Ascend Elements appoints new president, CEO

Westborough, Massachusetts-based lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycler Ascend Elements has announced the appointment of Linh Austin as its new president and CEO, succeeding Mike O’Kronley, who had served as CEO since 2020.

Austin has been a member of Ascend’s board of directors since September 2024, and the company says he is a seasoned energy executive with more than 30 years of progressive experience in industrial operations, profit and loss management, mergers and acquisitions, strategy, engineering, procurement and construction. He has held previous senior-level roles at McDermott, BP and ARCO.

RELATED: Ascend Elements alters Kentucky plans, will return $164M grant to DOE | Minding the mission

The change comes at a time when Ascend says it is evolving from a research and development startup to a commercial-scale manufacturer of domestic battery materials.

“We are poised to become Europe and North America’s leading commercial-scale manufacturer of domestic critical battery materials,” Austin says. “Our Hydro-to-Cathode direct cathode precursor synthesis process remains the pinnacle of technology in the battery materials and recycling industry. Now, we will become equally preeminent in commercial-scale industrial operations, safety and project leadership. I’d like to thank our investors for their continued support and the board of directors for the opportunity to lead Ascend Elements into its next stage of growth.”

The company operates one of North America’s largest LIB recycling facilities in Covington, Georgia, and says it expects to begin commercial-scale production of up to 3,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate per year starting this year. The facility has the capacity to process up to 30,000 metric tons of used LIBs and manufacturing scrap per year.

In Kentucky, the company is building a commercial-scale precursor cathode active material (pCAM) manufacturing facility with operations planned to begin in the third quarter of 2026. The facility, Apex 1, is partially funded by a $316 million U.S. Department of Energy grant. Ascend notes that Apex 1 “squarely aligns with U.S. energy policy related to increasing domestic production of critical minerals and enhancing U.S. energy independence.”