Canoo Holdings Ltd., a company developing electric vehicles (EV) with a proprietary and highly versatile skateboard platform, announced recently the appointment of Tony Aquila as executive chairman as it prepares for the closing of the announced merger with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. IV (HCAC), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Aquila said, “I am pleased to join the Canoo team as executive chairman at this pivotal point in the company’s development. By leveraging my public markets experience, access to a global network of board members and executives and a track record of building world class teams, collectively I believe we can capitalize on the large addressable market Canoo is well-positioned to serve. I couldn’t be more excited about the future of the Company and am fully aligned with our shareholders as one of Canoo’s largest investors.”
Aquila added, “I see a rapidly developing opportunity for the company’s core skateboard technology based on the many applications it can serve. In the business-to-business market, it is becoming more apparent that our delivery vehicle can address a broad segment of the market. There is clear productivity, financial and ESG benefits for commercial vehicle users to turn their internal combustion engine fleets into EV. My goal is to leverage my experience in commercializing and selling technology so we can accelerate our B2B go-to-market strategy to capitalize on these opportunities.”
Ulrich Kranz, chief executive officer of Canoo, said, “As we prepare to become a public company, it is critical that we concurrently build out our leadership team to prepare for commercialization. Tony brings a wealth of public markets experience, deep automotive, aftermarket and OEM knowledge, and a history of leading technology companies to commercialization while driving long-term value for shareholders. We believe his leadership and guidance combined with our existing world-class engineering capabilities will help us execute against the commercial opportunities in the market.”
Daniel Hennessy, the chairman & CEO of Hennessy Capital LLC, said, “Tony is a highly successful entrepreneur who has created billions of dollars of shareholder value leading a public company. We are pleased to have him join Canoo as executive chairman as we build out the team and board to execute the significant market opportunity in EV. We have always felt strongly about the opportunity for Canoo’s skateboard technology, including applications in the commercial vehicle delivery market. We look forward to completing the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2020.”
