Seifi Ghasemi

Seifi Ghasemi became Chairman, President and CEO of Air Products in 2014 at age 70, and has since transformed the company from a conventional industrial gas supplier into the world's most ambitious hydrogen infrastructure company. Born in Iran, educated at Stanford and MIT, Ghasemi previously led GKN plc and Rockwood Holdings, building a reputation for operational discipline and bold capital allocation. Air Products' core business — producing and distributing oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and hydrogen for industrial customers — generates reliable cash flows with 40%+ EBITDA margins. But Ghasemi's strategic vision extends far beyond the base business. He has committed over $15 billion to mega-scale hydrogen projects that represent the largest bet in the industrial gas industry's history on the hydrogen economy. The flagship project is NEOM Green Hydrogen in Saudi Arabia — a joint venture to produce green hydrogen using 4 GW of solar and wind power, with Air Products as the exclusive off-taker and global distributor of green ammonia. Additional multi-billion-dollar projects include blue hydrogen facilities in Louisiana (with carbon capture) and Alberta, Canada. These bets are predicated on hydrogen becoming a major clean fuel for transportation, power generation, and industrial processes. Critics argue that Ghasemi, now in his early 80s, has overcommitted Air Products' balance sheet to projects with uncertain returns and timelines. The stock has underperformed peers Linde and Air Liquide as investors question whether hydrogen demand will materialize at the scale needed to justify the capital deployed. Succession planning is the elephant in the room: Ghasemi has not announced a successor, and the next CEO will inherit both an enormous hydrogen bet and the challenge of proving its returns to skeptical investors.