Hydrodec Group announces interim CEO following Chris Ellis’ resignation

Hydrodec Group plc announced the resignation of Chris Ellis as CEO, with immediate effect following the illness of a close family member. He will continue to provide support and assistance to the board on a non-retained basis to ensure a smooth transition during the interim period.

Lord Colin Berkeley Moynihan, chairman, will take up the position of executive chairman and interim chief executive officer while the board considers the composition of the senior executive team going forward.

Prior to joining Hydrodec as chairman in 2012, Moynihan has previously held the roles of executive chairman and chief executive officer of Consort Resources Limited and executive chairman of Clipper Windpower Europe Limited, and he was a main board director of Rowan Companies Inc. for 19 years. He also served as UK Minister for Energy.

“On behalf of the board and the company, I would like to thank Chris for all his hard work over the past six years, initially as CFO and latterly as CEO, in which he drove the turnaround of the business to achieve the company’s first positive annual EBITDA contribution in 2017, and to wish him and his family the very best for the future. I would also like to express our on-going thanks to Andrew Black for his continued support, financially and otherwise, and to welcome David Dinwoodie to the board,” Moynihan said.

Moynihan will work closely with his non-executive board colleagues and a transitional management team that will include David Dinwoodie (interim chief financial officer), who is also appointed to the board of the company with immediate effect, and Michael Preen, Hydrodec’s company secretary, who will assist further as the company’s corporate and governance officer during this transitional period.

With operations in the U.S.A. and Australia, Hydrodec Group, was initially developed to target the multi-billion dollar, worldwide market for transformer oil used in electricity generation. Contaminated waste oil is currently processed at two plants at Canton, Ohio, U.S.A. and Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia respectively. Hydrodec uses proprietary technology to re-refine used and contaminated waste oil to produce, market and distribute SUPERFINE™ transformer oil and naphthenic base oil. The process delivers very high recoveries (>99%), producing transformer oil that tests “better than new” at competitive cost and without environmentally harmful emissions. The process also completely eliminates polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs are synthetic chemicals which have been banned in the United States since 1979 but are still found in the environment. PCBs have been used as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors and other electrical equipment because they don’t burn easily and are good insulators.

Hydrodec Group plc has been listed on AIM, the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange, since 2004.