GreenH2@Work Employee Spotlight: Kiran Alla
Kiran Alla, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Plug, is focused on the development of Plug’s business efforts in India. Based out of Hyderabad, India, Kiran has a big job. Plug’s products and services are in a very early stage in India. In order to grow the business there, it’s important that government and industry know that Plug is the leader in the hydrogen and fuel cell space and can be an important player in India. The Indian government is also developing its hydrogen – and green hydrogen specifically – policies and Kiran represents Plug in that arena. One of the outcomes of this work is invitations to Plug to speak at a variety of events and meetings. Kiran also meets with various potential partners that can assist Plug with business needs in-country. And of course, he works closely with the sales team when potential customers approach us with projects.
Kiran’s diversity of work experience over his 30 year career made him well-suited for this role. Among many, these are a few of the roles he’s played. He has had experience repairing electric forklift trucks while working in a chemical factory. He then spent five years managing learning and development at an IT company. He took a break and got his MBA in finance and marketing. Then joined a company and worked in business development for a company doing electricity transmission. He worked for an electric utility in central engineering services, and his work there was related to regulatory activities and technical inspection of products. He spent time working in rooftop solar and then fuel cell technology – helping his companies enter the India market.
“There is a way,” he says, “that we can decarbonize through solar and wind technologies, but how do we store the electricity? I was exploring and reading and learned about using hydrogen to store electricity for later use. Hydrogen is a building block for any of the zero or low carbon e-fuels. Electrolysis and fuel cells can scale and solve bigger problems. This excites me. Not only can you decarbonize, but you can solve other pollution issues in densely populated areas, because fuel cells produce no particulate matter, no NOx, SOx or other pollutants.”
During his time working with fuel cells, Kiran noticed that hydrogen was becoming a growing solution and became very interested in being involved in driving the technology, which led him to work for Plug in early 2022. When Kiran is asked what he does for Plug, he tells them that he provides the “fill in the gap” function: he helps technical people understand the market; helps salespeople and customers understand the technology; and helps internal people understand the customer perspective.
“Plug is the most risk-taking company in the market. Plug was ready to get behind green hydrogen before anyone else. Plug has never hesitated from taking risks, even though sometimes it hurts. But Plug gets up again and is doing what it promised to do. If you know something is right, go for it. I think that’s what Plug does.”
Understandably, Kiran has had some interesting experiences in his life. Early in his career, Kiran was interviewing for a factory role repairing forklifts. One of the interview questions asked whether he could repair the electric forklifts they had. He had only seen a diesel forklift to that point and had no idea how to repair an electric forklift. After thinking for a moment, his answer was that if they would train him, he could do it. He got the job, got the training, and went on to repair many fork trucks. This is one of his life philosophies: one should look at challenges from a perspective of possibilities rather than limitations. This meshes wonderfully with Plug’s perspective on growing the green hydrogen ecosystem.
He puts it this way, “As an employee, you should not hesitate to talk about what ideas, what possibilities you see in the market. That will open up opportunities both internally and externally. You have to be putting the word out – not for self-promotion, but for finding a solution.”
When he’s not working, Kiran enjoys exploring diverse things with his young adult daughter. She is very different from him, and he enjoys seeing things from her perspective and sharing his own with her. This can be seen in the modern and more classic movies they watch together. He also enjoys traveling and exploring new cuisines. He has been practicing yoga and meditation as well as the yogic principles of ethics and morals and has been doing intermittent fasting for the last three months. He’s always learning and growing – and that makes Kiran a wonderful addition to the Plug team.
