About Hydrolux
Powered by a passionate team.
CREATIVITY. PASSION. EXPERIENCE.
Meet our outstanding team!
Friedrich Dehem-Lemelin
CEO & Cofounder
“ The automotive industry is my greatest passion. This is what prompted me to study mechanical engineering. However, I have always had a conflict of value given that this is an extremely polluting industry. This is why I have long searched for a way to make the transport sector more ecological. Thanks to Hydrolux, the transport industry will finally have a viable alternative to fossil fuels! ” – Friedrich
Julien Brunet
CTO & Cofounder
“ The field of renewable energy and decarbonization has always been of particular interest to me. In the past, I have worked in data analysis for projects aimed at reducing electricity consumption. I was also involved with the McGill electric formula team where I learned a lot about electric vehicles. The technical knowledge I have acquired will serve me well in this large-scale project. “ – Julien
Nicolas Dion
CFO & Cofounder
“ I have always loved anything to do with transportation. My passion for cars has allowed me to build a remarkable knowledge base which makes me an interesting source of knowledge at various levels. This interest prompted me to wonder about the potential to reduce pollution from passenger vehicles. It was through my work as a salesperson for the financial consulting firm Edward Jones that I decided to pursue a finance education at Concordia. “ – Nicolas
Oumarou Savadogo, Ph. D. Eng.
Technological advisor
Mr. Savadogo is a recognized scientist for hydrogen production and storage research with nearly 35 years of experience in the field. He is the author and co-author of over 200 scientific publications in scientific journals with reading committee. He has also participated in numerous major reports commissioned by various organizations, including the Québec government.
Daphne Carmeli, MBA
Business Development Advisor
Daphne Carmeli founded Deliv, Inc., in 2012 and was CEO until the purchase of Deliv, Inc. by Target in 2020. Daphne Carmeli co-founded Metreo, Inc. in 2000 and was CEO from 2000 to 2006. She has over 25 years of leadership and operations experience in high growth entrepreneurial environments. Daphne Carmeli served as Vice President of Marketing at Netscape / America Online (AOL). At Netscape, she played a key role in repositioning and revitalizing Netscape from a browser company to a software company. This repositioning took the ecommerce applications division from 5 million dollars to over 70 million dollars in 18 months. Prior to Netscape, Daphne Carmeli served as Director of Marketing at Healtheon | WebMD, where she pioneered the marketing and business model of the first true transaction-based B2B platform. She previously also held marketing management positions at Silicon Graphics (SGI) and Logica Data Architects. She sits on several advisory boards of emerging high-tech companies, including Visible Measures, HubSpot, Support Space and Eazy Business.
Elia Abu-Manneh
Project Manager
“ My fascination with renewable energy stems from my education in the sunny oil fields of the Middle East, wondering where are all the solar panels that should have been there. My dynamism emanates from a vision of a highly efficient energy sector independent of fossil fuels. After completing my engineering degree at McGill, I joined Hydrolux to realize my vision starting with the transportation sector. ” – Elia
Isabelle Marleau
Marketing Manager
“ I have always been involved in sports and social activities during my school career. I love photography so you can find my work on several Hydrolux publications. I study accounting, but I’m good at marketing too. I have seen the snow on the top of Kilimanjaro in person, and as our planet gets warmer and warmer, in a few years the snow will be clearing from the peaks. In short, Hydrolux’s mission and values resonate with me enormously. ” – Isabelle
Anthony Sbaygha
Sales Representative
“ I am a big fan of cars and sports, especially when the two are combined. I also love meeting new people and learning more about them or other things I know less about. My contribution to the sales team allows Hydrolux to reach more customers to offer them our services. “ – Anthony
Stéphane Diot
Sales Representative
“ As a professional skier, I can see the negative influence of climate change on my favourite sport. Also, joining Hydrolux, whose mission is to replace fossil fuels with green hydrogen and thus offer the perfect energy transition, seemed obvious to me. My technical-commercial studies at EPFL in Lausanne, then at JMSB – Concordia University in Montreal, and my sales experience will be assets in the success of this great project. “ – Stéphane
Me Murielle Cirkovic
Lawyer – Contract Manager
“ I have always had a diverse set of interests ranging from the arts and culture to the sciences. Before becoming a lawyer, I danced at a professional level while studying at McGill University in biomedical sciences. My strong sense of adventure and my great intellectual curiosity have always served as guides for my ambition and my determination to help others and change the world for the better. Therefore, I feel privileged to be able to work for a company such as Hydrolux which shares my values. “ – Murielle
Our story
Hydrolux was born from a long reflection on a concrete solution in order to decarbonize the transport industry. Friedrich, being a big fan of cars and the environment, had always had an internal conflict between his two passions. It was in 2016, when he entered the École de technologie supérieure in Montréal, that he began to think on what’s the best way to harmonize these two passions.
It was during the first half of 2019 that the Hydrolux founding team was formed when Julien and Nicolas cofounded Hydrolux with Friedrich. The field of renewable energy and decarbonization has always been of interest to Julien. In the past, he worked in data analysis for projects aimed at reducing electricity consumption. He was also involved in the McGill electric formula team where he learned a lot about electric vehicles. The technical knowledge he has acquired will be used in this large-scale project. Leadership roles are not out of the ordinary for Julien either. In his spare time, he serves as a sailing head coach and vice-president of his university team at McGill, where he studies mechanical engineering. Nicolas has always loved everything related to the means of transport too. His passion for cars has allowed him to build a remarkable knowledge base that makes him an interesting source of knowledge at various levels. This interest led him to question the potential of reducing passenger vehicle pollution. It was through his work for the financial consulting firm Edward Jones that he decided to pursue a finance education at Concordia.
We are also very happy to be supervised by our amazing board of advisors. However, such a big project does not come true with just three co-founders. That’s why we sought additional talent to complement our team ranging from engineering to marketing and sales. In short, a strong team to solve an important problem.
After several interviews with potential partners for either a road network, a marine network, and then for an industrial network, we realized that the best way to start is to tackle a niche market that absolutely needs a solution as soon as possible. This is why we are attacking the warehouse market in order to supply them with hydrogen for their forklifts, but our vision has no limits.
We are changing the way that hydrogen is produced and distributed. Currently, nearly all hydrogen (97%) is produced using steam methane reforming (SMR) which generates lots of GHGs. More importantly, the transportation of the hydrogen is highly inefficient with large production sites far away from the end users resulting in a prohibitively expensive hydrogen cost. We want to offer cheap, clean and reliable hydrogen for applications where current battery technology is not well suited such as forklifts and trucking.
We will produce hydrogen using electrolysis from green electricity. Using our artificial intelligence and combining it to a decentralized production model, we can offer cheap and clean fuel for our customers. Optimizing and predicting our delivery process is at the heart of our value proposition. Decentralizing our production offers many advantages beyond increased efficiency, as we are better protected from a single point of failure and can cover a larger territory with similar capital costs.