Item 1. Business

Overview

Generac is a leading energy technology solutions company that provides backup and prime power generation products for residential and commercial & industrial (C&I) applications, solar + battery storage systems, energy monitoring & management devices and services, and engine- & battery-powered tools and equipment. As an energy technology solutions company that is “Powering a Smarter World”, our corporate purpose is to lead the evolution to more resilient, efficient, and sustainable energy solutions around the world.

We have a long history of providing power generation products across a variety of applications, and we maintain one of the leading market positions in the power equipment markets in North America and an expanding presence internationally. We believe we have one of the widest ranges of products in the power generation marketplace, including residential, commercial, and industrial standby generators, as well as portable and mobile generators used in a variety of applications. In recent years, the Company has been evolving its product portfolio by building out ecosystems of energy technology products, solutions, and services for homes and businesses. As part of this evolution, we have made significant investments into growing markets such as residential and C&I energy storage, solar module-level power electronics (MLPE), energy monitoring & management devices, and electric vehicle (EV) charging. Central to these ecosystems are the Company’s next-generation connectivity devices, controls capabilities, and software platforms that facilitate the integration of our products and support the growing utilization of such distributed energy resources (DERs) in grid services programs. In addition, we have been leveraging our leading position in the growing market for natural gas fueled generators, which we believe represents a cleaner transition fuel compared to diesel, to expand into applications beyond standby power, allowing us to participate in Energy-as-a-Service and microgrid projects for C&I customers. As the traditional centralized utility model evolves over time, we believe that a more decarbonized, digitized, and decentralized grid infrastructure will develop, and Generac’s energy technology solutions are uniquely and strategically positioned to participate in this next-generation grid referred to as “Grid 2.0”.

As our traditional power generation markets continue to grow due to multiple mega-trends that are driving increased penetration of our products, we believe we are in an excellent position to execute on this opportunity given our competitive strengths. In addition, our focus on more resilient, efficient and sustainable energy solutions has dramatically increased our served addressable market, and as a result, we believe that Generac is well positioned for success over the long term.

Company History

Generac was founded in 1959 to commercialize a line of affordable portable generators that offered superior performance and features. The Company’s success through the years has been built upon engineering expertise, manufacturing excellence and our innovative approaches to the market. This has driven our growth into becoming a leading provider of power equipment for a variety of applications within residential, commercial, and industrial markets.

In 1980, we expanded beyond portable generators into the industrial power generation market with the introduction of our first stationary generators that provided up to 200kW of power output. We introduced our first residential standby generator in 1989 and expanded our industrial product offering and global distribution system in the 1990s, forming a series of alliances that rapidly increased our sales. Our growth accelerated in the 2000s as we expanded our purpose-built line of residential and commercial automatic standby generators and implemented our multi-layered, omni-channel distribution philosophy. Throughout the 2000s, a number of high-profile power outage events also helped to increase the awareness and need for backup power and home standby generators. In 2006, the founder of Generac sold the company to affiliates of CCMP Capital Advisors, LLC, together with certain other investors and members of our management. In February 2010, we completed our initial public offering (IPO) of the Company’s common stock. Since then, we have scaled our sales & marketing capabilities and systems, while also building the Generac brand into one of the leading names in backup power around the nation.

Soon after going public, we implemented our “Powering Ahead” enterprise strategy. This strategic plan accelerated the Company’s transition from primarily a North America focused, emergency backup generator company into a more diversified industrial technology company with the addition of new and adjacent product categories and an expanded global presence, primarily through a series of acquisitions. In 2018, we transitioned to a new enterprise strategy called “Powering Our Future”, which drove further share gains in new and existing markets, capitalized on Generac’s leadership in natural gas gensets, established our connectivity strategy, and provided the foundation for the Company’s evolution into an energy technology solutions company, including our initial acquisitions within the residential clean energy space. This ultimately led to the introduction of our “Powering A Smarter World” enterprise strategy in 2021. Our current strategic plan continues the evolution of Generac’s business model that pairs traditional and emerging power generation, conversion, and storage technologies with new monitoring, management and grid services capabilities to provide solutions for the dynamic challenges presented by today’s energy landscape.

Significant Investments in Energy Technology Solutions

We’ve been providing power generation and resiliency solutions for homes and businesses for decades. Leveraging that expertise in power generation, Generac has made significant investments in recent years to expand its capabilities into energy technology solutions, beginning with the March 2019 acquisition of Neurio Technology Inc., a leading energy data company focused on monitoring technology and sophisticated analytics to optimize energy use within a home or business. This was followed by the April 2019 acquisition of Pika Energy Inc. (Pika Energy), a designer and manufacturer of battery storage technologies that capture and store solar or other power sources for homeowners and businesses. In October 2020, the Company acquired Enbala Power Networks Inc., one of the leading providers of distributed energy optimization and control software that helps support the operational stability of the world’s power grids. In July 2021, Generac added to its residential clean energy portfolio with the acquisition of Chilicon Power LLC (Chilicon), a designer and provider of grid-interactive rooftop power inversion devices and monitoring solutions for the solar market. With these acquisitions, Generac has established a presence in the rapidly developing residential clean energy market, focused on solar and battery storage solutions, as well as grid services platforms that can leverage any of our product offerings that are capable of being grid-connected.

In December 2021, Generac acquired ecobee Inc. (ecobee), a leader in sustainable home technology solutions. In addition to smart home thermostatic controls and other smart home devices, ecobee offers its customers the ability to participate in energy services programs, which allow homeowners to reduce energy consumption and utility bills via intelligent HVAC controls. The acquisition represents a major step forward in the Company’s efforts to provide an integrated residential energy ecosystem that includes a sophisticated user interface platform to allow homeowners to take charge of their energy generation, storage, consumption, and management. We believe ecobee’s solutions, serving as the central hub of our residential energy ecosystem, together with its product and software development expertise will prove to be a differentiator for Generac when combined with our growing suite of energy technology solutions.

In December 2023, Generac made a minority investment in Wallbox N.V. (Wallbox) (NYSE: WBX), a global leader in smart EV charging and energy management solutions. Along with the investment, Generac and Wallbox are expected to collaborate to provide Wallbox’s full suite of EV charging solutions to Generac’s customers and distribution partners. Also in 2023, we opened a dedicated engineering center of excellence in Reno, Nevada that will house the development and testing of batteries, switches, power electronics, and other clean energy solutions.

As we look to the future, we expect to make continued investment in the people, processes, and capabilities involved in the development of these residential energy technologies, as we work to further broaden our product offering and distribution network. Additionally, the favorable policy backdrop for these markets, underscored by the Inflation Reduction Act and other state regulations, provides the necessary visibility to drive potential long-term, value-creating investments. With this opportunity in front of us, we plan to build out our residential energy technology capabilities and our suite of products and solutions as we expect to play an important role in the transition to a cleaner, more sustainable, and more reliable electric grid.

