ABTC hires vice president of financial planning and analysis

Reno, Nevada-based battery materials company American Battery Technology Co. has hired Scott Smith as vice president of financial planning and analysis (FP&A) to support its strategic growth trajectory and to lead the company’s investor relations functions.

According to ABTC, Smith is an experienced finance professional with over a decade of expertise in financial business operations within the electric vehicle (EV) and consumer goods sectors. The company adds that he is skilled in strategic planning, intricate financial modeling and fostering cross-functional partnerships with demonstrated success in enhancing cost efficiencies, facilitating market expansion and maximizing investment returns.

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“Scott has been an excellent addition to this team since joining us at the beginning of the year, and he has now relocated from Berlin to work out of our Reno headquarters,” ABTC Chief Financial Officer Jesse Deutsch says in a news release. “We are rapidly expanding operations in both our battery recycling and primary lithium manufacturing businesses, and Scott’s diverse experiences leading financial operations, driving fast-growth market expansions and managing financial investments for publicly traded, global companies have been integral to ABTC as we continue to advance our commercialization efforts.”

Prior to joining ABTC, Smith worked at Tesla for more than seven years and recently was based in Berlin as Tesla’s head of FP&A and business operations for all Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations. This group was responsible for driving annual revenue of more than $20 billion with a more than 50 percent annual growth rate, and gigafactory capital expenditures of over $4 billion with efficiency spends across all scopes and technical functions.

Before Tesla, Smith worked at PepsiCo and was responsible for establishing financial frameworks and internal protocols, driving quicker pace-to-market and better financial controls, and served as financial lead on large-scale Frito-Lay innovation projects.

In his role at ABTC, Smith oversees the development, implementation and evaluation of ABTC’s budgetary and forecasting processes and capital expansions. He is responsible for creating and maintaining the rigorous financial models used for scenario analysis, forecasting and decision-making critical to the company’s strategic growth initiatives and expanded commercialization activities.

Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

“I am thrilled to join American Battery Technology Company to help support the company’s rapid growth and to work with our strategic partners to facilitate our capital expansion projects,” Smith says. “I have experienced firsthand the challenges and successes of building commercial factories, teams and companies from the ground up as part of new growth initiatives, and am excited to now drive these efforts at ABTC.”