Natural gas vehicle group names new president

The trade association for promoting natural gas as vehicle fuel is bringing on an automotive lobbying veteran to be its new leader.

Matt Godlewski will start later this month as president of Natural Gas Vehicles for America (NGV America), the group said Thursday. He is coming from the Auto Alliance, where he’s led state lobbying efforts for seven years.

{mosads}Godlewski said his combination of advocacy work and experience with vehicles makes him uniquely suited to the job.

“I’m a Michigan guy, I grew up in the Detroit suburbs,” he said. “So I’ve been around the industry for a long time.”

He said natural gas in transportation is the “most exciting” place to be working in the automotive field right now.

NGV America counts among its members a diverse group of interests, including natural gas producers, auto manufacturers, fueling infrastructure provides and fleets.

“What they’ve hired me to do is to be an aggressive advocate for promoting natural gas as a transportation fuel,” he said.

“Having the whole value chain as membership allows us to use that as a convening power,” Godlewski said. “I’m looking forward to being part of that.”

Ron Eickelman, NGV America’s chairman, said in a statement that Godlewski is “an experienced trade association executive who has a proven ability to lead effective teams and collaborate with industry allies.”

Rich Kolodziej announced in January that he’d leave NGV America after being its president for 18 years.

About 112,000 vehicles in the United States run on natural gas, according to the Energy Department.