Generac’s efforts in expanding its energy technology solutions cover C&I and international markets as well. In June 2021, the Company acquired Deep Sea Electronics Limited, a UK-based designer and manufacturer of advanced controls for a range of power generation and other applications used around the world. In September 2021, Generac acquired Off Grid Energy Ltd., a designer and manufacturer of industrial-grade mobile energy storage systems serving predominantly rental markets. The Company advanced its C&I connectivity strategy with the October 2022 acquisition of Blue Pillar, an industrial internet of things (IoT) platform developer that designs, deploys, and manages industrial IoT solutions. Blue Pillar provides a foundation to build out a connectivity solution for our C&I products to further enable their use in grid services programs. In February 2023, Generac acquired REFU Storage Systems GmbH (REFU), a developer and supplier of battery storage and inverter hardware products, advanced software, and platform services for the commercial and industrial markets. REFU’s energy storage systems will complement and enhance our current global product offerings and is expected to further accelerate our development of new technologies as we continue to provide our commercial and industrial consumers with leading solutions for their adoption of renewable energy. Additionally, in 2023 Generac launched a series of stationary battery energy storage systems for commercial and industrial applications in the North American market that will help us advance our capabilities in microgrid projects. These acquisitions and related organic initiatives will collectively help lay the groundwork to further advance our energy technology strategies across C&I markets around the world.

For a complete summary of recent acquisitions, please see Note 1, “Description of Business,” to the consolidated financial statements in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Products and Solutions

We design, manufacture, and distribute a broad range of energy technology products and solutions. We design and manufacture stationary, portable, and mobile power generators with single-engine outputs ranging between 800W and 3,250kW. We have developed a line of energy storage systems for use in residential solar-plus-storage applications. We also have a line of stationary and mobile energy storage systems that serve global commercial and industrial markets. We have a growing selection of energy monitoring and management devices and solutions that we expect to serve as the central hub or controls platform for our residential and C&I energy ecosystems. We participate in the market for grid services by providing distributed energy optimization and control software. We design and manufacture other power products including light towers and a broad line of outdoor power equipment that we refer to as “chore products”, which includes a variety of property maintenance equipment powered by both engines and batteries. We classify our products into three categories based on similar ranges of power output geared for varying end customer uses: Residential products, C&I products, and "Other products and services". The following summary outlines these categories, including their key attributes and customer applications.

Residential Products

Our residential automatic standby generators range in output from 7.5kW to 150kW, which predominantly operate on natural gas and liquid propane, and are permanently installed with an automatic transfer switch, which we also manufacture. Air-cooled engine residential standby generators range in outputs from 7.5kW to 26kW and serve as an emergency backup for small to medium-sized homes. Liquid-cooled engine generators serve as emergency backup for larger homes and small businesses and range in output from 22kW to 150kW.

As the product category leader, we believe we have the broadest line of home standby generators in the marketplace. Every home standby generator that we offer is equipped with Mobile Link™. This remote monitoring capability is a standard, WiFi-enabled feature that allows our customers to check the status of their generator remotely from their smart phone or tablet, and also provides the capability to similarly receive maintenance and service alerts. The data that is provided by this remote monitoring functionality allows us to better understand our installed base of products, while optimizing both product quality and customer satisfaction. In 2021, we expanded our residential connectivity strategy with the acquisition of Tank Utility Inc. (Tank Utility), an IoT propane tank monitoring solutions company. This addition provides incremental value to our dealers and peace of mind to owners of our home standby generators that use propane as a fuel source.

Leveraging the technologies acquired in the 2019 acquisition of Pika Energy, we have developed a line of clean energy products marketed under the Generac brand and using the PWRcell™ brand name. This residential storage solution consists of a system of batteries, an inverter, photovoltaic (PV) optimizers, power electronic controls, and other components. This system captures and stores electricity from solar panels or other power sources and helps reduce home energy costs while also protecting homes from shorter duration power outages. PWRcell systems can range in size from 9kWh up to 36kWh of storage capacity. In 2022, we launched PWRmanager, the second generation of our load management controls, allowing customers to program and remotely control certain loads in a home and thereby manage battery run times from their smart phones or tablets.

In 2021, we acquired ecobee, a leader in sustainable smart home solutions such as smart thermostats and a suite of home monitoring products, all designed with a focus on energy conservation, convenience, peace of mind and comfort. ecobee’s smart home energy management devices and complementary sensors intelligently optimize heating and cooling systems, often the largest energy consuming system within a home, to deliver significant energy savings for homeowners. In 2023, ecobee launched a line of smart doorbell cameras, which integrates with ecobee’s products and helps to drive increased consumer engagement with their platform. The capabilities acquired via ecobee and Tank Utility, paired with our existing Mobile Link remote monitoring system, provide the foundation for Generac’s residential connectivity strategy, which will be integral in the continued development of our smart home energy ecosystem.

Importantly, we are leveraging ecobee’s technologies and software development expertise to develop a user interface platform at the center of our home energy ecosystem that will allow homeowners to monitor and control Generac’s entire suite of products using a “single pane of glass”. In 2023, we took our first steps towards this goal by successfully integrating our home standby generators and propane tank monitors with the ecobee platform. We believe the integration of our products and solutions in a single cohesive ecosystem will drive additional peace of mind and energy efficiency benefits for homeowners.

This functionality will also help enable connection to our grid services distributed energy resource management software (DERMS) called Concerto. All of our residential energy technology products and home standby generators come with grid-connection capabilities, enabling consumers to connect and enroll their distributed energy resources in available grid services programs. These solutions can provide material value to homeowners in the form of lower utility costs, while also helping grid operators retain capacity to address supply/demand imbalances on the grid.

We continue to develop new Generac-branded energy technology products that we expect to bring to market as we build out a broader energy management ecosystem, giving our distributors access to a more diverse line-up of products that can serve a variety of applications. For example, our recent investment in Wallbox is expected to allow us to participate in the rapidly developing home EV charging market by offering co-branded EV charging technologies through our expansive distribution network.

We also provide a broad product line of portable and inverter generators that range in size from 800W to 18kW, as well as multiple portable battery solutions that provide clean, emission-free power at the push of a button. These products can help serve as an emergency home backup source of electricity and are also used for construction and recreational purposes. Our portable generators are targeted at homeowners, with price points ranging between the consumer value end of the market through the premium homeowner market; at professional contractors, starting at the value end through the premium contractor segment; and at the recreational market with our inverter generator products, which are quieter than traditional portable generators. In addition, we offer manual transfer switches to supplement our portable generator product offering.

