Rich Gottwald has served as the President & CEO of the Compressed Gas Association since 2018. The Compressed Gas Association is dedicated to developing and promoting safety standards and safe practices in the industrial, medical and food gases industry. More recently CGA has focused its efforts on hydrogen as it has moved from a chemical process component to an energy carrier with the potential to upend society’s reliance on carbon-based fuels. Before joining CGA, Rich held senior management positions in several trade associations in the chemicals and plastics sectors. He began his career as an engineer with Dow Chemical. Rich holds a degree in Plastics Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and is a Certified Association Executive (CAE). He lives in Washington, DC.