Brett Wood

Washington, DC, United States
The Industrial Truck Association (ITA) has appointed Brett Wood, president and CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America, as the new ITA chairman of the board of directors. Wood, previously vice chairman, will complete the remaining term (2015) of Brian Butler, president and CEO of KION North America, who announced his retirement from KION. Butler has served on the ITA executive committee since 2007, was elected board chairman for 2014 and was re-elected for 2015. He led the US delegation at the most recent meeting of the Alliance of Industrial Truck Organisations (AITO) in York, England when the participating organisations adopted their first-ever guiding principles during the 17 years of the AITO's existence. Wood has been a long-serving member of the ITA's executive committee and has also held previous chairmanship positions in ITA.

Tim Cortes

Latham, NY, United States
Plug Power Inc has announced changes to its corporate management team. Tim Cortes has joined Plug Power as vice president of hydrogen. Cortes will oversee the company's GenFuel business, including interactions with customers, partners and suppliers critical to increasing Plug Power's growing marketshare within the hydrogen fuel industry. He previously served as chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at Smiths Power. He will have full responsibility for the many facets of the company's GenFuel business. Cortes takes over from Erik Hansen, who has resigned.

Jose Luis Crespo

Jose Luis Crespo has been promoted to vice president of global sales, a new position for the company. Crespo will assume all responsibilities for the global sales strategy, sales growth and market entry for Plug Power's GenDrive and ReliOn brands. He joined Plug Power in January 2014 to lead international sales and business development activity. In his new position, he will add management of the US sales team to his responsibilities and help them build on 2014's successful sales growth with expanded global opportunities in the materials handling industry and other industries such as ground service vehicles.