Meet the Leader: Mark Gibbens, CFO at GameChange Solar
- GameChange Solar
- Aug 5, 2025
- 4 min read
August 6, 2025
In a competitive renewable energy market, GameChange Solar stands out as a global leader in solar tracker innovation, ranked as one of the top three tracker companies in the world. This success isn’t by chance; it's the result of our customer-focused approach and dedication to innovation. These qualities come from the top, starting with our fantastic leadership team.
Today we're featuring our CFO, Mark Gibbens!
What first brought you into the renewable energy space, and to GameChange in particular?
Throughout my career, I've enjoyed working in technology. I have 12 years of experience in telecom equipment, and spent many years working with data centers. I’ve also worked with agriculture, which is green (though a different kind of “green” than solar)! In GameChange I saw an interesting opportunity that paired the fast-growing solar market with a focus on innovative technology and high-quality products. I was fascinated and wanted to contribute value with my own skill set.
When I joined GameChange, my goal was to help it scale much faster, building infrastructure and hiring in areas that could become support functions. That has enabled Game Change to grow to where we are today: delivering circa 14 GigaWatts (GW) in systems last year up from 3.5 GW the year before I joined.
You’ve helped lead major growth, quadrupling GameChange’s revenue since 2021. What’s been most important to that growth?
We have a great team doing the work. My role is to enable them, and that growth, through infrastructure: people, systems, and funding. I do my best to lay the foundation that allows this growth to happen.
What guides your leadership approach when working with your team?
My fundamental goal is to facilitate my people’s success and growth in their roles. Some important parts of that are laying out the specific vision for the company, and then aligning my teams in that direction. This process helps clarify how we can all contribute to that growth.
How would you describe GameChange’s culture? What’s it like to work there?
At GameChange we have an interesting balance of a go-getter, hard-charging startup feel with that of a mature company which has grown significantly. GameChange is a customer-centric organization: we take our direction on technology and service directly from customer feedback, and build new technologies, software, and services from their input.
We’re very focused on results, less on the process. We see a customer need, then build a product to solve it. In general we move very quickly, balancing speed with thoughtfulness. It's about being flexible by adapting to individual customers' needs and situations.
As GameChange expands globally, what are you most excited about for its future?
We’ve built a set of capabilities and technologies that, because they're adaptable, can work anywhere in the world. And that shows! In 2023 we delivered one gigawatt of tracker systems outside the US, in 2024 over three and a half gigawatts, and in 2025 we'll at least double that number. So it’s exciting that we’re growing exceptionally rapidly in international markets. In addition, we are launching new lines of business, starting with our transformer products, which were directly envisioned from customer feedback and tuned to their needs.
The challenge with entering a new market is that the incumbents there know the lay of the land, particularly how to engage with local cultures and systems. So we localize our business in each region, allowing these branches to adapt to what their market needs. We’ve created regional teams, each of which is led by professionals from that region. These leaders are deeply familiar with how things are done in their culture, and how to best work with the people we want to reach.
It’s a long game, like planting a seed which takes a few years to grow a small tree. If you help it grow strong roots, it will ultimately blossom and thrive.
What is the biggest current challenge for the solar industry?
We love to say that we're on the ‘solar coaster’. This business is changing rapidly: the grid needs to grow, especially with the introduction and advancement of artificial intelligence and with more battery-based solutions for EVs.
That’s exceptionally exciting! The entire energy industry is growing.
On the other hand, the U.S. political environment for clean energy has changed from being supportive, to balanced, to potentially unfavorable. Right now, the biggest challenge for this industry is navigating political undertones based on perception rather than sound economics or facts. Hopefully, market demands will eventually prevail, and the solar coaster will rise again.
What advice would you give someone interested in working in renewable energy?
This is a fast-growing industry that has fundamental demand, even with current uncertainty in the regulatory environment. Our team is well-suited to deal with such situations because our company culture is dynamic, adaptable, and responsive to clients’ evolving needs.
So for someone entering the industry, you're not walking into an unchanging monolith. Have the mindset that while large-scale clean energy has flourished for a long time , be prepared for periods of challenge. We need people who can think that way and be flexible.
For those who are always curious to learn and do more, especially for a cause that they can feel good about supporting, there's a huge amount of opportunity in renewable energy. One thing's for sure: your career will never be boring!