We provide a broad product line of outdoor power equipment referred to as “chore products”, which are used in property maintenance applications for larger-acreage residences, commercial properties, municipalities, and farms. These products include trimmers, field and brush mowers, log splitters, stump grinders, chipper shredders, lawn and leaf vacuums, pressure washers and water pumps. We also offer commercial-grade, battery-powered turf care products through Mean Green Products, which was acquired in 2020. In addition to Generac’s efforts to expand Mean Green’s production capacity and distribution capabilities, this acquisition will help to accelerate the electrification of our higher-powered lineup of chore products. Chore products are largely sold in North America through direct-to-consumer online catalogs, retail hardware stores, and outdoor power equipment dealers, primarily under the DR® brand name.

Residential products comprised 51.3%, 63.8% and 65.8%, respectively, of total net sales in 2023, 2022 and 2021.

Commercial & Industrial P****roducts

We offer a full line of C&I generators that are sold around the world. We are a leader in cleaner-burning natural gas fueled generators, and also have a full offering of C&I generators that are fueled by diesel and Bi-FuelTM. We believe we have one of the broadest product offerings in the industry with power outputs ranging from 10kW up to 3,250kW. Through the Deep Sea acquisition in 2021, we have expanded our capabilities in the design and manufacture of advanced controls for a range of C&I power generation applications, such as microgrids and “beyond standby” configurations. Our natural gas C&I stationary generators have grid-connection capabilities, enabling our customers to generate an incremental return on investment by connecting and enrolling their generator as a distributed energy resource in grid services applications where available.

Our light-commercial standby generators and related transfer switches include a full range of affordable systems from 22kW to 150kW, providing three-phase power sufficient for most small and mid-sized businesses such as grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, gas stations, pharmacies, retail banks, small health care facilities and other small-footprint retail applications. Our light-commercial generators predominantly run on natural gas and liquid propane.

We design and manufacture a broad product line of modularized and configured stationary generators and related transfer switches for various industrial standby, continuous-duty, and prime rated applications. Our single-engine industrial generators range in output from 10kW up to 3,250kW, include stationary and containerized packages, and can include our Modular Power Systems (MPS) technology that extends our product range up to much larger multi-megawatt systems through an integrated paralleling configuration. Over the past several years, we have introduced larger and higher-powered gaseous-fueled generators, with the highest output of 1,000kW for a single-engine set. Our industrial standby generators are primarily used as emergency backup for larger applications (such as healthcare, telecom, datacom, commercial office, retail, municipal and manufacturing markets, to name a few). In recent years, we've focused our efforts to utilize our gaseous-fueled generators in "beyond standby" applications including distributed generation and microgrid projects and have developed purpose-built products for these applications that have grid-connected capability. This grid-connected functionality and the significant expansion of our in-house advanced controls capabilities further enhances the potential utilization of our generators in these applications.

Our MPS technology combines the power of several smaller generators to produce the output of a larger generator, providing our customers with redundancy and scalability in a cost-effective manner. For larger industrial applications, our MPS products offer customers an efficient, affordable way to scale their standby power needs, while offering superior reliability given their built-in redundancy which allows individual units to be taken off-line for routine maintenance while retaining coverage for critical circuits.

We also offer a full line of industrial transfer switches to meet varying needs from light commercial applications all the way up to the most demanding mission-critical installations. In recent years, we have significantly increased and upgraded our industrial transfer switch product offering, which we believe will help to enhance our attachment rate and related market share for these products. Generac’s innovative feature set and flexible platforms offer a variety of switching configurations to meet almost any project needs.

We also design and manufacture a broad product line of C&I mobile products such as light towers and mobile generators, which provide temporary lighting and power for various end markets around the world (such as road and commercial construction, energy, mining, military, and special events). We also offer commercial mobile pumps, heaters, and dust-suppression equipment for a wide variety of applications. All of our mobile products are typically sold to national and regional rental companies who then rent the equipment to the end user.

We have continued to expand our portfolio of energy technology solutions for C&I applications. In 2021, we acquired Off Grid Energy, a European based manufacturer of mobile energy storage systems predominantly used in the rental markets. In 2023, we acquired REFU, a European based provider of stationary energy storage systems and related inverter products. We also organically introduced a line of larger stationary battery energy storage systems for C&I applications in the North American market. We believe these collective product offerings will enable us to capture market share of the rapidly expanding Battery Energy Storage System (or BESS) market in the future. Our BESS solutions are primarily targeted at “behind-the-meter” applications for on-site energy storage. We expect to leverage our leading position as a provider of traditional stationary generators to gain share in the global BESS market. This expertise is particularly beneficial for multi-asset solutions that combine generators with energy storage assets, providing the many benefits of behind-the-meter storage with longer duration outage protection. We also continue to develop other energy technology products, such as mobile battery-powered light towers, as well as hybrid mobile solutions that pair a battery with a diesel engine to reduce emissions and noise pollution. In addition, we continue to provide various gaseous-engine control systems and accessories, which are used in our natural gas generators, as well as sold to other gas-engine manufacturers and aftermarket customers.

C&I products comprised 37.2%, 27.6% and 26.7%, respectively, of total net sales in 2023, 2022 and 2021.

Other P****roducts and Services

Our “Other products and services” category primarily consists of aftermarket service parts and product accessories sold to our customers, installation and maintenance services, extended warranty revenue, grid services revenue, remote monitoring subscription revenue, and other service offerings provided by our owned industrial distributors.

Included in this “Other products and services” category are energy services revenues that are generated by ecobee, Blue Pillar, and our Concerto software platform. The Concerto energy-balancing software platform provides a highly flexible approach for controlling and dispatching distributed energy resources from flexible loads, backup generators, energy storage systems, and other renewable energy sources, and gives utilities and grid operators the flexibility to operate virtual power plants in real-time to better manage the escalating complexities of the future electrical grid. These capabilities are broadly referred to as grid services.

The acquisition of ecobee further enhanced our efforts in grid services. In addition to their product sales, ecobee also recognizes service revenue in certain circumstances when a homeowner enrolls their smart thermostat in a grid services program offered by their utility. ecobee can provide utilities direct connection to a homeowner’s smart thermostat, thereby allowing control of a significant portion of the home’s electrical load. In exchange for this capability, utilities pay ecobee for that connection.

The 2022 acquisition of Blue Pillar expanded our C&I connectivity capabilities and provided a standard protocol for all of our C&I products to be connected to our Concerto platform. In addition to connectivity device sales, Blue Pillar recognizes software subscription and support revenue resulting from the monitoring and management capabilities its platform provides customers.

Finally, our Mobile Link platform provides remote monitoring services for our residential home standby customers and “Fleet” services for our residential home standby dealers, whereby we collect subscription revenue for these services on a recurring basis.

"Other products and services" comprised 11.5%, 8.6% and 7.5%, respectively, of total net sales in 2023, 2022 and 2021.

