Lee Sweetland was appointed SVP and Chief Transformation Officer in January 2024.  Dr Sweetland will be responsible for Ballard’s transformation office, including program line management, cost reduction and major capital project leadership.

Dr Sweetland brings over 23 years experience of project management, operations and process technology development.  Dr Sweetland joined Ballard in May 2018 and led the 6x expansion of Burnaby’s operations, the 3×3 cost reduction program and the next generation bipolar plate cost reduction and process scale up project.  Prior to Ballard, Dr. Sweetland served as Manufacturing Technology Director in the New Markets sector of Johnson Matthey PLC, UK.  He spent a total of 18 years in JM, across all sectors, with a specific focus on capital project management, continuous improvement and operations management, including 5 years in JM’s Fuel Cell business.

Following receipt of a Bachelor of Engineering (honors) in Chemical Engineering from Loughborough University, UK in 1994, Dr. Sweetland completed a Ph.D. in the removal of pesticides from drinking water in 1997, also at Loughborough University .  He has 4 patents filings in the area of manufacturing PEM fuel cells.