OPT Appoints New President and CEO

Ocean Power Technologies announced that its Board of Directors has appointed George H. Kirby as President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Director effective January 20, 2015.

Terence J. Cryan, Chairman of the Board of OPT, stated, “George has a broad wealth of experience in the energy sector and a proven track record in the growth of operating businesses. We believe his leadership skills will be well applied in OPT’s efforts to capitalize on the growing market for off-shore data collection and transmission that require off grid power production at smaller scales. The Board was very deliberate in its search process to find a candidate with the right experience and know-how to advance OPT’s wave-energy technology to generate reliable, clean and environmentally-beneficial electricity. OPT has an aggressive development plan for 2015 that includes multiple buoy deployments so it is fortunate we have reached agreement with George to fill this role at the start of the year.”

Mr. Kirby has more than 22 years of experience in the global energy and infrastructure sector including the power and industrial facility sector. He was most recently Senior Vice President for the energy business unit at AECOM Technology Corporation, where he and his team provided full power generation and power delivery project life-cycle services in the U.S. energy market. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Utility Services at SAIC Energy, Environment & Infrastructure working with electric utilities in the North American market. Mr. Kirby also held a variety of management positions at GE Capital and GE Power & Water, as well as American Superconductor and Andrew Corporation. He is a registered Professional Engineer (Texas – inactive) and holds eight U.S. and European patents in power generation technology. Mr. Kirby received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University and an MBA from the Pennsylvania State University.

Mr. Cryan also expressed thanks to fellow Board member David L. Keller for his service as Interim CEO since June 2014. “Mr. Keller did an outstanding job overcoming various obstacles and laying the groundwork for OPT to succeed under Mr. Kirby’s leadership going forward. On behalf of the entire Board, I want to personally thank David for his dedication and hard work over the past six months.” 

Mr. Keller will continue to serve as a Director on the OPT Board after Mr. Kirby assumes his leadership role on January 20^th.