Mega-Trends, Strategic Growth Themes, and Additional Business Drivers

In 2021, we unveiled our “Powering A Smarter World” strategic plan, which serves as the framework for the significant investments we have made and will continue to make to capitalize on the long-term growth prospects of Generac. Our enterprise strategy is based on the combination of several key mega-trends that we believe will drive several significant strategic growth themes for our business.

Key Mega-Trends:

	●	“Grid 2.0”: which is the evolution of the traditional electrical utility model as the increasing reliance on intermittent renewable generation sources and the electrification of everything are leading to supply/demand imbalances and rising electricity costs, driving the migration towards distributed energy resources and decarbonization, digitization, and decentralization of the grid.

	●	Impact of climate change: which includes the expectation of more severe and volatile weather driving increased power outage activity, and more global regulation accelerating renewable investments.

	●	Home as a Sanctuary: which includes the trend of the increasing importance of the home – including more people working from home and aging in place – is leading to increasing sensitivity to power outages and need for peace of mind, combined with the more intelligent and connected home and desire for improved energy resiliency and efficiency.

	●	Emergence of cleaner alternative fuels: natural gas, and other alternative fuels, are important elements in the transition to a lower-carbon global energy supply.

	●	Growing investment in global infrastructure creating new opportunities: Upgrading of aging and underinvested legacy systems including transportation, power, healthcare and elderly care; along with expanding investment for increasingly critical technology infrastructure including data centers, telecom and EV charging.

Strategic Growth Themes:

Power quality issues continue to increase. Power disruptions are an important driver of consumer awareness for back-up power and have historically influenced demand for generators both in the United States and internationally. Increased frequency and duration of major power outage events, that have a broader impact beyond a localized level, increases product awareness and may drive consumers to accelerate their purchase of a standby or portable generator during the immediate and subsequent period, which we believe may last for six to twelve months following a major outage event. Energy storage systems offer similar resiliency advantages to consumers and can benefit from these same awareness drivers, at least for short duration power outages. The optional standby market for C&I power generation is also driven by power quality issues and the related need for backup power. Attitudes around climate change have shifted and undergone increased global focus in recent years, and an aging and underinvested electrical grid infrastructure remains highly vulnerable to the expectation of more severe and volatile weather. Additionally, rapid growth in renewable power sources such as solar and wind is resulting in increased intermittency of supply, further impairing the reliable supply of electricity at a time when demand is starting to increase meaningfully with the electrification of a wide range of consumer and commercial products, including transportation, HVAC systems, and other major appliances. These developments are causing a growing supply/demand imbalance for grid operators across North America, which has led to high-profile examples of rolling blackouts and calls for utility customers to reduce consumption to maintain grid integrity. In fact, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation has labeled significant portions of the United States and Canada as being at high risk of resource adequacy shortfalls during normal seasonal peak conditions in the 2024-2028 period due in part to these supply/demand dynamics. We are seeing increasing evidence that warnings of potential resource inadequacies are driving incremental consumer awareness of the need for backup power solutions. We believe utility supply shortfalls and related warnings may continue in the future, further expanding awareness of deteriorating power quality in North America. Taken together, we expect these factors to continue driving increased awareness of the need for backup power and demand for Generac’s products within multiple categories.

Home standby penetration opportunity is significant. Many potential customers are still not aware of the costs and benefits of automatic backup power solutions. With only approximately 6.25% penetration of the addressable market of homes in the United States (which we define as single-family detached, owner-occupied households with a home value of over $150,000, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau's 2021 American Housing Survey for the United States), we believe there are significant opportunities to further penetrate the residential standby generator market both domestically and internationally. We believe by expanding our distribution network, continuing to develop our product lines, and targeting our marketing efforts, we can continue to build awareness and increase penetration for our home standby generators.

Solar, storage, and energy management markets are developing quickly. We believe the electric utility landscape will undergo significant changes in the decade ahead due to rising utility rates, grid instability and power quality issues, environmental concerns, and the continuing performance and cost improvements in renewable energy and energy storage technologies. On-site power generation from renewable sources and cleaner-burning natural gas generators are projected to become more prevalent as will the need to monitor, manage, and store this power – potentially developing into a significant market opportunity. Additionally, these markets are receiving an increasing level of regulatory and legislative support, most notably from the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed in 2022. This legislation includes significant subsidies and investment tax credits for consumers and businesses over the coming decade, as well as production tax credits for businesses that meet certain domestic manufacturing requirements in the production of renewable energy products. We believe this legislative support will provide necessary opportunity for long-term, value-creating investments for market participants in this space. We expect to further advance our capabilities in energy technology by increasing our product development, sourcing, distribution, and marketing efforts. In addition, we should be able to leverage our significant competencies in the residential standby generator market to build our market position in the emerging residential solar, storage, and energy management markets.

Energy-as-a-Service models, “beyond standby” applications, and energy services open new market opportunities. We expect the evolution of the traditional electrical utility model toward decarbonized, digitized, and decentralized solutions will continue to drive the need for grid operators to access and control DERs. This will require highly intelligent software platforms that are able to optimize an increasingly complex supply and demand equation, such as our Concerto DERMS software platform. Additionally, growing interest in our C&I products across a variety of “beyond standby” applications is driving an increase in demand for subscription-like models for end customers, in which Generac will partner with third parties to deliver resiliency solutions that are also able to contribute to grid stability with minimal upfront capital outlays. We also believe that we can gain share in the C&I “behind the meter” energy storage market, including microgrid applications that require advanced system-level controls. The significant advancements made in recent years in the connectivity of our products are core to these newer capabilities, which play a key role in the evolution of Generac into an energy technology solutions company.

Natural gas generators, a continuing growth opportunity. We believe natural gas will continue to be an important and cleaner transition fuel of the future, in comparison to diesel, as the world continues to shift towards lower emission power generation sources. Demand for natural gas generators continues to represent an increasing portion of the overall C&I market, which we believe will continue to grow at a faster rate than traditional diesel fueled generators. We also continue to explore and expand our capabilities within new gaseous generator market opportunities, including continuous-duty, prime rated, distributed generation, demand response, microgrids, and overall use as a distributed energy resource in areas where grid stability is needed. Many of these applications are made possible by our natural gas generators having the capability to participate in available grid services programs, helping to offset the purchase price of the equipment over the product’s lifespan. Expanding our natural gas product offering into larger power nodes is also a part of this growth theme in taking advantage of the continuing shift from diesel to natural gas generators.

