ENFIELD — STR Holdings Inc. has dismissed an executive who oversees business development in China, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The board of directors on June 29 voted to remove Kong Weijie as the company’s vice president of business development and general manager in China and from any other official capacities within the company and its subsidiaries, the filing, signed by President and CEO Robert S. Yorgensen, says.
Kong had held that post for slightly more than a year, while also serving as an officer of the company’s “strategic partner,” Zhenfa Energy Group Co. Ltd., Yorgensen said.
The company has started a search for a replacement, he added.
Yorgensen did not elaborate on the reason for Kong’s dismissal and could not be reached for comment.
STR in March 2015 named Kong as sales director for China, as part of an agreement between with Zhenfa, which owns a 51 percent interest in STR and helps the company sell its products to Chinese solar module manufacturers.
Kong’s removal is the latest in a series of executive departures characterized as resignations.
Last week, Andrew Africk resigned as a member of STR Holdings’ board of directors, without elaboration. Yorgensen said Africk’s departure did not involve any disagreements with the company.
Africk also came to STR from Zhenfa. Another Zhenfa executive, Qu Chao, resigned as STR’s vice president for strategic investment. Chao, who held several posts with the Zhenfa Group, including chief financial officer, took the STR job in December 2014.
Yorgensen also did not elaborate on Chao’s departure.
In March, Eugene Cha, who was appointed to the board of directors in Dec. 2015, also resigned. STR replaced him with HuiYing Ju, who has been the general manager of Zhenfa Energy Group’s international department since 2014.
Also in Dec. 2015, STR Chief Financial Officer Joseph Radziewicz also resigned, and was replaced by Thomas D. Vitro.
Radziewicz had been chief financial officer since September 2012 and before that was STR’s controller and principal accounting officer.
STR Holdings was founded in Springfield in 1944 as DeBell & Richardson Inc. and moved to Enfield in 1946. In 1976, it became Springborn Laboratories Inc., and in 1995 it changed its name to STR.
