Petalite is a second-generation electric vehicle (EV) charging company, on a mission to solve the problems impeding the roll-out of EV charging infrastructure and accelerate the world’s transition to a net-zero future.
Early in the industry’s development, Petalite foresaw the issues with first generation EV charging products, which use outdated AC-DC conversion technology, unsuitable for DC fast charging.
Petalite was created to overcome the industry’s problems through R&D and innovation. Following this vision, Petalite has created a new charging technology called SDC which is revolutionary for DC fast charging and forms the foundation of its upcoming commercial launch.
Our Senior Leadership Team
Ashley Unwin | Executive Chairman
For over a decade, Ashley was the managing partner of PwC’s Consulting Division across the UK & EMEA and a member of PwC’s Executive Board and Global Consulting Leadership Team. For the past 5 years, he has acted as a Senior Advisor to TPG focused on their Growth and Impact investment funds.
Ashley is Executive Chairman of Haventus Ltd, owners of Ardersier Port, Scotland. A development of an energy transition hub with the potential to provide a key transition facility to support the delivery of the UK’s 50GW offshore wind energy target by 2030. Haventus is backed by Quantum Energy Partners, Houston, where Ashley acts as a strategic advisor.
Ashley has a strong focus on global energy transition, specifically EV charging. He has seen first-hand many of the challenges faced by first generation charging solution providers. Impressed by how the team at Petalite has thought deeply about every aspect of EV charging, he is eager to see the positive impact the company can have in accelerating the world’s transition to net zero.
Earlier in his career Ashley was a Managing Director at Terra Firma, a UK based private equity company and a partner who held global leadership roles at Deloitte Consulting and Andersen Consulting.
Steve Gardner | Chief Executive
Prior to joining Petalite in 2022 Steve’s global career spanned over 35 years in world class companies covering 3 industry sectors. Firstly, in senior Procurement roles in the Automotive Industry for Rover Group, Land Rover and BMW in Munich where he headed up BMW’s worldwide Chassis Sourcing. He then spent 9 years in Construction equipment at JCB leading their global procurement, After sales and Service and finally the newly created Compaction division in Leipzig. Finally, Steve spent 14 years in Private Equity (10 at TPG Capital) where he led business improvement and undertook portfolio company leadership roles across UK, Western Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Steve’s task is to lead the company from its R & D phase to full scaled industrialisation so that Petalite can be seen on every street corner, supporting the transition to clean energy mobility.
Leigh Purnell | Founder & Board Member
A clean technology enthusiast and highly skilled engineer, Leigh recognised manufacturers globally were using a charging technology ill-suited to the electric vehicle market. He foresaw the issues with first generation EV chargers and set about to solve the problem from the ground up. He formed Petalite in 2014 to solve issues relating to reliability, lifetime and ROI of AC and DC chargers. In his spare time he has also broken 2 Guinness World Records!
Robert Nash | Chief Technology Officer
Robert’s accomplishments are too long to list here, but he has been a visionary pioneering engineer setting records and industry firsts across automotive, F1, Formula E and automotive electrification sectors. He has a wealth of experience and expertise in Electrical and Electronic Engineering with a particular focus on product development relating to EV charging, powertrain and energy management.
His guiding principles of safety, reliability, people and planet drive him to create simple yet elegant engineering solutions.
He is happiest when leading a high performing team of engineers consistently breaking new ground – which is exactly what he is doing at Petalite!
David Mead | Chief Financial Officer
David is a Chartered Accountant and commercially astute and versatile finance leader with CFO and Group Treasurer experience across many sectors including banking, asset finance, transport and engineering media. He has delivered robust solutions to financial and operational problems and has gained extensive commercial expertise in managing and delivering large corporate finance transactions. David is also an Angel investor and NED / advisor to a number of young growing companies.
Ben Huggon | Chief Commercial Officer
With a background spanning management consultancy, M&A, private equity and commercial finance across firms such as AlixPartners, TPG Capital and EVBox, Ben brings great diversity and depth of experience to Petalite.
Ben finds great fulfilment in driving Petalite’s mission of accelerating the deployment of charging infrastructure and the broader transition to net zero. His favourite part of the job is leveraging his commercial acumen and deep understanding of the industry, to shape innovative solutions for Petalite’s customers.
With a strong strategic mind-set and commitment to sustainability, Ben is determined to propel Petalite to the forefront of the EV charging market.
Hannah Dix | Chief People Officer
Hannah’s background in scaling businesses of hardware products makes her an indispensable part of the team. Leading the HR function, she helps set the culture and people strategies to make Petalite successful. She describes one of Petalite’s greatest assets – its’ people as driven, passionate and fun.
Mario DeCristofano | Head of IT
Mario brings 20+ years of IT delivery experience having lead organisation’s IT strategies across UK, EMEA & the US in Silicon Valley both in the public & private sector. As a former management consultant for one of the biggest consultancy firms in the world, he has led projects end-to-end for many well known brands & public service critical infrastructure.
Mario lives and breaths technology, running a blog, two podcasts, a YouTube channel, is a regular public speaker for government & education, and is a trusted technology and process adviser for several companies in the UK where he holds a board position. He also teaches code to primary school children as part of a STEM ambassador programme.
He is excited by Petalite because of the opportunity to be involved in a scale up & contributing to the adoption of electrification in the UK & beyond.
Kate Beaumont | Head of Marketing
Kate’s 20 year’s experience in marketing spans rapidly scaling climate businesses, a global B2C megabrand and various sectors from engineering to motorbikes to professional services consulting. Driven to use her marketing skills in profit with purpose businesses, she believes Petalite’s technology innovation is a true market disruptor and will help accelerate the world’s transition to a greener economy.
Dr Stavros Pressas | Head of Research
Stavros is a highly skilled and accomplished engineer with over 40 years of experience in research and development and teaching power electronics. He has a strong focus on renewable energy systems. In 2016 he was inspired by Leigh’s vision to build a revolutionary technology specifically for electric vehicle charging and his innovative and determined mindset created SDC technology.