Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association elects new Chair, Vice-Chair and Board of Directors for 2020-21

VANCOUVER – The Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (CHFCA) is pleased to announce the election of a new Chair, Vice-Chair and Board of Directors for 2020-21.

Dr. François Girard, who previously served as Vice-Chair, as been elected as Chair of the Board. Dr. Girard, a Research Council Officer and Technical Leader for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies at National Research Council Canada (NRC), manages the Fuel Cell Thrust in NRC’s Vehicle Propulsion Technologies Program and is currently leading research on quality control for fuel cell and electrolyzer components, hydrogen production, and hydrogen fueling stations.  Dr. Girard also serves as Canada’s representative for the Mission Innovation Hydrogen Challenge as well as the International Energy Agency’s Technical Cooperation Program on Advanced Fuel Cells.

Elected to the position of new Vice-Chair is Nicolas Pocard, Director of Marketing at Ballard Power Systems.  Mr. Pocard has more than 20 years of experience in international business development and marketing, and currently oversees market strategy, marketing activities and government relations at Ballard.   Mr. Pocard also serves as a board member of the California Hydrogen Business Council (CHBC).

Returning board members for 2020-21 include past chairs Ross Bailey, Greenlight Innovation and Robert Artibise, Unilia Fuel Cells Canada; Dr. Sam Suppiah, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL); Rob Harvey, Cummins; Geoff Budd, G&S Budd Consulting; Colin Armstrong, HTEC; Grace Quan, Hydrogen in Motion; Sunny Minhas, Intertek; David Leger, Loop Energy; Ira Wolff, NORAM Engineering and Constructors;  Dr. Steven Holdcroft, Simon Fraser University; Dr. Pierre Benard, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and Dr. Walter Mérida, University of British Columbia.

New members joining the CHFCA board for 2020-21 include Rick Anderson, Earnscliffe Strategy Group; Chris Reid, Ekona Power; Sam McDermott, Enbridge Gas; Edward Stuart, Hydrogen Optimized; Sylvain Labonté, Hydro-Québec; Eddy Nupoort, Nel Hydrogen; Philip Horacek, Powertech Labs; Mitchell Foreman, Toyota Canada and Sabina Russell, Zen Clean Energy Solutions.

The new board began its 1-year tenure on September 8.