Who We Are
The Power of Teamwork
Behind every great human achievement, there is a team. And those teams at their best strive to make a significant impact in the world. That is especially relevant in the world of solar power as we rise to combat the challenges of climate change.
Our team of Solar Guide co-founders Russell French, Warwick Johnston and Donovan Craig have a combined 38 years of experience in the solar industry. Their primary purpose is to deliver global environmental benefit by enabling outstanding solar businesses to thrive.
Our Vision
What We Believe
Our values we live by
Make a Difference
Deliver Impressive Value
Be Open
All of us Thrive
Keep Evolving
How We Work
Working together
We believe that working together we are stronger than working alone. And together we have the potential to do amazing things to make a difference in the world!
As a company we embody our values and base our working culture on them, so our customers can receive an exceptional experience and impressive value.
Traditional business culture has an “us versus them” extrinsic mentality. Like both internally and externally we are all disconnected and on opposing sides. And that leads to confusion, frustration and poor outcomes.
This is why at Solar Guide we openly communicate, collaborate and work together as a company, and with our customers, so we all may thrive.
And to keep unleashing our potential and creating new opportunities for us all, we focus on continually evolving.
What we believe, and how we work together in accordance with our values matters. And we all are better off for it.
Our Co-Founders
Russell French
Russell French, a veteran of the Australian solar industry of 15 years and an innovative business leader. He has served as a Director for several well known solar companies:
Enphase Energy ($360M) APAC Director & Australian Country Manager
Sungrow ($2.2B, partnership with Samsung SDI) Marketing & Strategy Director
Sun Empire – Founder / Managing Director. Clean Energy Council founding member
Russell founded Energetic Consulting – a boutique marketing agency dedicated to the solar & cleantech industries, and Solar Social – an innovative meet-up for business professionals discussing the industry and latest technologies .
He was the Head of Commercial Projects for Smart Energy Group, one of Australia’s largest solar retailers. Russell worked in the award winning Sustainability Strategy team for the City of Melbourne developing the city’s solar program, and helped develop the new Solar & Storage division for one of Australia’s largest energy retailers, Red Energy – owned by the iconic Snowy Hydro.
He served as Convenor for the Melbourne Chapter of the Smart Energy Council of Australia for 5 years, and has consulted to some of the world’s largest solar companies like SMA, ABB, Solarwatt (same owner of BMW) and Enphase.
Russell holds qualifications in Renewable Energy, On & Off-Grid Solar Design, Electrical Systems, Energy Efficiency and LEAN management.
Warwick Johnston
Warwick Johnston is the Managing Director of SunWiz, which provides information and services to leading solar manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers across Australia. He first entered the solar industry in 2005 when it was 100 times smaller than it is today. Warwick founded SunWiz in 2009 and has helped over 1200 solar businesses make better decisions and improve their customer offerings. SunWiz is frequently engaged by government departments to analyse the Australian solar market.
Warwick has held many positions of leadership within the Australian solar industry. He is currently a board director of the Clean Energy Council, Australia’s peak body for the renewable energy industry, and on the Solar Victoria Industry Reference Group. He has chaired and contributed to many committees within the Clean Energy Council membership.
Warwick has previously represented the Australian solar industry within the International Energy Agency, and has helped steer the Australian PV Institute, Australian Solar Council, Solar Citizens, and Solar Energy Industries Association.
Warwick holds a masters degree in Renewable Energy and an honours degree in Engineering.
Donovan Craig
Donovan Craig is the managing director of Snapfrozen, a web software and systems and infrastructure company, specialising in online systems for the solar industry.
Donovan worked in the corporate sector for Telstra BigPond and Sausage Software, before founding Snapfrozen, to specialise in complex database driven systems.
Snapfrozen built Australia’s first wireless hotspot billing system for Azure Wireless (acquired by NTT DoCoMo), The MediaPortal media monitoring system for AAP and the Media Research Group, along with hundreds of other online systems in many industries including legal, finance, health and insurance.
With a desire to make a positive change, 8 years ago, Donovan steered his team towards clean energy solutions, partnering with the Smart Energy Council, SolarPlus and PVsell, to build database systems and provide consultancy, CRM and web solutions for solar installation companies.
Donovan was the first developer in Australia to be certified by the PHP team (Zend Certified Engineer) and currently holds the highest technical certifications at Yoast (Yoast technical SEO) and Google (Google Cloud Architect). Snapfrozen is also a Google Cloud Partner.
Solar Guide has a range of participating, leading solar retailers across Australia using our platform. If you’d like to get in touch with one of them to access our free solar advice, register your interest below.