Increasingly critical nature and growing power consumption of digital infrastructure. As the number of “connected” devices continues to rapidly increase and wireless networks are considered critical infrastructure in the United States, network reliability and up-time are necessary for our increasingly connected society. This will require highly resilient cell tower sites across the network, and therefore necessitates the need for backup power sources on site at these cell towers. Generac is the leading supplier of backup power to the telecommunications market in the United States, where approximately half of all existing tower sites have yet to be hardened with backup power. As more mission-critical data is transmitted over wireless networks, we believe this penetration rate must increase considerably to maintain a higher level of reliability across the network. We have relationships with key Tier 1 carriers and tower companies globally, in addition to having the distribution partners to provide service support to the global market. We believe these factors coupled with Generac’s ability to customize solutions to each customer’s needs help us to maintain our strength within the global telecommunications market.

Additionally, the rapid increase in data centers is driving increased demand for backup power solutions, given the critical nature of this infrastructure. AI requirements, hyperscalers, and the expansion of edge computing and “connected devices” are expected to double data center power consumption from 2022 to 2030. We believe this significant growth in power consumption, as well as the increasing dependency of society on this next-generation digital infrastructure, will drive demand for backup power and intelligent energy management solutions, both at the individual site level and for the broader electrical grid.

Other Business Drivers

Impact of residential investment cycle. The market for a number of our residential products is affected by the residential investment cycle and overall consumer confidence and sentiment. When homeowners are confident of their household income, the value of their home and overall net worth, they are more likely to invest in their home. These trends can have an impact on demand for residential generators, energy storage systems, and energy management devices. Trends in the new housing market, highlighted by residential housing starts, can also impact demand for these products. Demand for outdoor power equipment is also impacted by several of these factors, as well as weather patterns. The existence of renewable energy mandates, investment tax credits and other subsidies, which have become even more prevalent with the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act, can also have an impact on the demand for solar and energy storage systems.

Impact of business capital investment and other economic cycles. The global market for our C&I products is affected by different capital investment cycles, which can vary widely across the different regions and markets that we serve. These cycles include non-residential building construction, durable goods and infrastructure spending, as well as investments in the exploration and production of oil & gas, as businesses or organizations either add new locations or make investments to upgrade existing locations or equipment. These trends and market conditions can have a material impact on demand for our products. The capital investment cycle may differ for the various C&I end markets that we serve, including light commercial, retail, office, telecommunications, rental, industrial, data centers, healthcare, construction, oil & gas and municipal infrastructure, among others. The market for these products is also affected by general economic conditions, fluctuations in interest rates, and geopolitical matters in the various countries where we serve, as well as credit availability in those regions.

Enterprise Strategy

The mega-trends and strategic growth themes that we have identified support our enterprise strategy, “Powering A Smarter World,” and our purpose statement, “To lead the evolution to more resilient, efficient, and sustainable energy solutions.” As we continue to execute our strategic plan into the future, we are focused on three key objectives: (i) improve energy resilience and independence, (ii) optimize energy efficiency and consumption, and (iii) protect and build critical infrastructure. These objectives are further explained as follows:

Improve energy resilience and independence. Increase power reliability through onsite generation and storage solutions that provide resiliency for homes, businesses and communities.

Homes, businesses, and communities are experiencing a deterioration in the reliable supply of electricity due to a number of factors including: climate change impacts driving more severe and volatile weather leading to increased power outages; a capacity constrained legacy power infrastructure that’s still predominantly a one-way system and remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels; the power infrastructure being impaired by underinvestment making it more susceptible to power outages; and regulatory and legislative actions implementing penalties for carbon intensity coupled with incentives for adoption of more intermittent renewable power sources. Our residential and C&I product offering begins with power generation and storage products including home standby generators, energy storage systems, and C&I generators. These onsite generation and storage solutions provide peace of mind and protection against rising power quality issues by delivering energy resilience and independence for end users and their communities. Many of these onsite solutions are capable of being connected to the grid and can help support overall grid reliability, resiliency and sustainability.

Optimize energy efficiency and consumption. Enable sustainable and more efficient power generation and consumption through monitoring, management and lower-carbon solutions.

The “electrification of everything” is expected to drive increasing demand for electricity over the next several years; including the electrification of transportation, via both electric vehicle adoption and expanding charging infrastructure; the electrification of the home, including HVAC systems and other appliances; and the electrification of commercial and industrial systems. These global electrification trends will require utilities and energy retailers to meaningfully increase the supply and reliability of electricity, while at the same time working to achieve carbon-reduction goals, which is expected to further contribute to a supply/demand imbalance and additional power quality issues. As part of our expanding ecosystems of energy technology solutions, we continue to build out our residential monitoring and management capabilities, which improve energy efficiency and optimize consumption by end users. This includes ecobee’s smart home energy management devices, Tank Utility’s propane tank monitoring solutions, and PWRmanager, our second-generation load control device. We expect to further simplify and integrate our residential product offering into a single ecosystem, leveraging our software development capabilities brought by the ecobee acquisition. This singular system-level platform is intended to serve as the central hub and user interface for consumers to monitor and manage all their DERs, thereby empowering the user to optimize energy efficiency and consumption. Within our global C&I products, we are developing a similar ecosystem of controls that are building off Deep Sea’s system-level controls and Blue Pillar’s industrial IoT network solutions, helping businesses to better optimize their energy efficiency and consumption. These enhanced connectivity capabilities provide the foundation for the continued build out of a centralized system-level platform for our C&I customers to monitor and control all their DERs, including non-Generac assets.

Protect and build critical infrastructure. Offering innovative solutions that enable and protect next-generation power, communications, transportation, and other critical infrastructure.

The critical power infrastructure around the world is becoming more sensitive to the growing electricity supply/demand imbalance. Generac’s suite of products can be connected and synchronized within the Concerto distributed energy resource management system, providing utilities and grid operators the flexibility to access and control these DERs in real-time to better manage the escalating complexities of their electrical grids. When utilized in these applications, our residential and C&I products essentially provide power capacity to utilities and grid operators in the form of a virtual power plant. We believe the next generation of critical power infrastructure will be more decarbonized, digitized and decentralized, and we view the aggregation and management of distributed energy resources as an important aspect in creating the future “Grid 2.0”.

Additionally, the growing power demands and increasingly critical nature of data centers and 5G telecom networks globally makes backup power solutions essential elements for creating resilient next-generation infrastructure. Finally, our broad offering of C&I mobile products (including mobile light towers, mobile power generators, mobile energy storage systems and hybrid generators) play a key role in the completion of infrastructure construction projects, such as roads, highways, bridges, and airports.

See “Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Business Drivers and Operational Factors” for additional drivers that influence demand for our products and other factors affecting the markets that we serve.

Distribution Channels and C****ustomers

We distribute our products through a variety of different distribution channels to increase awareness of our product categories and brands, and to ensure our products reach a broad, global customer base. This omni-channel distribution network includes independent residential dealers, industrial distributors and dealers, national and regional retailers, e-commerce partners, electrical/HVAC/solar wholesalers, solar installers, catalogs, equipment rental companies, and other equipment distributors. We also sell direct to certain national and regional account customers, as well as to individual consumers or businesses who are the end users of our products.

