7 May 2020 12:50
7 May 2020
Verditek PLC
("Verditek" or the "Company")
Directorate Changes
Verditek plc, (AIM:VDTK) the clean technology company is pleased to announce that Robert Richards (formerly Commercial Director) has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect and is joining the Board, subject to regulatory due diligence. Dr. Geoff Nesbitt is stepping down from the Board and will be taking the role of Chief Technology Officer.
As announced on 14 April 2020, Rob is a chartered electrical engineer with over 20 years' experience in the Oil and Gas and Energy Industry. Rob joins Verditek prior to which Rob held senior management positions in Ecolog International, FZE, Penspen Ltd, Thailand, KNM Process Systems Sdn Bhd in Malaysia and Siemens Oil and Gas, Singapore and Alstom Power. As Sales Director for the Asia Pacific region for Siemens Oil and Gas, he took the business from revenues of Euro 8m to over Euro 340m, while at KNM as Chief Operating Officer he helped turn the Company around to be generating over USD150m of revenues per annum.
Rob holds 2,000,000 ordinary shares in Verditek plc.
Robert Richards, CEO of Verditek, commented: "It is a privilege to take charge of this young dynamic European manufacturing company and to help transition it from an innovative R&D project to a commercial success. In my prior roles I have witnessed first-hand the enormous shift now taking place from burning hydrocarbons towards utilising solar. This move from "wet" to "dry" energy source is now both inextricable and exponential in trend. As the world evolves from its dependency on hydrocarbon-based energy sources to cleaner more environmentally friendly energy, I believe the Verditek Solar product is very well positioned to become a market leader in the ultra-lightweight, flexible solar market. The Company's TUV approved product has numerous potential applications that hitherto were not available to the traditional, heavy and fragile solar panel technology. I believe major new market opportunities are now opening in military, transportation, cellular telecoms to name a few, where the advantages of a highly durable, efficient ultra-lightweight solar solution will now be embraced. The Company's existing product lays an excellent foundation ahead of the very exciting work currently being conducted with our Joint Development Partners, Paragraf in Cambridge, in further developing the first graphene integrated PV cell."
Lord David Willetts, Chairman of Verditek, commented: "Rob Richards is the person we need to drive sales growth and secure substantial new contracts for Verditek. In his short time as Commercial Director he has already shown a remarkable capacity to open up new sales prospects. He has also got a strong grasp of the production side of the business as well. I welcome him warmly to his new role. I also thank Geoff Nesbitt for all his hard work over the past two years. He has a strong technical mastery of our products and I am delighted therefore that he will be staying on as CTO and will lead the company's R&D effort, especially the path-breaking work incorporating graphene into solar cells for the first time anywhere in the world."
Geoff Nesbitt, CTO of Verditek, commented: "It has been an intense two years helping to build the Verditek team. We have turned the corner with our focus on our lightweight low-profile solar solutions and I am happy to hand over to Rob and assume the post as CTO. There is exciting work to be done as I will focus on our Graphene Integrated PV technology developed with Paragraf and new product development work we are planning in the UK. I am confident Rob will drive our solar business forward commercially with fresh energy and new initiatives."
Enquiries:
Verditek plc
RH Lord David Willetts FRS (Non-Executive Chairman) +44 (0) 20 7129 1110
Robert Richards (Chief Executive Officer) enquiries@verditek.com
WH Ireland Limited (NOMAD and Broker)
Chris Hardie (Director, Corporate Finance) +44(0)207 220 1666
Chris.hardie@whirelandcb.com
About Verditek plc
AIM listed Verditek plc is a holding company with three businesses operating within the clean technology sector. The Company is focused on commercializing our lightweight low-profile solar panel business. With manufacturing based in Lainate Italy, we have developed renewable power solutions for our customers, that drive solar energy into applications previously impossible. The exceptional properties of our solar panels replace diesel fuel in business such as perishable goods transport, off-grid telecommunication towers, electric vehicle charging stations, residential and holiday home power solutions and solar roofing for light-weight industrial roofing.
In addition to our current PV panels in production, we have partnered with an outstanding leader in graphene technology, Paragraf, and have created the worlds' first Graphene Integrated Photo Voltaic cell. We are working together to engineer the technology for commercialization.
Verditek provides compelling commercial solutions that make our customers business sustainable.
For more information please visit or contact the following: https://verditek.com/