Andy Marsh joined Plug as President and CEO in April 2008. Under his leadership, Plug is a leading innovator in the renewable energy field, helping to create the first commercially viable market for green hydrogen and fuel cell (HFC) technology. After successful endeavors to commercialize HFC technology in the material handling industry, customers such as Amazon and Walmart, turned to Plug to develop world-class hydrogen solutions that solve every step of operations, which led Plug to build an end-to-end green hydrogen ecosystem. With the ecosystem, Plug provides production, storage and handling, delivery, transportation and dispensing of hydrogen to allow its customers to meet their business goals and decarbonize the economy.
As President and CEO, Mr. Marsh plans and directs all aspects of the company’s goals and objectives, and is focused on building a company that leverages Plug’s combination of technological expertise, talented people and focus on sales growth to continue the company’s leadership stance in the future energy economy. Under his leadership, Plug’s revenue increased by more than 296% since 2012 and has landed Plug on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500TM list in both 2015 and 2016.
Previously, Mr. Marsh was a co-founder of Valere Power, where he served as CEO and Board Member from the company’s inception in 2001 and through its sale to Eltek ASA in 2007. During his leadership, Valere grew into a profitable global operation with more than 200 employees and $90 million in revenue derived from the sale of DC power products to the telecommunications sector. Also during Mr. Marsh’s tenure, Valere Power received many awards such as the Tech Titan award as the fastest growing technology company in the Dallas Fort Worth area and the Red Herring Top 100 Innovator Award. Prior to founding Valere, he spent almost 18 years with Lucent Bell Laboratories in a variety of sales and technical management positions.
Mr. Marsh is chairman of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association and a member of the Hydrogen Council. He holds a master’s in electrical engineering from Duke University and a master’s in business administration from SMU.
Paul Middleton joined Plug as Chief Financial Officer in 2014, bringing a proven background in strategy, mergers and acquisitions, controls and risk management for manufacturing and technology companies.
Prior to Plug, Mr. Middleton worked at Rogers Corp., a global manufacturer and distributor of specialty polymer composite materials and components. During his tenure at Rogers, Mr. Middleton served in many senior financial leadership roles including Corporate Controller and Principal Accounting Officer, Treasure and Interim Chief Financial Officer. Prior to Rogers, Mr. Middleton managed all financial administration for the tools division of Cooper Industries.
Mr. Middleton holds a master’s in and a bachelor’s in business administration BA from the University of Central Florida. Additionally, he is a Certified Public Accountant.
In 2021, Tim Cortes was promoted to Chief Technology Officer for Plug. His focus includes responsibility for the company’s long-term technology strategy and vision. Mr. Cortes works with the leadership team to develop technology roadmaps, design solutions and implement processes that make technology development a significant differentiator for Plug. He collaborates with industry leaders and assesses customer needs to ensure that the organization proactively anticipates, supports, and solves technical problems in support of customer issues. Additionally, Mr. Cortes identifies potential M&A opportunities that will drive the technology roadmaps as well as position Plug Power to vertically integrate in key component and subsystem elements.
Mr. Cortes joined Plug as Vice President of Hydrogen Energy Systems in January of 2015. Prior to joining Plug, Mr. Cortes served as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering at Smiths Power. In these positions, he was responsible for research and development, as well as solutions for global applications. During his tenure at Smiths Power, Mr. Cortes led product line expansion that resulted in a doubling of revenue growth in less than six years.
Mr. Cortes holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University. Additionally, he holds several patents covering power system architecture.
Sanjay Shrestha joined Plug Power as Chief Strategy Officer in 2019. Prior to joining Plug, Mr. Shrestha served as the CIO of a global solar IPP and President of Sky Capital Americas since 2015. Under his leadership, Sky Capital America built and acquired over 100MW of operating solar assets and secured a pipeline over 100MW. He also sourced various types of financing solutions to support this growth including project debt, construction equity and long-term equity. Before global solar IPP, he led the renewables investment banking effort at FBR Capital markets. During 2014, and under his leadership, the firm was ranked among the top renewable energy underwriters in the U.S.
Prior to joining FBR, Mr. Shrestha spent seven years as the global head of renewables research coverage at Lazard Capital Markets. During his tenure at Lazard Capital Markets, he was a member of the Institutional Investor All America Research team and was also ranked as one of the top five stock pickers on a global basis. Prior to Lazard Capital Markets, Mr. Shrestha spent seven years at First Albany Capital, where he built the firm’s renewables and industrial research practice. Starmine/Forbes Magazine ranked him the number 1 stock picker and the number 1 earnings estimator during his tenure at First Albany Capital. Mr. Shrestha serves as an independent director on the board of directors of Fusemachines, an AI company.
Mr. Shrestha holds an Honorary Doctorate from Saint Rose College.
Jose Luis Crespo, General Manager of Applications, is responsible for the global business strategy, sales growth and market entry of all of Plug’s fuel cell products. He joined Plug as Vice President of Business Development and International Sales in 2014 and was promoted to Vice President of Global Sales in January of 2015 and Executive Vice President of Global Sales in 2020.
Under Mr. Crespo’s leadership, Plug has seen tremendous growth in fuel cell adoption, securing multi-site global customers including Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot, GM and Stellantis. Plug has additionally secured Carrefour in France and ASDA in the UK and continues to expand its European presence. Mr. Crespo has enabled accelerated adoption of hydrogen fuel cells and today there are more than 50,000 GenDrive products operational in electric material handling equipment.
Prior to joining Plug, Mr. Crespo served as Vice President of International Value Stream at Smiths Power. He successfully brought together two international business divisions, including sales, manufacturing, and field support. Under his leadership, Smiths Power achieved combined sales of $14M in the first year after the acquisition.
Mr. Crespo holds an MBA in global management from the University of Phoenix and a degree in telecommunications engineering from the Engineering University of Madrid, Spain.
Chris Suriano joined Plug as Executive Vice President of Service in 2019, bringing nearly two decades of experience in the Power Generation Services business in a variety of technical, commercial, operational and P&L leadership roles. His most recent previous experience was as Region Director for Field Core, Inc., a GE company where he led the successful startup of a new Field Services organization in the Northern United States.
Prior to Field Core, Mr. Suriano held multiple leadership positions with GE over the course of 16 years with the company, including Service Director for Power Service, North Operations Leader for Power Generation Service, and Global Steam Turbine Leader for Power Generation Service.
Mr. Suriano earned his bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Manhattan College.
Tammy Kimble is a Human Resource leader with over 25 years of global experience as a business partner in multiple industries. She joined Plug as Vice President of Human Resources in 2019, having served SEFCU in a similar capacity since 2015. Ms. Kimble’s specialties include organizational development, coaching, staffing, benefits, compensation, HRIS, succession planning/talent planning, mergers & acquisitions, and organizational transitions. Her prior career experience includes executive leadership roles at such companies as Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation, Momentive Performance Materials and Berkshire Bank.
Ms. Kimble holds an MBA with an emphasis in human resources from Sage Graduate School and a bachelor’s from Siena College. She has also served as an adjunct professor at The Sage Colleges, the Lally School of Business at RPI, and Siena College.
Gerard Conway joined Plug as Associate General Counsel in 2000 and was promoted to General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in 2004. As General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, he is responsible for advising the Company on legal issues such as corporate law, securities, contracts, strategic alliances and intellectual property.
Mr. Conway also oversees governmental affairs. In this role, he advocates on energy issues, policies, legislation and regulations on the state, federal, national and international levels on behalf of Plug and the alternative energy sector.
Prior to joining Plug, Mr. Conway spent four years as an Associate with Featherstonhaugh, Conway, Wiley & Clyne, LLP, where he concentrated in government relations, business and corporate law. Mr. Conway has more than 20 years of experience in general business, corporate real estate and government relations.
Mr. Conway holds a Juris Doctorate from the Boston University School of Law. He received a bachelor’s in English from Colgate University.
Meryl Mallery is the Vice President of Engineering where she is responsible for the design and development of products to support the growth and profitability of both the Applications and Energy Business units. She is focused on innovation and driving products to the next level of performance to support the build of the green energy roadmap. She leads engineering teams across the globe which includes test and material laboratories to develop fuel cell and electrolyzer products. She also collaborates with the executive team to develop product roadmaps, is an active partner with the Plug JVs, and drives continuous improvement opportunities to enhance operational efficiency and is building and developing a team to support our goals.
Prior to joining Plug, Mrs. Mallery served as the Vice President of Engineering at Ensign-Bickford Aerospace and Defense. She became Vice President of Engineering in 2015 after serving as the Project Engineering Director from 2011 to 2015. As Vice President, she led the engineering team, which designed and developed innovative solutions to meet the needs of the Aerospace, Missiles and Warfighter markets for flight termination, rocket stage separation, satellite deployment and military breaching. Mrs. Mallery has more than 25 years in the Aerospace Industry. In this most recent position, she was responsible for research and development, and product development across multiple markets and customers. She led several strategy initiatives including the recent development of a rapid prototyping center, buildout of a new electronics Center of Excellence, and development of a lean product development process.
Mrs. Mallery holds a bachelor’s in mechanical and aeronautical engineering from UC Davis and a master’s in mechanical engineering from Penn State University.
Keith Schmid joined Plug Power Inc. as Chief Operating Officer in 2013, bringing more than 24 years of experience in the fields of industrial power systems and energy storage. Mr. Schmid is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the corporation.
Prior to joining Plug Power, Mr. Schmid served as President of SPS Solutions, a power solutions and energy storage consulting firm, from 2011 to 2013. Previously, Mr. Schmid served as CEO of Boston-Power Incorporated, a provider of large format lithium ion battery solutions, in 2011, and as President and CEO of Power Distribution Incorporated, a power distribution and protection company, from 2007 to 2010. Additionally, Mr. Schmid held the position of General Manager, Industrial Energy Division- Americas for Exide Technologies from 2001 to 2007.
Mr. Schmid holds an M.B.A and a Master of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Benjamin Haycraft is the Executive Vice President of the EMEA region for Plug where he oversees business initiatives and operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa to accelerate the company’s growth.
Mr. Haycraft joined Plug in May 2021 as Vice President of Strategy & Business Development in Europe. In that role, he helped define and execute Plug’s European strategy and contributed to Plug’s European initiatives, including the JVs with Renault (Hyvia) and Acciona Energia (AcicionaPlug), the acquisition of Plug’s system solutions group, the first green hydrogen plant in Europe, and broadly identifying strategic partnerships and structuring acquisitions. Prior to Plug, Mr. Haycraft served as Head of ESG Corporate Finance at Santander Corporate and Investment Banking where he advised on ESG corporate finance topics, including the structuring of Plug’s joint venture with Renault and Acciona.
Mr. Haycraft has international experience working in New York, Madrid and Paris, and has held several leadership positions across strategy, financial planning, and merger and acquisition execution. Mr. Haycraft also serves as a supervisory board Member for Hyvia, a board member for AccionaPlug and Gravithy, and chairman of the expert committee at HY24. He earned his masters of science in corporate finance from Emlyon Business School.