Acal Energy - The Board

Chief Executive Officer - Dr S B Cha

ACAL's CEO since August 2007, SB leads the strategic and commercial development of the company. 

He gained his first and Masters degree in Chemical Engineering at Colorado School Mines in the USA, followed by a PhD in Statistical Thermodynamics from Imperial College, London. Sb also has an MBA from the University of Chicago.

During his early career, Sb worked as a Research Engineer for IUPAC in London and as Project Manager for Texaco in the US. Following his MBA, Sb joined Boston Consulting Group then moved to Philips Components in California. Most recently Sb worked with CDT Limited, in Cambridge, UK as Vice President, Commercial

Chief Technology Officer - Dr Andrew Creeth  

Dr Creeth is the co-founder and inventor of the ACAL Energy Technology and now leads the technical development of the company

Previously Andrew has extensive experience of the industry based R&D processes built at Unilever, one of the world's leading blue chip companies. He has a strong inventive record with 17 patents. Andrew stems from a sound science base, with depth of knowledge, 11 publications, and has led teams which delivered the technology for market launches.  

Non Executive Chairman - Dr Bob Pettigrew

Bob Pettigrew has more than 20 years experience in the development of emerging businesses having been a director and investor of a number of growth oriented companies over this period.

In 1986 he co-founded Generics and was key member of the team that took the company public in December 2000.

He retired from Generics at the end of 2002 to pursue independent investment activities. He is an investor director on the board of a number of technology companies including Sphere Medical, BioWisdom, Zinwave, Oxonica, Timberpost and Digital Health Care. He was Chairman of Voxar Ltd and managed its $50m trade sale in Sept 2004.

He is a member of the advisory boards of Antenova, the Synergy Fund as well as being a non executive board member of two Venture Capital Trusts listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Independent Non Executive Director - Dr David Fyfe

David Fyfe is a 30-year veteran of the global chemical and engineering industries, most recently as Chairman and CEO of CDT Ltd. Previous positions include senior executive roles in companies on both sides of the Atlantic, including ICI and BF Goodrich.

Dr Fyfe spent three years as CEO of Harris Speciality Chemicals (HSC), headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, USA. leading a very successful turnaround and subsequent sale of the company to SKW - part of Germany's Viag Group - on behalf of Kelso & Company, one of the principal investors in CDT.

With a BA and MA from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and a PhD for a dissertation in electrochemistry, Fyfe has chaired and taken part in a number of industry focused government bodies. 

Investor Representative Non Executive Director - Dr Byron McCormick

Byron is well known in the automotive industry, bringing with him 35 years of basic research, product development, manufacturing and operations experience, the last 25 years of which have been in advanced automotive systems, electric vehicle propulsion systems, fuel cells and hydrogen.

Most recently he was Executive Director of General Motors’ fuel cell car development team, which at one time comprised up to 1,500 engineers, technicians and support staff. He has also been a member of the U.S. Energy Department's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technical Advisory Committee.

Investor Representative Non Executive Director - Dr James Wilkie

Dr James Wilkie joined the Board in April 2007. Formerly Development Director with Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells, he has many years experience in energy market analysis and commercialisation of sustainable technologies.

Other former positions include : Managing Director of Morgan Crucible's R&D activities (including Fuel Cells), Vice President Technology of Shell Solar photovoltaics business; co-founder of Shell International Renewables; advisor to Shell Hydrogen and scenario planning and strategy advice to the Royal Dutch/Shell Managing Directors.

 He has also been a member of the advisory board for the UK Centre for Renewable Energy Systems & Technology (CREST) for many years, is a member of the Grove Fuel Cell Advisory Committee and holds both an MBA and Chartered Engineer status.