PERC names industry veteran as chief business development officer

Tucker Perkins was named chief business development officer of the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC), council President and CEO Roy Willis announced.

Perkins, a propane industry veteran with a background in product commercialization and business acquisition, will help drive new demand for propane by building and managing relationships with manufacturers and their dealers to help them bring to market new products that run on propane.

“The chief business development officer, the No. 2 position at PERC, has frontline responsibility for guiding key aspects of our commercialization strategy,” Willis said in a council press release. “Tucker has both extensive propane industry expertise and vital experience working with manufacturers from both engineering and executive leadership roles throughout his career in business.”

Perkins comes to PERC after serving since 2009 as president and COO of CleanFuel USA, a maker of alternative-fuel dispensing equipment and a distributor of propane autogas fuel systems for fleet vehicles. He oversaw the development of two engine platforms, two dispenser products and a distributor sales channel during his time with the company.

Perkins spent five years as director of business development with Inergy Propane after it bought his company, Premier Propane, in 2004. Before starting Premier in 2001, Perkins was vice president and COO of Columbia Propane. He is a licensed civil engineer.

The arrival of a chief business development officer is the culmination of the council’s effort to restructure PERC to expand its capacity to commercialize new products while maintaining strong safety and training initiatives, Willis said.

“The council recognizes that the research and development of new propane-fueled equipment, one of its congressional mandates, is the key to industry growth and that a dynamic business development program is going to be an important part of our commercialization strategy,” he said.

In 2011, PERC invested $16.9 million in the research and development of new end-use products for the residential, commercial, agricultural and engine fuel markets. Recently commercialized products include a portable generator from Generac, a combined heat and power system from Yanmar, a stationary engine from Buck’s Engines and a grain dryer from Mathews Co.