Former Polaris CEO Tom Tiller Leaves Snow For Sun

Former Polaris president Tom Tiller moves from snow to sun as he takes over as Chief Executive Officer of Colorado-based Abound Solar, a maker of thin-film solar modules. Tiller headed up Polaris Industries for nearly a decade. When he left as head executive, Polaris was a US$1.98 billion company.

Under Tiller’s leadership Polaris moved into a strong leadership in not only its heritage product of snowmobiles but as a major player in the All Terrain and side-by-side wheeled power products. During his tenure Polaris also grew in world markets, created an engine-manufacturing group to develop its Liberty two-and-four stroke motors, and developed its line of Victory motorcycles.

Tiller led a Polaris-effort to bring Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM into its corporate mix. Such a move would have made Polaris a US$3 billion firm with a very strong and diversified presence in the motorcycle marketplace. Despite acquiring a stake in KTM and sharing technical and marketing expertise, KTM declined Polaris’ efforts for any form of merger.

After the Polaris experiment, KTM partnered with India’s Bajaj, an international conglomerate whose Baja Auto group is ranked as the world’s largest 2-and 3-wheeler manufacturers. Bajaj holds a 30 percent interest in KTM.

Although the Polaris-KTM deal soured, Tiller successfully made Polaris a multi-faceted company adding Polaris Defense, a military sales and manufacturing arm, which supplies specialized vehicles to the US military. Polaris expanded worldwide under Tiller and now claims a presence in virtually every continent.

It’s Tiller’s track record that caught Abound Solar’s attention as Doug Schatz, interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Abound Solar notes: “In the last year, Abound Solar has reached several key milestones, including commercial production of modules and achieving product certification, with Tom’s strong track record of delivering outstanding results — both at Polaris and General Electric — the Abound Solar Board of Directors is confident he is the best person to capitalize on that progress and build the next leading solar module manufacturer.”

Abound Solar couldn’t miss some key aspects of Tiller’s time at Polaris during which he oversaw the introduction of more than 170 new products, which led to a doubling of its size and a tripling of its stock price, as well as a significant expansion into international markets. All of which will be important to Abound Solar as the company continues development and commercial-scale of its solar modules that are designed to significantly reduce the cost of generating solar electricity.

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