Ceres Power Regulatory News (CWR)

6 Nov 2007 07:00

Ceres Power Holdings plc06 November 2007 Ceres Power Holdings plc ('Ceres', 'Ceres Power' or the 'Company') Appointment of Non-Executive Chairman Ceres Power, the AIM-quoted fuel cell group, has announced that Philip Holbeche,Executive Chairman, has indicated his intention to retire from the board on 31December 2007 and that Brian Count, currently a Non-Executive Director, willbecome Non-Executive Chairman from 1 January 2008. The board is pleased to welcome Brian as incoming Chairman to help guide thecompany through its next phase of growth. His experience and knowledge of theenergy sector and the financial markets will be invaluable to the group'son-going progress. The Board would like to thank Philip for his substantialcontribution, hard work and commitment. In accordance with current corporate governance practice and following theappointment of Brian as Non-Executive Chairman, it is the company's intention toappoint another Non-Executive Director to the Board in due course. Philip Holbeche said, "It is more than six years since I founded the business,taking it from an initial materials science concept into a leading hightechnology engineering company. Two rounds of venture capital funding werefollowed by a stock market flotation in November 2004, and the company is nowbacked by blue-chip institutional investors in the UK and internationally. Mygreatest pride is in the quality of the team which has been assembled and it hasbeen a pleasure and a privilege to work with each one of our employees." Commenting, Brian Count said: "I am very pleased at the prospect of becoming Non-Executive Chairman of CeresPower Holdings plc. It is a world-leading company with unique technology thathas the potential to make a substantial contribution to address the globalchallenges of reducing emissions, increasing fuel efficiency and improvingenergy security." - ends - For further information contact: Peter Bance, Chief Executive, Ceres Power +44 (0) 1293 400 404Patrick d'Ancona / Charlotte Kirkham +44 (0) 207 153 1531M: Communications Notes to Editor Brian Count Brian had a distinguished career in the CEGB and National Power, rising tobecome Chief Executive Officer of Innogy plc. He built substantial shareholdervalue at Innogy plc through its transformation from a generation company to anintegrated business, prior to its acquisition by RWE in 2003. He was latterly the Chief Executive Officer of RWE Trading, based in Essen,Germany until he retired from RWE in June 2005. In this role he transformed theinternational energy trading business, to become a commercial hub of the RWEgroup, in which asset values were optimised. Brian read mathematics at Kings College, Cambridge and received a doctorate inphysics from Exeter University. He is currently a non-executive director of Eskom, the state owned electricitycompany in South Africa, Chairman of Progressive Energy, a company that isworking with Centrica to develop a clean coal fired power station in the UK andis also a member of the UK government's Industrial Development Advisory Board.He has extensive experience of international energy utilities and has beeninvolved with governments and regulatory matters both in the UK and throughoutEurope. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange