HORSHAM: Ceres Power Holdings, a global leader in fuel cell technology and engineering, announcesd the appointment of Mark Garrett as Chief Operating Officer joining the Executive Management board, effective from 10 August 2020.

Mark joins Ceres from Ricardo plc, where he held various positions including Chief Operating Officer and Group Strategy Officer. During his time at Ricardo, Mark led both the US and European automotive divisions as well as establishing Shanghai Automotive’s UK Technical Centre. Before joining Ricardo in 1998, Mark spent his early career with Rover Group leading the development of powertrains for the MGF and BMW Mini.

Over a 35-year career, Mark has gained significant understanding of high-tech engineering, business and operational innovation, strategy and M&A that will bring tremendous value to Ceres in the next phase of its growth as it seeks to embed its technology with a greater number of customers, applications and geographies.

Mark succeeds the Company’s current Chief Operating Officer James Falla, who will leave Ceres in August 2020 to pursue other opportunities.

Phil Caldwell, Chief Executive Officer of Ceres, commented: “Mark is the right person joining at the right time to drive the future scaling of our business. He brings a wealth of engineering, project management, strategy and manufacturing experience to the team and I look forward to working with him to maximise the potential for Ceres’ technologies in the global clean energy transition.

“It has been a pleasure to work with James Falla over the past five years and I am joined by our Board in thanking him for his important contribution and to wishing him the very best in his future endeavours.”

Mark said of his appointment: “I am delighted to be joining a clean energy company that is fast-setting the industry standard in solid oxide technology at such an exciting time in its development. I look forward to starting work with Phil and his team this summer.”

Mark is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of both the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Academy of Engineering. Mark is also the non-executive chairman of Secured By Design (Automotive) Ltd. which provides market intelligence in the area of secured, connected and autonomous vehicle technology. In January 2020, he was appointed as a lay council member at Brunel University.