Ballard Power Systems has welcomed Ralph Robinett as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, effective April 13, 2026. He brings more than 25 years of global operations, manufacturing, supply chain, and transformation leadership experience across advanced technology and clean energy businesses.
Replacing the retiring Lee Sweetland, Robinett has led large-scale operational organizations, built and expanded manufacturing facilities in multiple regions, driven cost reduction and productivity improvement initiatives, and helped commercialize innovative technologies at scale.
Most recently, Robinett served as Chief Operating Officer at GAF Energy, where he led manufacturing, supply chain, new product deployment, factory expansions, and automation design for the company’s rapidly growing solar roof business.
Through his leadership, he helped grow output and revenue, led deployment of an automated solar shingle manufacturing plant, and supported commercialization of GAF Energy’s second-generation product.
Robinett has also held senior leadership positions at Celestica, Velodyne LiDAR, and SunPower, where he oversaw international manufacturing, implementation of automation strategy, and supply chain transformation.