Dennis Campbell has resigned as the CEO and president of Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems, the largest and highest profile developer of hydrogen fuel cells. It’s difficult to say at this point whether Campbell jumped ship or was pushed. Campbell oversaw a painful restructuring at Ballard over the past three years, helping the company trim expenses and focus operations but doing little to build investor confidence in the company’s business or strategy.

According to some media reports, Campbell was asked to step down by the company’s board, which decided it was time to bring a fresh approach as Ballard enters a new phase. It was only three months ago that Campbell told me with confidence in a telephone interview that yes, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles would be available in auto showrooms and available for purchase by 2010, a date that General Motors has repeatedly thrown around. Campbell is now reportedly saying that volume fuel-cell car production won’t occur until 2012 to 2015, and that having cut costs, streamlined and downsized as much as he could it was time to step aside.

Ballard chairman John Sheridan, who I know through his days as president and chief operating officer of Bell Canada, has taken over as the company’s interim CEO until a search for a replacement is concluded.

It’s tough to say what impact this will have on Ballard, but the change caught most observers by surprise and, as a result, the news led to a slight decrease in the company’s share price. It will be interesting to see who emerges as a permanent CEO and what direction he or she will take the company, which tends to be a benchmark for measuring progress toward a hydrogen economy and dream of mass market fuel-cell vehicles.

Speculation is that the board will look for a CEO with auto industry experience, but my hunch is that over a six-month search they’ll decide to make Sheridan’s interim appointment a permanent job.

(UPDATE: Ballard challenged me on the speculation above. They assured that Sheridan has no intention of becoming CEO and that it definitely is an interim position until a permanent CEO can be found. That said, I still believe Sheridan would be a good CEO. Ballard also challenged my assertion that Campbell used 2010 as a time when fuel-cell vehicles would become available in auto showrooms. Apparently, the 2010 timeframe was more about the technology being ready than the actual end-product being available.)

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