Pineapple Energy Enhances Board of Directors in Preparation for Public Listing

--Two New Appointments Rounds Out Board to Seven Members— 

--New Appointments Add More Financing and Solar Expertise—

--Merger Vote Scheduled for March 16, 2022--

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pineapple Energy LLC (“Pineapple”), today announced two additional appointments to its anticipated post-merger Board of Directors. The new directors bring significant experience in financing and residential solar, further preparing Pineapple for post-merger life as a publicly traded company. In March 2021, Pineapple and publicly traded Communications Systems Inc. (“CSI”) (NASDAQ: JCS) entered into a merger agreement, that upon closing, would create a new company focused on the residential rooftop solar and storage business in the U.S. CSI has scheduled a shareholder vote to approve the merger on March 16, 2022.

Kyle Udseth, Co-Founder and CEO of Pineapple noted, “We are preparing Pineapple Energy to ‘hit the ground running’ after our anticipated merger closes. The additions of Marilyn Adler and Tom Holland to the post-merger board brings us deep expertise in financing and residential solar. We expect both individuals to be significant contributors to our success. With their appointments, our seven directors would represent a wide range of talent and energy, and would help us pursue our objective to grow into one of the largest rooftop solar and storage companies in the U.S.”

New Directors

Upon the anticipated closing of the merger, the combined company will formally appoint the following to its Board of Directors:

Marilyn Adler is a founder of Mizzen Capital, a private credit fund, and has been a Managing Partner there since March 2019. Prior to launching Mizzen, Ms. Adler held senior management roles with several Small Business Investment Company funds. Prior to that, she worked in the fixed income group at Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, a Fortune 100 financial services organization, and before that was an investment banker at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Ms. Adler earned an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and a BS with distinction from Cornell University in 1987.

Tom Holland is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Homebound Inc., a California-based housing company. Previously, he had two stints as a partner with management consultant Bain & Company, from 2018 to 2021 and 1989 to 2013. Holland also has significant operating experience: he was the CEO of Century Snacks, LLC, a California-based food manufacturing company, and was COO and later President of SunRun Inc., an industry leading provider of residential solar panels and home batteries. Mr. Holland holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Post-Merger Board of Directors

Ms. Adler and Mr. Holland round out an exceptionally strong Board that will also include:

Kyle Udseth, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pineapple, who previously served in multiple executive roles at SunRun and Sunnova, which are leading national residential solar companies.

Roger Lacey, executive chairman of the CSI board of directors, who also served as CSI’s chief executive officer or acting chief executive officer from February 2015 through November 30, 2020 and from August 2, 2021 until the present. Mr. Lacey has served as a CSI director since 2008. Previously he served in executive positions at 3M Company, a multinational industrial and consumer products company.

Randall Sampson, CSI director since 1999 and lead independent director since December 2018. Since 1994, Mr. Sampson has been the president, chief executive officer, and a board member of Canterbury Park Holding Corporation, a horse racing and pari-mutuel betting venue based in Minnesota.

Scott Honour, Managing Partner of Northern Pacific Group, a Wayzata, Minnesota based private equity firm, where he has served since 2012. Northern Pacific is a significant investor in Pineapple Energy. Previously, he was a Senior Managing Director of The Gores Group, a Los Angeles based private equity firm, and before that was an investment banker at UBS Warburg and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.

Michael Zapata, director of CSI since June 2020. Mr. Zapata has led Schmitt Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMIT) since December 2018. Mr. Zapata is also the founder and Managing Member of Sententia Capital Management, LLC, an investment management firm. Prior to Sententia, Mr. Zapata served nearly 10 years in the U.S. Navy.

About Pineapple Energy LLC

Pineapple Energy was founded to acquire and grow leading local and regional solar, storage, and energy services companies nationwide. Pineapple’s vision is to power the energy transition through grass-roots growth of solar electricity paired with battery storage on consumers' homes. Pineapple puts the customer at the heart of everything it does, building long-term relationships to create and share in recurring revenue from the electric grid of the future. Pineapple's cornerstone acquisitions of certain assets of Sungevity and Horizon Solar Power in December 2020 brought an installed customer base of 44,000+ solar customers across 12 states.

On March 16, 2022, Communications Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: JCS) (“CSI”) will hold a special meeting of shareholders to vote to approve the definitive merger agreement entered with Pineapple in March 2021. If approved, the merger is expected to close within two business days, at which time the merged entity will continue to be publicly traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol PEGY. Furthermore, Pineapple expects to close its purchase of Hawaii Energy Company and E-Gear concurrently with the closing of the CSI-Pineapple merger transaction. For more information about the CSI-Pineapple merger transaction and certain factors related the merger, please read the Prospectus filed on Form 424B3 on February 3, 2022. The Prospectus can be accessed on the SEC EDGAR website.