We believe our global distribution network is a competitive advantage that has strengthened over the years as a result of adding, expanding and developing the various distribution channels through which we sell our products. We offer a broad set of tools, programs, factory support, and sales leads to help our distribution partners be successful. Our network is well balanced with no single customer providing more than 4% of our sales in 2023.

We have the industry's largest network of factory direct independent generator dealers in North America. Our residential dealer network is made up of electrical and HVAC contractors across the US and Canada. These dealers sell, install and service our residential and light commercial generators to end users. Over the years, we have made significant investments to grow this dealer network, and we will continue to make those investments in the future given the importance of this channel. We continue to focus on a variety of initiatives to more effectively market and sell our home standby products and better align our dealer network with Generac. These initiatives have helped to improve customer lead quality and develop our dealers, thereby increasing close rates and lowering our cost per lead over time. Over the years, we have made significant investments in our “Power Play” guided sales process for residential dealers, making enhancements in several areas targeted to improve the customer experience and overall close rates. Additionally, our remote monitoring platform allows our residential generator dealers to monitor their installed base of customers through a feature that we call “Fleet”, enabling them to offer a more proactive experience to service a customer’s generator.

In recent years, we have been establishing our base of solar contractors that sell, install and service our PWRcell energy storage systems. Leveraging our decades of expertise in partnering with our residential generator dealers, we believe we can expand our solar installer network and increase mindshare for Generac’s products, helping us to win in the clean energy market. In addition, we have been developing distribution relationships with national solar providers to offer our equipment in their portfolio of products and services. As we continue to roll-out new clean energy products in the future, we expect to accelerate our efforts to expand distribution for these products.

Our industrial distribution network consists of industrial power generation distributors that cover particular regions around the world. Over the past several years, we have been strengthening our dealer network globally through acquisitions and organic means, to increase our C&I product sales and related market share. Additionally, since 2020, we have acquired our industrial distributors in northern and southern California and New England to give us direct coverage of the west coast and northeast regions of the United States and accelerate our efforts in these markets. Industrial distributors and dealers provide C&I end users with ongoing sales, installation, service and product support. Our industrial distributors and dealers help maintain the local relationships with commercial electrical contractors, specifying engineers, and national account regional buying offices. We also sell to certain Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) companies and other companies that specialize in managing more complex power generation projects, including microgrids and “beyond standby” applications.

Our retail distribution channel includes thousands of locations across the globe and includes a variety of regional and national home improvement chains, electronics retailers, clubs, buying groups, hardware stores and farm supply stores. These physical retail locations are supplemented by a large presence of e-commerce retailers, along with a number of catalog retailers. The retail channel primarily sells our residential standby, portable and light-commercial generators, as well as our outdoor power equipment and ecobee smart home energy management devices. The placement of our products at retail locations drives significant awareness for our brands and the automatic home standby generator product category.

Our wholesaler network distributes our residential and light-commercial generators, energy storage systems, and smart home energy management devices. The channel consists of selling branches of both national and local distribution houses for electrical, HVAC and solar products on a wholesale basis, which in turn typically sell to electricians and HVAC/solar installers who are not in our dealer network.

On a selective basis, we have established private label and licensing arrangements with third party partners to provide residential, light-commercial and industrial generators under different brand names. These partners include leading home equipment, electrical equipment and construction machinery companies, each of which provides access to incremental channels of distribution for our products.

The distribution for our C&I mobile products includes international, national, regional and specialty equipment rental companies, equipment distributors, and construction companies which primarily serve non-residential building construction, road construction, energy markets and special events.

We also sell direct to certain customers that are the end users of our products covering a number of end market verticals both domestically and around the world. This includes telecommunication, retail, banking, energy, utilities, healthcare, convenience stores, grocery stores, restaurants, governments, and other commercial applications. Additionally, certain of our residential products are sold direct to individual consumers, who are the end users of the product. In the grid services space, we sell software and equipment direct to utilities and grid operators.

Research and D****evelopment

Our focus on a broad range of energy technology products and solutions drives technological innovation, advanced engineering capabilities, and specialized manufacturing competencies. Research and development (R&D) has been a core competency for Generac since our inception, and today includes a staff of over 1,000 engineers working on numerous projects at various facilities around the world, including our technology centers located in Wisconsin, Nevada, Massachusetts, Suzhou, China, and Mexico City, Mexico. These activities are focused on developing new technologies and product enhancements, as well as maintaining product competitiveness by reducing manufacturing costs, improving safety characteristics, reliability and performance, while ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. We have significant experience using natural gas engines and have developed specific expertise with fuel systems and emissions technology. In the residential and light commercial markets, we have developed proprietary engines, cooling packages, controls, fuel systems and emissions systems.

We have made several acquisitions in recent years that significantly enhanced our R&D capabilities. This includes substantial technical resources in energy storage, monitoring, and power conversion for residential applications, as well as in the C&I energy storage and generator controls spaces. These resources add proficiency in power electronics and battery management software, and we have also added considerable expertise in designing and prototyping energy efficiency products. We have significantly increased our software development capabilities across a variety of applications, including system-level controls, remote monitoring, and distributed energy resource management systems. Combining advanced software development with the expansion of our electrical engineering resources is expected to accelerate our energy technology efforts.

We also have engineering and product management resources focused on evaluating and developing alternative technologies that are emerging and could become commercially viable over the long term such as fuel cells and hydrogen. As we continue to evaluate new technologies that are more decarbonized, digitized, and decentralized, we believe that our expertise in energy technology solutions provides us with the capability to develop new products and services that will allow continued diversification and differentiation in our end markets.

Intellectual Property

We are committed to research and development, and we rely on a combination of patents and trademarks to help establish and protect our proprietary rights. Our patents protect certain features and technologies we have developed for use in our products including fuel systems, air flow, electronics and controls, noise reduction, air-cooled engines, energy management, energy monitoring, energy storage, and load management. We believe the existence of these patents and trademarks, along with our ongoing processes to register additional patents and trademarks, help protect our intellectual property rights and enhance our brands and competitive position. We also use proprietary manufacturing processes that require customized equipment. With our continuous focus on research and development, we expect to develop new intellectual property on an ongoing basis.

See “Item 1A. Risk Factors” for additional factors related to intellectual property rights that can affect our business.

Manufacturing

We operate numerous manufacturing plants, distribution facilities and inventory warehouses located throughout the world. We store finished goods at third-party logistics providers in the United States that accommodate material storage and rapid response requirements of our customers. See “Item 2 – Properties” for additional details regarding the locations and activities of our principal operations.

