Mark Garrett signs on as new COO at Ceres Power

Fuel cell technology company Ceres Power Holdings announced the appointment of Mark Garrett as its chief operating officer on Thursday, joining the executive management board, from 10 August.

The AIM-traded firm said Garrett was joining Ceres from Ricardo, where he held various positions including chief operating officer and group strategy officer.

During his time at Ricardo, he led both the US and European automotive divisions, as well as establishing Shanghai Automotive's UK technical centre.

Before joining Ricardo in 1998, Garrett spent his early career with Rover Group, leading the development of powertrains for the MGF and BMW Mini.

Over a 35-year career, Ceres said he had gained “significant understanding” of high technology engineering, business and operational innovation, strategy and mergers and acquisitions, that would bring “tremendous value” to Ceres in the next phase of its growth.

Garrett was succeeding the company's current chief operating officer, James Falla, who would leave Ceres in August to pursue other opportunities.

“Mark is the right person joining at the right time to drive the future scaling of our business,” said chief executive officer Phil Caldwell.

“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.”

At 1511 BST, shares in Ceres Power Holdings were down 9.21% at 407.65p.