Survival effort has new leader

SARASOTA — Sunovia Energy Technologies, a lighting company in a major cash crunch and turnaround effort, has named Patricia Meringer, the firm's lead in-house attorney, as chairwoman of the board.

Meringer has been Sunovia's corporate counsel since October 2010. She practiced corporate law for more than 20 years before she joined the firm, both in New Orleans and Sarasota. Meringer's chief tasks in the early going, according to a Sunovia statement, will be to build and diversify the board of directors and implement governance best practices. “Patricia's expertise in corporate governance will be extremely important to the company in the near term,” Sunovia interim CEO Erich Hofer says in a statement.

Meringer's promotion comes a month after the previous CEO, Art Buckland, left the firm. Buckland was hired in August 2010 to lead a shift in the company from solar lights to light emitting diodes, or LEDs. The solar strategy didn't pan out, and the firm ultimately reported $70 million in losses over four years.

Sunovia lost $820,000 in the third quarter, an improvement over the $2.12 million loss it reported in the 2010 third quarter.