Amanda has nearly 20 years’ experience in the hydrogen industry, having previously founded fuel cell company ACAL Energy and through her consultancy business, is a specialist in the commercialisation of clean tech.
She founded Aintree based business, ULEMCo in 2014 to commercialise globally unique UK capability in hydrogen technology to convert commercial vehicles (HGV and specialist utility vehicles like refuse trucks, gritters and sweepers) to run on hydrogen, using the company’s technology for hydrogen dual fuel and zero emission engine and fuel cell integration. She is Chair of the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association and a member of the Liverpool City Region’s Clean Growth and Innovation boards.
I’ve actually worked here my whole career, having previously worked for ICI in Runcorn, then joining a business in the St Helen’s area, before setting up both ACAL Energy and ULEMCo, in the city Region too. Although not born in Liverpool my father was and worked his early years here before moving with his employer Plessey (who had major manufacturing in the City at the time) to further South. The area has therefore been in my psyche for life, as it has for many.
In a business like ours that needs high level skills, experience in the automotive sector, and generally a good and loyal workforce, the City Region’s Universities, colleges and young people have proven to be great sources of talent to help grow our business. Being significantly involved through the recent years with the Local Enterprise Partnership, the CA and now the Growth Platform, the support for high-growth SME’s like mine has improved tremendously in that time, and is now very accessible and useful to meet needs. For instance the Made Smarter project we recently completed, which enabled us to deploy 3D scanning technology within our engineering design process, was a well-managed, tailored process that is already delivering significant benefit to our process and ability to service customers. We would not have even considered the technology if it wasn’t for the LCR intervention and I would highly commend the scheme to others.
