Drew Baglino

Founder and CEO Heron Power

Last Reviewed: September 23, 2026

Executive Summary

Drew Baglino is the Founder and CEO of Heron Power, which builds solid-state transformers. These are power electronics meant to replace the century-old transformer technology that connects solar, batteries and AI data centers to the grid. He founded the company in 2024 after 18 years at Tesla. He joined Tesla as an engineer in 2006 and left in April 2024 as Senior Vice President, Powertrain and Energy Engineering, one of its reporting executive officers. Heron is his first company. It has raised a $38 million Series A and a $140 million Series B, and is converting a 286,000 square foot plant in Morgan Hill, California to begin mass production in late 2027.

Career Highlights

• Founded Heron Power in 2024 and serves as its CEO; the company is based in Scotts Valley, California.
• Raised a $38M Series A led by Capricorn Investment Group in May 2025, and a $140M Series B co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Breakthrough Energy Ventures in February 2026.
• Chose Morgan Hill, California for Heron Factory One in August 2026. The plant is designed for more than 40 GW a year of output and is supported by a $26.4M California Competes award.
• Secured a $60M credit facility from J.P. Morgan and TriplePoint Capital, and added former Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn to the board, in September 2026.
• Tesla’s Senior Vice President, Powertrain and Energy Engineering from October 2019 until his resignation in April 2024, after engineering roles there from March 2006.
• Holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Professional Journey

Baglino studied electrical engineering at Stanford and joined Tesla in March 2006, when it was still a small company developing its first car. He spent his entire career there before Heron. According to Heron Power, he started as an electrical engineer, became an architect of the Model S, and in 2014 formed Tesla’s energy engineering organization, the group behind its stationary storage business. Heron also credits him with leading development of Tesla’s 4680 battery cell and dry-electrode manufacturing process.

In October 2019 he became Senior Vice President, Powertrain and Energy Engineering, and a Section 16 officer filing his own ownership reports with the SEC. He held that title until he resigned, effective 14 April 2024. Tesla’s 8-K announcing his departure thanked him for contributions over “his 18-year career”.

He founded Heron Power the same year. His argument is that grid equipment has hardly changed in fifty years, and that the conventional transformer is now a bottleneck for connecting new generation, storage and computing load. Heron’s product, Heron Link, is a modular solid-state transformer that connects low-voltage DC technologies such as solar, batteries and AI compute directly to medium-voltage AC grids. The company offers versions for solar and storage developers and for data centers.

Investors followed quickly, and many had Tesla connections. The $38 million Series A in May 2025 was led by Capricorn Investment Group. Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Gigascale Capital, Powerhouse Ventures and Valor Equity Partners joined, along with Tesla co-founder JB Straubel and former Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn, bringing total funding to $43 million. The $140 million Series B followed in February 2026, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism Fund and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The company said then that it had identified more than 40 GW of early customer interest.

In 2026 the company moved from engineering toward manufacturing. In August it chose Morgan Hill, California for Heron Factory One, a 286,000 square foot facility involving more than $100 million of investment and a $26.4 million California Competes award. The plant is designed to build up to 10,000 Heron Links a year, more than 40 GW of capacity, with mass production scheduled for late 2027. In September Heron added a $60 million credit facility from J.P. Morgan and TriplePoint Capital, and Kirkhorn, an investor and adviser since the Series A, joined its board.

Education

Stanford University

B.S., Electrical Engineering