In an email announcement on January 30, Elephant Energy announced the appointment of Kathy Murphy to be the next executive director of the company.

Murphy takes over from Dough Vilsack who is transitioning to become chair of the board of directors of the organization.

Elephant Energy is based in both Colorado and Namibia and works to distribute cheap, “affordable and appropriate” sources of energy in Namibia in Southern Africa and to the Navajo Nation in the United States.

The new executive director has been with the company since 2010. Since then she has overseen the development of the organization’s first energy shop in Namibia, according to a statement released by Vilsack. The transition comes at a time when Elephant Energy’s operation in Namibia is growing, the announcement added.

Recently the organization has received grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Energy and Environmental Partnership (EEP) for Southern Africa, and the Helen L. Franklin Trust. These grants, the organization says, have allowed them to expand in places like Namibia and the Navajo Nation.

Elephant Energy is a U.S 501(C) 3 non-profit and was founded by Vilsack, a Colorado lawyer, in 2008.