In recent years, we have added and continue to add manufacturing capacity through investments in automation, improved utilization, and the expansion of our manufacturing footprint through organic means as well as through acquisitions. In 2023, we announced plans to build a new manufacturing facility in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin that will expand our production capacity and increase our vertical integration capabilities for certain C&I product lines. Our ability to increase capacity has been critical to executing our strategic growth priorities. We believe our vertical integration and scale in home standby generators provides a material benefit in our ability to maintain industry-leading output with state-of-the-art manufacturing processes, especially when demand for our products can increase rapidly with very short notice.

Suppliers of Raw M****aterials, Components and Equipment

Our primary raw material inputs are steel, copper and aluminum, all of which are purchased from third parties and, in many cases, as part of machined or manufactured components. In certain instances, we purchase complete equipment or systems from third-party suppliers, including from contract manufacturers. Given our increasing focus on energy technology solutions, advanced electronic components and micro-processors have become a larger consideration within our supply chain. Within the clean energy market, batteries are a significant supply chain input for our energy storage systems. Over multiple decades, we have developed an extensive network of reliable suppliers in the United States and around the world. We continuously evaluate the quality and cost structure of our purchased components and equipment and assess the capabilities of our supply chain. Components and equipment are sourced accordingly based on this evaluation. For certain products, we do not have internal manufacturing capabilities and rely upon a small number of contract manufacturers to build these products or supply these components, including but not limited to certain energy technology products or components.

See “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for additional information regarding the impact of other macroeconomic factors.

See “Item 1A. Risk Factors” for additional factors that can influence our supply of raw materials, components and equipment.

Competition

The market for power generation equipment, energy storage systems, energy management solutions, and other engine powered products is competitive. We face competition from a variety of large diversified industrial companies as well as smaller generator manufacturers, along with mobile equipment, engine powered tools, solar inverter, battery storage, smart thermostat, and grid services providers, both domestic and internationally.

Specifically in the generator market, most of the traditional participants compete on a more focused basis, targeting specific applications within their larger diversified product mix. We are the only significant market participant with a primary focus on power equipment with a key emphasis on standby, portable and mobile generators with broad capabilities across the residential, light-commercial and industrial markets. We believe that our engineering capabilities and core focus on generators provide us with manufacturing flexibility and enable us to maintain a competitive advantage for product innovation. We also believe our broad product offering, diverse omni-channel distribution model and strong factory support provide additional advantages as well.

The Company in recent years has been evolving its business model toward more of a focus on energy technology solutions and services, which has introduced a new set of competitors.

A summary of the primary competitors across our main product classes is as follows:

Residential products – Kohler, Briggs & Stratton, Cummins, Honda, Champion, Techtronics International, Husqvarna, Ariens, LG Chem, Tesla, Enphase, Solar Edge, Google, Resideo, and Emerson along with a number of other domestic and foreign competitors; certain of which also have broad operations in other manufacturing businesses.

C&I products – Caterpillar, Cummins, Kohler, IGSA, AKSA, MultiQuip, Wacker, Doosan, Atlas Copco, Himoinsa, FG Wilson, Woodward, Planelec, and Co-map, as well as other domestic and foreign competitors; certain of which focus on the market for diesel generators as they are also diesel engine manufacturers. Also, we compete against other regional packagers that serve local markets throughout the world.

Other products – Relative to service parts and extended warranty revenue, all of the above-named companies are primary competitors. Relative to grid services optimization software, Autogrid and Energy Hub, along with other grid service solution providers, are primary competitors.

In a continuously evolving market, we believe our scale and broad capabilities make us well positioned to remain competitive. We compete primarily based on brand reputation, quality, reliability, pricing, innovative features, breadth of product offering, product availability and factory support.

Government Incentives and Regulation, including Environmental Matters

Generac’s growing presence in energy technology solutions has increased our exposure to renewable energy mandates, investment tax credits and other demand-creation subsidies from certain existing and potential government incentives, such as incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed in 2022. These incentives cover a wide range of products and solutions, including MLPE solutions, solar plus storage systems, grid services, and grid-edge devices, and the availability, size, and outlook for such incentives can impact the markets for these products and solutions. Additionally, in 2023 Generac was selected by the Department of Energy to participate in two federally backed projects in Puerto Rico and Massachusetts that are focused on improving grid resiliency and efficiency with our residential energy technology solutions.

As a manufacturing company, our operations are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations covering environmental, health and safety matters. Applicable laws and regulations include those governing, among other things, emissions to air, discharges to water, noise and employee safety, as well as the generation, handling, storage, transportation, treatment, and disposal of waste and other materials. In addition, our products are subject to various laws and regulations relating to, among other things, emissions and fuel requirements, as well as labeling, storage, transport, and marketing.

Our products sold in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California Air Resources Board (CARB) and various other state and local air quality management districts. These governing bodies continue to pass regulations that require us to meet more stringent emission standards, and all of our engines and engine-driven products are regulated within the United States and its territories. In addition, certain products in the United States are subject to safety standards as established by various other standards and rulemaking bodies, or state and local agencies, including the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Similarly, other countries have varying degrees of regulation for our products, depending upon product application and fuel types.

See “Item 1A. Risk Factors” for additional legal and regulatory factors that can affect the products we sell and the results of our operations.

Environment, Social, and Governance Program

We continue to advance our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) program and published an expanded ESG Report in April of 2023. This report details our progress in executing the ESG goals and initiatives that align with our “Powering a Smarter World” enterprise strategy and our purpose statement: 'To lead the evolution to more resilient, efficient, and sustainable energy solutions.' The ESG Report contains an expanded list of key performance indicators and data points, and aligns with a number of voluntary ESG frameworks such as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). The information provided within our ESG Report published in April of 2023, or any future ESG Report, is not part of this report and is therefore not incorporated herein by reference. A copy of the ESG Report is available from our Investor Relations webpage at Generac.com. We plan to publish an updated ESG Report in April of 2024 that coincides with the filing of our annual Proxy Statement.

See “Item 1A. Risk Factors” for additional factors related to our ESG Program.

Human Capital

"Our People" is one of the foundational elements to our “Powering a Smarter World” enterprise strategy and is a corporate value as well. We foster a culture of diversity and engagement to strengthen our company while supporting individual achievement, equity, inclusivity and good corporate citizenship globally. We believe our success is directly tied to our employees’ professional growth and personal well-being, combined with strong families and communities.

Some examples of key human capital programs and initiatives that we are focused on include:

Health, wellness and safety – Employee health and safety is the Company’s top priority. Generac’s total rewards program is based on the four pillars of balance, security, well-being and community. These programs are designed to meet the varied and evolving needs of our diverse workforce. We maintain an employee wellness program, incentivize healthy-living activities, and we develop and administer company-wide policies to help ensure the safety of each employee and compliance with government agency and other standards.

