Andy is the CEO of Plug Power, an energy company that “provides the power to move businesses into the future with cost-effective hydrogen and fuel cell power solutions.” Although the current focus is on industrial equipment such as forklifts, Andy is working to develop the technology for all commercial applications, from delivery vehicles to drones. Whether in New York City, Europe, or Asia, Andy is usually on the road meeting with customers, investors, and advisors to develop strategic plans for the company’s future.
Transcript
I'm Andy Marsh, I'm the CEO of Plug Power. But Plug Power created the market for fuel cells for mobility applications. We actually put fuel cells into forklift trucks, build hydrogen infrastructure to support that, and we've grown that business in revenue from zero million dollars 10 years ago, to over $170 million worth of shipping today. And when you think about the future with automatic-guided vehicles, vehicles need to be electric. Then I think there's a question of how you power those devices? You can either power them with lithium batteries, or you can power them with fuel cells. Forklift trucks run as many hours in a year as many cars will run in their lifetime, so we work best in heavy usage, industrial applications. And that's really where we're focusing the business. Day's 24 hours, but the hard of my day, probably more days than not, I'm not in the office, that actually going to meet customers, or partners, or investors, or advisors. And really getting a view of how you put the whole company together. I'm fortunate that I get to spend a little time in engineering. I get to spend a little time with finance, I guess one of the advantages of being a CEO, you can be a generalist in everything. Get to spend a little time with lawyers and government officials. And so much of my days focus on how I bring partners, and groups, and organizations together, that better support the longer-term vision of the business. I would say it's probably two, three days I'm out of the office. Sometimes I'm out of the office in Europe, and sometimes I'm out of the office in New York City. So there is a chunk of time, as I mentioned earlier, that I'm dealing with people on the outside. Of course quite honestly, if you stay just inside the company, you don't really learn what's possible way out there. When I'm in the office, a good deal of focus is on long-term strategic planning, operational challenges and issues, and probably most important, spending time just talking and listening to people.
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