American Battery Technology Co. hires operations team leaders

American Battery Technology Co. (ABTC), a critical battery materials company based in Reno, Nevada, says it has hired and onboarded key leadership members of its facility operations team to support the commissioning of the company's lithium-ion battery recycling facility.

Previously serving as the general manager of electrode manufacturing at Tesla’s Battery Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, for Panasonic Energy North America, Kevin Gagnon has joined ABTC as its battery recycling plant manager. Before this, he managed a headcount of more than 1,200 employees and more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing operations with an operating budget of $175 million per month.

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ABTC says Gagnon has extensive experience in commissioning and ramping manufacturing operations, building technical and operations teams and operating world-class battery manufacturing facilities. He has more than 30 years of experience in lead operations roles for companies including Honeywell, Majilite, Catalina Graphic Films and Ashland Chemical. He holds a Bachelor of Science in business and economics from Worchester State University in Worchester, Massachusetts, and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Dan Lieber has joined ABTC as its senior manager of EHS. He spent the previous five years working at Tesla, leading environmental, health and safety (EHS) operations at the gigafactory in Sparks. Lieber is a seasoned safety leader with experience building teams and establishing operations for first-of-kind facilities at both Tesla and Georgia Pacific during the last 10 years. He holds a Master of Science focused on safety sciences from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, Pennsylvania, a Bachelor of Science focused in fire protection and safety engineering from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and is a certified safety professional.  

Mike Banks, who recently worked as a production engineering supervisor and associate manager for Tesla at the gigafactory in Sparks, has joined ABTC as its operations maintenance manager. Banks has extensive experience managing maintenance teams and has worked throughout the controls, instrumentation, equipment troubleshooting and maintenance fields. He has held leadership roles in organizations including Lyons Magnus, Coca-Cola and Seattle Tacoma Box Co.  

"We are excited to have such a talented and experienced set of operations leaders join us as we progress through the commissioning and ramp-up of our facilities," says ABTC CEO Ryan Melsert. "In a highly competitive talent recruitment environment, it is a testament to our current team and to our corporate mission and culture that we are able to continue to attract such high caliber individuals." 

ABTC says its pilot plant uses its internally developed integrated technology to process 20,000 metric tons of feedstock to manufacture battery-grade metals annually. The company says the material will be returned to the domestic battery manufacturing supply chain. The company's universal lithium-ion battery recycling system separates and recovers each elemental metal, including lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese from end-of-life batteries. This includes consumer electronics, stationary storage applications, electric vehicle fields and more.