Hydrogen Energy Industry Expert and CEO of Air Liquide Advanced Business
Brings Extensive International Experience to Plug Power's Board of Directors
LATHAM, N.Y., June 20, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Plug Power Inc. (Nasdaq:PLUG), a leader in providing clean, reliable energy solutions, has been advised that Eric Prades, CEO of Air Liquide Advanced Business, will join its board of directors as a director.
Prades brings more than 20 years of international strategic and operations leadership from his work at Air Liquide, especially in Hydrogen Energy markets. Since 2008, the Group has grown to become a leader within the European hydrogen industry, having deployed hundreds of hydrogen fuel-cell systems.
Prades also oversees the Horizon Hydrogen Energy (H2E) program, an ambitious 200 million Euro research and development program, working to build sustainable and competitive hydrogen-energy solutions in France, throughout 2009 to 2016. The program, lead by Air Liquide, involves 19 other French companies, and is funded by Oseo, the French agency for innovation.
Before joining Air Liquide, Prades was at Thomson Group, where he had extensive operations experience in Europe and Asia through a variety of positions, ending as the General Manager of Operations for Thailand.
Prades joins the Plug Power board as part of a strategic $6.5 million investment that will help fuel the company's strategy to grow its hydrogen fuel cell business for forklift trucks and other horizontal markets. The company's flagship GenDrive fuel cells are successfully deployed at customer sites such as Walmart, Sysco, P&G, BMW and the recently announced Ace Hardware Corp.
"Eric's deep understanding of the technology and business dynamics of the hydrogen fuel cell market makes him a perfect candidate for our board of directors," said Andy Marsh, President and CEO of Plug Power. "I am pleased to welcome Eric to our board and I look forward to working with him as we grow Plug Power."
About Plug Power Inc.
The architects of modern fuel cell technology, Plug Power revolutionized the industry with cost-effective power solutions that increase productivity, lower operating costs and reduce carbon footprints. Long-standing relationships with industry leaders forged the path for Plug Power's key accounts, including Walmart, Sysco, P&G and Mercedes. With more than 4,000 GenDrive units deployed to material handling customers, accumulating over 10 million hours of runtime, Plug Power manufactures tomorrow's incumbent power solutions today. Additional information about Plug Power is available at www.plugpower.com.
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This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on current expectations that are subject to certain assumptions, risks and uncertainties, any of which are difficult to predict, are beyond our control and that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations in such forward-looking statements, including the risk that we may not have sufficient cash to fund our operations to profitability and that we may be required to seek strategic alternatives, including but not limited to a potential business combination or a sale of the company, or reduce and/or cease our operations, that unit orders will not ship, be installed and/or convert to revenue, in whole or in part; development of our products may take longer and cost more than we expect and we may not be able to raise the necessary capital to fund such development costs; we may not be able to increase the margin on the sale of our products as much as expected or at all ; our actual net cash used for operating expenses may exceed our projected net cash for operating expenses; the fuel and fueling infrastructures for our products may not be available or may cost more than expected; our GenDrive system may not reach wider market acceptance; we may not be able to establish and maintain necessary relationships with third parties for product development, manufacturing, distribution and servicing and the supply of key product components; components and parts for our products may not be available or may cost more than expected; we may be unable to develop commercially viable products; we may be unable to reduce product and manufacturing costs; we may be unable to successfully expand our product lines; we may be unable to improve system reliability for GenDrive; we may suffer price competition and competition from other traditional and alternative energy companies; we may be unable to manufacture products on a large-scale commercial basis; we may be unable to protect our intellectual property; compliance with current and future governmental regulations may be costly; and other risks and uncertainties discussed under "Item IA-Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on April 1, 2013 and as amended on April 30, 2013, and the reports we file from time to time with the SEC. We do not intend to, and we undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.