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SunPower chairman to quit

SunPower chairman T.J. Rodgers has told the company board that he intends to resign after his term expires next year, according to Reuters.

T.J. Rodgers. Image: SunPower.

In a follow up letter to the board, Rodgers, who is also chief executive of Cypress Semiconductor reportedly wrote “I am ready to return to my start-up roots."

He said he couldn't provide Reuters with a copy of the letter, because he wrote it on the spot on stationery from the Rosewood Hotel on Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road, after company executives asked for written notice. "When you go into the board, you're dealing with committees and formalities," Rodgers said in a phone interview, adding he got plenty of that at Cypress. "I don't need a second dose."

Directors at SunPower "work their butts off," he said. "And it's not work that interests me." Rodgers apparently said that he enjoyed his duties more when SunPower, now a company with USD$2 billion in annual revenue, was smaller and his expertise in technology and manufacturing was crucial.

"SunPower would not be where we are today without TJ," chief executive Tom Werner told Reuters. "We thank him for his incredible support and guidance."

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