David Valantin wins Ricardo Leading Lights award for commercialising sustainable hydrogen technologies for shipping

The work of David Valantin, Ricardo’s Director for Business Development, Europe, and his team in commercialising technologies to decarbonise the global maritime sector has been recognised in the 2023 Ricardo Leading Lights Award.

David and his team won the Ricardo Leading Lights Best of the Best CEO Award for Sales Growth for their commercial exploitation of Ricardo’s involvement in the Sustainable Hydrogen powered Shipping (sHYpS) research and development (R&D) programme. The programme is an ongoing development to bring modular and containerised, high power density application of hydrogen fuel cell technology to the maritime industry. As an innovative technology company, this is a great example of how our grant-funded R&D is helping our clients solve their most complex challenges to meet net zero, and also is putting us on the path of generating return on investment from our corporate investment from the sHYpS R&D project and other R&D programmes and capability. 

Commenting on the role that he and his team plays in supporting sales growth for Ricardo, David said: “We specialise in understanding the business challenges, needs and objectives that our clients and prospects face, matching our holistic capabilities and expertise in policy, strategy, technology innovation and safe implementation, together with deepening maritime domain knowledge, to capture business opportunities where we deliver differentiated value.”

“It really was a great honour to receive the award from our CEO Graham Ritchie. It is much appreciated to see recognition for the wider team, with whom I’ve been working with over the last 18 months. Thanks to their hard work, they have turned the maritime decarbonisation research and development programmes into a success that showcases the fantastic expertise of our engineering and consulting colleagues, and their ability to innovate for a sustainable future.”

 “sHYpS is, indeed, the type of decarbonisation project that makes us all proud to work for Ricardo, and I’m sure that the award committee haven’t just recognised the success of one particular project, but also the fact that it puts our company in a very visible and credible position on the maritime decarbonisation journey.”

The Ricardo Leading Lights Awards recognise the outstanding achievements and contributions of individuals and teams across helping to solve some of the world’s most complex mobility, energy and environmental challenges. The awards were established to reward and highlight Ricardo people who, in their daily work, have consistently gone over and above for clients, partners, colleagues or the global communities we have the privilege to serve. Among the fifteen award categories, are the ‘Best of the Best’ CEO Monthly Awards. These CEO Monthly Awards reflect outstanding achievement by a team or an individual in delivering: an engaged team, exceptional customer experience, sales growth, high value delivery and investing for growth. For the Leading Lights, a shortlist of the best of the best of these winners is drawn up, and an ultimate ‘champion of champion’ is announced. 

Find out more about the sHYpS project