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) – At Generac, people with diverse backgrounds and points of view work together to support our customers around the globe. As an inclusive workplace, our employees embrace diversity in all forms, celebrate differences, and treat others with equality and respect. Generac is also focused on building understanding and awareness of DEI through education and open communication. We sponsor a variety of employee-led Business Employee Resource Groups (BERGs) to facilitate networking and strong connections with peers and leadership, and to increase the listening and learning opportunities across our workforce. We continue to expand our DEI Learning Library and we partner with community job agencies representing disabled clients and workforce release programs to provide job opportunities to those who face barriers to employment.

Talent development & employee engagement – Our success is directly tied to our employees and what we can accomplish together. We prioritize creating opportunities to help employees build careers and support their growth as part of a meaningful and valuable employee experience. We hold internal career development events as well as partner with local educational resources to offer on the job learning, collaborative work experiences and formal learning programs on lean methodology and project management skills to support progressions and advancement of our workforce. Further, we maintain an ongoing global employee engagement initiative with targeted action plans by region, function, and business group. Action plans and their progress are measured by global employee engagement surveys.

As of December 31, 2023, we had 8,600 employees (8,315 full time and 285 part-time and temporary employees). Of those, approximately 3,500 employees were directly or indirectly involved in manufacturing at our manufacturing facilities.

Domestically, we have had an “open shop” bargaining agreement for the past 50 years. The current agreement, which expires October 17, 2026, covers our Eagle, Wisconsin facility. Additionally, our plants in Mexico, Italy, Germany, and Spain are operated under various local or national union groups, or works councils. Our other facilities are not unionized.

Available Information

The Company’s principal executive offices are located at S45 W29290 Highway 59, Waukesha, Wisconsin, 53189 and the Company’s telephone number is (262) 544-4811. The Company’s website is www.generac.com. The Company’s annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports are available free of charge through the “Investor Relations” portion of the Company’s web site, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The information provided on these websites is not part of this report and is therefore not incorporated herein by reference.

Information About Our Executive O****fficers

The following table sets forth information regarding our executive officers:

Name		Age		Position
Aaron P. Jagdfeld		52		President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
York A. Ragen		52		Chief Financial Officer
Erik Wilde		49		Executive Vice President, Industrial, Americas
Patrick Forsythe		56		Chief Technical Officer
Raj Kanuru		53		Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Norman Taffe		57		President, Energy Technology
Kyle Raabe		49		President, Consumer Power

Aaron P. Jagdfeld has served as our Chief Executive Officer since September 2008, as a director since November 2006 and was named Chairman in February 2016. Prior to becoming Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jagdfeld worked for Generac for 15 years. He began his career in the finance department in 1994 and became our Chief Financial Officer in 2002. In 2007, he was appointed President and was responsible for sales, marketing, engineering and product development. Prior to joining Generac, Mr. Jagdfeld worked in the audit practice of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin office of Deloitte and Touche. Mr. Jagdfeld holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

York A. Ragen has served as our Chief Financial Officer since September 2008. Prior to becoming Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Ragen held Director of Finance and Vice President of Finance positions at Generac. Prior to joining Generac in 2005, Mr. Ragen was Vice President, Corporate Controller at APW Ltd., a spin-off from Applied Power Inc., now known as Enerpac Tool Group. Mr. Ragen began his career at Arthur Andersen in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin office audit practice. Mr. Ragen holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Erik Wilde began serving as our Executive Vice President, Industrial, Americas in July 2016. Mr. Wilde was Vice President and General Manager of the Mining Division for Komatsu America Corp., a manufacturer of construction, mining, and compact construction equipment, from 2013 until he joined Generac. Prior to that role, he held leadership positions as Vice President of the ICT Business Division and Product Marketing at Komatsu America Corp. beginning in 2005. Mr. Wilde holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management from Boise State University and an M.B.A. from the Keller Graduate School of Management.

Patrick Forsythe has served as our Chief Technical Officer since January 2021. He previously served as our Executive Vice President of Global Engineering beginning in July 2015. Prior to re-joining Generac, Mr. Forsythe was Vice President, Global Engineering & Technology of Hayward Industries from 2008 to 2015, Vice President, Global Engineering at Ingersoll Rand Company (and the acquired Doosan Infracore International) from 2004 to 2008, and Director of Engineering at Ingersoll Rand Company from 2002 to 2004. Prior to 2002, Mr. Forsythe worked in various engineering management capacities with Generac from 1995 to 2002. Mr. Forsythe holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ulster (United Kingdom), a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and an M.S. in Manufacturing Management & Technology from The Open University (United Kingdom).

Raj Kanuru is our Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary and is the Company’s principal legal and compliance officer, roles that he has held since joining Generac in 2013. Prior to joining Generac, Mr. Kanuru served as in-house counsel at Caterpillar Inc. for almost 14 years within various leadership roles, including in Caterpillar’s Securities, Regulatory and Tax group, in Caterpillar Financial, and in Caterpillar’s Energy & Transportation group. From 2009 to 2013, Mr. Kanuru served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Progress Rail Services Inc., and its subsidiaries (a Caterpillar company). He began his legal career as a senior associate in the tax consulting practice of Arthur Andersen LLP. Mr. Kanuru holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance degree from Birmingham-Southern College and received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama.

Norman Taffe began serving as President – Energy Technology in August 2022. Prior to joining Generac, Mr. Taffe was Executive Vice President North America Residential of SunPower Corporation from 2018 to 2021. Prior to this, Mr. Taffe was Executive Vice President - Products and Vice President of Power Plant Products and Solutions from 2013 to 2018. Mr. Taffe also worked in various engineering and marketing management capacities at Cypress Semiconductor from 1989 to 2012, including Executive Vice President – Consumer & Computation Devices from 2005 to 2012. Mr. Taffe holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an Executive MBA from Harvard Business School.

Kyle Raabe has served as our President, Consumer Power since November 2019. Prior to rejoining Generac, Mr. Raabe was Senior Vice President of North American Sales, Demand Planning and Sales Operations from 2018 through 2019 and Vice President of Sales for the Commercial Security and Safety groups from 2015 through 2018 at The Master Lock Corporation, a manufacturer of locks, combination padlocks and other security products. Prior to working at The Master Lock Corporation, Mr. Raabe led multiple groups at Generac Power Systems from 2007 through 2015 as Director of Wholesale and Dealer Distribution, Vice President Wholesale Distribution Sales and Vice President, Industrial Distribution Sales. Before joining Generac, Mr. Raabe served at Veolia North America, Environmental Services leading Midwest Regional Service Operations. Mr. Raabe holds a BA, Biological Science from Lawrence University.