From Tesla to Plug: the journey of managers thrilled by hydrogen

Elon Musk may not want to believe in the potential of hydrogen, but the same cannot be said for the executives who launched Tesla. At least three of them have chosen to join Plug in management positions.

In February 2022, the company headed by Andy Marsh announced the recruitment of two new Vice Presidents, including one from Tesla. Brandon Snyder has joined Plug to be in charge of the supply chain, storage and logistics. Before moving into hydrogen, he was Director of Production Operations, managing relations with suppliers in the gigafactories. He therefore accompanied Tesla’s transition to scale, from 2017 to 2021.

A good time to join plug?

“There is no more exciting time to join Plug,” he said at the time of his appointment. “The company is preparing to deliver 500 tonnes per day of green liquid hydrogen by 2025, as countries and industries around the world prepare to realise the promise of clean hydrogen.” Snyder, who will be responsible for overseeing the development of production sites and infrastructure around the world, is delighted to be joining “such a visionary team.”

The funny thing is that he reports to David Mindnich, the Executive Vice President in charge of production at Plug. He himself is a former Tesla employee, where he spent 5 years. In fact, his last position was head of operations at the gigafactories.

Another former Tesla executive has followed the same path. Shawn Gaines, who spent several years at the company headed by Elon Musk, is senior manufacturing manager at Plug. In this video, he explains that he is interested in green energy and that green hydrogen is precisely the way to pursue this path, with applications at Amazon and Walmart in particular. And in this other video, he talks about possible careers at Plug.

Do you want to learn more about Tesla and Plug regarding hydrogen? Then our latest 2 articles on these subjects should interest you. You can read about our latest article mentioning Tesla here and about Plug there. 

Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King