First Hydrogen Corp. announced its subsidiary, First Hydrogen Limited, has appointed Allan Rushforth as chief commercial officer for its automotive division.
Rushforth was the former vice president of global sales and performance at Nissan and chief operating officer at Hyundai Motor Europe, group services director at Volkswagen Group UK and head of retail operations at Audi UK. Rushforth has also held commercial leadership roles with Land Rover and BMW Korea, and was managing director at Lookers, Europe’s fourth-largest automotive retailer.
Rushforth’s most recent role was European managing director for the Marque Group, an Australian private equity-backed collective of auto technology businesses, where he was responsible for leading the group in European markets. Alongside this role, he also supported the online electric vehicle marketplace, zeVie Cars, as non-executive director.
At First Hydrogen, Rushforth will bring the company’s cutting-edge hydrogen fleet vehicles to market and steer them to commercial success. An expert in harnessing data-led insights to improve customer experience, he will build brand value, partnerships and, when First Hydrogen’s demonstrator vehicles launch later this year, foster customer relationships. Responsible for scaling up First Hydrogen’s operations in Europe, he will also help to establish a world-class team that reflects the business’ entrepreneurial and progressive spirit.