Workhorse Group Inc. has appointed Robert Willison, former company director of research and development, to COO. Willison's appointment follows Workhorse's recently announced promotion of Duane Hughes to CEO.

Willison returns to Workhorse after serving as director of fleet technology at Sysco Corp., where he managed the coordination, design, and project management of Sysco's electric vehicle initiative.

In his former position as director of research and development at Workhorse, Willison was responsible for various electric vehicle programs and systems, including the company's work with the United States Postal Service on the Next Generation Postal Vehicle, as well as the company's NGEN composite-body electric delivery truck. The majority of Willison's work centered on commercialization of prototypes to production vehicles, and he has extensive experience working with new technologies and integrating them into final-product vehicles. 

Prior to his time at Workhorse, Willison was partner and CTO at Ray Technology, and before that, he was director of international operations and new business development at PDi Communication Systems. Willison also previously held senior management positions at Hughes Aircraft and Texas Instruments.