The British Compressed Gases Association (BCGA) has appointed Matthias Kuhn – Founder and Independent Consultant at Hydrogen Consult – as its new President.
Kuhn, returning for a second term after running as President between 2008 and 2010, brings nearly 40 years of industrial gases’ experience to the role.
New BCGA President Matthias Kuhn
Welcoming delegates to the Marriott Hotel and Country Club, Worsley Park in Manchester, outgoing President Chris Street said the time had come to “re-energise and refocus” how the BCGA delivers its technical expertise and lobbies on behalf of industry members amid unprecedented challenges covering decarbonisation, geopolitics, climate change and growth in AI.
“Over the past year BCGA has seen significant change. This includes the departure of the CEO, Ellen Daniels, who left earlier this year, and ,” he said.
Kuhn said, “If the industrial gases industry doesn’t deliver there will be big problems for our customers – we are already seeing the challenges with LNG and helium in the Middle East crisis. There are also fears of which will be quite challenging with the World Cup this summer, but we have been here before, in 2014. We will respond to the challenges, and I’m certain we will turn these challenges into opportunities.”
He added that central governance, fiscal management and transparency must be priorities for the trade body.
“We need to remain thoughtful, and safety must remain at the forefront,” he said. “The lifeblood of the BCGA is its technical committees and their work.”
Complementing the management changes sees the Future Leaders Programme rebranded Emerging Professionals Network.
Simon Fisher said he was honoured to be appointed Vice-President of the BCGA.
“We have already heard how industrial gas is the ‘invisible industry’ so we’re going to be starting to look to expand that network of other industries. We touch on thousands of industries so we’re actually going to start talking to those other industries that are facing the same challenges,” he said.
