Paul Arkesden
Interim CEO
Chartered Engineer with more than 30 years in automotive engineering, product development and business leadership. Senior engineering and product roles at Rolls-Royce, Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren Automotive, where he held a senior engineering role on the P1 hybrid hypercar. Later Vice President of Engineering and Product Development at Singer Vehicle Design in California, where he built and led a global team of around 70 people.
Founder of PKe Consultancy, advising OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, technology companies and investors. At Hydrohertz he leads commercial strategy, strategic partnerships and international growth.
Martyn Talbot
Founder & Chief Technology Officer
Inventor of the Dectravalve and founder of Hydrohertz in 2020, with nearly two decades of experience across electrical and mechanical engineering and undergraduate study in Physics with The Open University. Designed, built and refined the early prototypes alongside his engineering career, before leading the technology through research, simulation and independent validation to TRL 6.
Leads Hydrohertz’s technology strategy, intellectual property and product development. His work has contributed to three consecutive Earthshot Prize nominations and attracted international coverage, including S&P Global Mobility and IEEE Spectrum.
John Kell MBE CEng FWeldI FREng
Advisory board
Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of The Welding Institute and Member of the Order of the British Empire, with decades of experience across advanced engineering, automotive technology, R&D, manufacturing and international investment.
John previously held a senior specialist role within the UK Department for Business and Trade’s Advanced Manufacturing Directorate, where he focused on automotive R&D and the attraction of international technology investment into the UK. He was awarded an MBE for services to UK trade and investment.
His career also includes around two decades at TWI, spanning advanced manufacturing, electron beam technologies and collaborative R&D, alongside experience in the United States as a Senior Advanced Manufacturing Engineer within the Tier 1 automotive sector.
John brings Hydrohertz an exceptional combination of engineering, commercialisation, international investment and industry experience, supporting our commercial strategy, strategic partnerships and global growth.
Professor Antonino La Rocca
Technical advisor
Professor of Applied Thermofluids and Propulsion Systems at the University of Nottingham and Deputy Director of the University of Nottingham Energy Institute. Chartered Engineer specialising in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, propulsion systems and advanced powertrain engineering, combining analytical, computational and experimental methods.
Has worked on advanced engineering research programmes with Ford Motor Company since 2005, alongside partners across the automotive and power-generation sectors. Supports continued development and independent validation of the platform.
