Solar boom lands ex-SolarCity exec Hayes Barnard atop his next multibillion-dollar business

Solar boom lands ex-SolarCity exec Hayes Barnard atop his next multibillion-dollar business

Loanpal CEO Hayes BarnardLoanpalFor his second act in solar power, entrepreneur Hayes Barnard is aiming to play a leading role in the booming solar market, but this time with less drama.Barnard is founder and CEO of Loanpal, a company that has quietly emerged as the leading U.S. lender for residential solar installations. He started the business in 2017 after resigning as chief revenue officer at SolarCity, which had just been acquired by Tesla in a $2.6 billion deal that was contentious at the time and still faces shareholder litigation.Tesla CEO Elon Musk redirected much of the SolarCity team to work on the Model 3 car, so Barnard went back to what he knew — trying to get more people to use sunlight to power their homes. Tanguy Serra, who spent three years as a top executive at SolarCity, joined him as Loanpal's president.While Tesla has ballooned into one of the world's most valuable companies, Loanpal has stayed largely under the radar. It doesn't spend money on advertising and has skirted venture capital. But demand is surging as consumers take advantage of plunging prices for solar panels and attractive government subsidies, which were just extended as part of the latest Covid