The German hydrogen and fuel cell association DWV elected a new executive committee in early December, thus continuing its rejuvenation. From the original committee lineup there now only remains Oliver Weinmann who will lead the association’s executive body for another two years. Silke Frank was reconfirmed as vice president. Uwe Ringel resumes the role of second vice, representing the interests of the German gas and water industries association DVGW within the DWV. Christopher Hebling from Fraunhofer ISE will no longer serve as deputy but stays on the committee as the last remaining representative from a research facility.
Bowing out from the executive body are Birgit Scheppat from RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Johannes Töpler from Esslingen University, DWV founder member Reinhold Wurster from the company Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik and Alexander Dyck from the German Aerospace Center, although all of them had stood as candidates. The stepping out of Scheppat and Töpler marks the departure of two colleagues from the association’s leadership who played a significant role in shaping the hydrogen education agenda over past decades. Which post will tackle education issues as part of the association’s remit in future is uncertain.
Candidates from large corporations in particular were elected by a clear margin – evidence of the association’s increasing engagement in industry matters as well as lobbying work. This resulted in several new representatives from the business community joining the ranks, for example Jürgen Guldner from BMW, Dirk Graszt from Clean Logistics and Heinrich Gärtner from GP. Despite the admission of Manuela Heise from Deutsche Kreditbank, the proportion of women on the DWV executive committee is still low at 14 percent.
The collaboration between the DWV and the DVGW, however, is drawing to a close. The word from membership circles is that the DVGW ended its cooperation by submitting a written termination notice. In view of the significant sums of money which the DWV has received as part of the alliance and will continue to do so until the end of 2023, a question mark now hangs over how the financial situation will play out going forward given the association’s large and expensive offices in a prime location in central Berlin and much higher numbers of staff.
