Vast Appoints Mark Smith as Chief Financial Officer

Vast Solar Pty Ltd (Vast) announced the appointment of Marshall D. (Mark) Smith as the company’s new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective September 18, 2023.

Based between Vast’s Sydney headquarters and Houston, Texas, Mr. Smith brings more than 30 years of experience, including energy industry expertise and leadership in operations, capital allocation, business development, and financial management.

Most recently, he was CFO for a Texas-based privately held oil and gas company, having previously served as CFO for Guidon Energy, an oil and gas company that was Blackstone Energy Partners’ largest energy-focused investment.

Smith also held executive positions at California Resources Corporation, Occidental Petroleum, Ultra Petroleum, and J.M. Huber Energy. Prior to that, he served as a Managing Director of Investment Banking at Nesbitt Burns Securities (now BMO Capital Markets).

“We are excited to welcome Mark to our executive team. He will be critical to our success as we globally scale our innovative CSP technology as a public company,” said Craig Wood, CEO of Vast. "Mark is a true energy industry veteran with deep experience as CFO of public and private equity-funded energy companies. He is the ideal addition to our team and will play a key role in driving international deployment of Vast’s modular CSP v3.0 technology.”

“It’s an honor to be joining the world-class team at Vast to accelerate its promising CSP technology that solves one of energy’s most enduring challenges – intermittency,” said Smith. “I look forward to working with the team to develop its pipeline of Australian, US, and international projects to bring low-cost, zero carbon, dispatchable energy to the world.”

Vast and its proprietary CSP v3.0 technology, has received significant support from the Australian government including up to AUD$65 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to support construction of VS1, its first utility-scale project in South Australia.