vega, Kyle served as Vice President of Solar Development for Orsted. Before that, Kyle served as Senior Vice President of Development for Coronal Energy, a subsidiary of Panasonic, during which time the company grew into an operating company with more than $700 million in assets and a 5GW development pipeline of solar and battery storage projects across 20 states.

Kyle’s career in renewable energy began at HelioSage, formerly a Charlottesville-based utility-scale solar development company, where he served as Director of Project Development.

Kyle holds a BA from the University of Virginia.