Seifi Ghasemi Explains Air Products' Core Strengths, Hydrogen Leadership and Vision for Generating a Cleaner Future on Fortune’s “Leadership Next” Podcast

Fortune Media’s business-focused podcast, Leadership Next, explores the changing rules of company leadership and how CEOs are navigating this change. More than 175 episodes have aired since the podcast kicked off in March 2020.

Air Products’ Chairman, President and CEO Seifi Ghasemi recently sat down with Fortune CEO Alan Murray and Editor-at-Large Michal Lev-Ram for an in-depth conversation at Fortune’s offices in New York. The ~33-minute podcast aired March 5th and is available from Fortune’s site and major streaming platforms.

Leading off with Air Products’ foundational strengths in our core industrial gases business, Seifi zeros-in on Air Products’ hydrogen leadership and our commitment to deliver blue and green hydrogen to the world. Calling it the “only source of energy,” he describes how clean hydrogen is essential to combating the effects of climate change and to generating a cleaner future, noting Air Products’ responsibility to lead in this space:

“… and that’s why we started on this journey of hydrogen blue and green hydrogen in 2014, 10 years ago. And that is where we are today, where we are actually building some of these plants because we have had to develop the technologies. We have had to develop the projects, we have had to assemble the people. This is not something that somebody, a project developer wakes up one morning and says, … I want to become a hydrogen company. It doesn't work that way…

… if hydrogen is the only solution and we are the largest hydrogen company, it is our responsibility to do that. I mean, who else is going to do that? If we don't do that, then who is going to do that?”

In addition to discussing why he believes Air Products has a responsibility to push markets toward clean energy solutions including hydrogen, Seifi also answers questions about when he first started focusing on climate change, how he sees the path toward the world’s net-zero goals, and why he chose to join Air Products. He also shares some of his personal and professional background, which have helped to shape his views and leadership style. 

Listen to the episode here.