Renata Arsenault is a Technical Expert, Advanced Battery Recycling at the Ford Motor Company, where she has been interfacing closely with battery suppliers and recyclers since 2006. She also works with USABC where she manages numerous development programs. Renata will assume her role as President of NAATBatt at the conclusion of the NAATBatt 2022 meeting.
Sharon Bonesteel is a Senior Policy Analyst – Manager Codes & Standards Initiative Team Leader – of Salt River Project’s Energy Storage Collaboration Team. She is a licensed architect in Arizona and California, a RESNET certified rater, an ICC Certified Building Official, a Commercial Energy Inspector, and an Arizona Certified Fire Inspector. Sharon serves as SRP’s voting representative to the ICC code development process.
Ben Campbell is the EMobility analyst at ESource. He has spent several years as an analyst at Cairn ERA (which was acquired by ESource in October 2021) and now serves as the main analyst dealing with the electrification of the transportation sector. At heart a pickup guy, Ben gets equally excited by cars and the emerging micromobility space. He lives and works in Boulder, CO.
Corey Cantor is a transport analyst at BloombergNEF, where he covers the policy, economics and technology factors impacting the electrification of transportation. Prior to completing his master’s education, Corey worked for U.S. Senator Cory Booker on his economic team. Before that, he researched economic policy for NDN. Corey received his Master’s degree from Yale’s School of the Environment and bachelor’s from Washington University in St. Louis.
Kevin Dahlberg is a Managing Director of 3CR-Riverbend Capital Advisors, a Family Office and capital advisory firm. 3CR-Riverbend specializes in equity & debt capital raises for unique, high-caliber investments and for small to mid-size privately held businesses. Mr. Dahlberg has spent his career developing relationships in various disciplines of business while specializing in the Family Office arena. He and his firm have led successful capital raises for high growth energy storage and battery manufacturers, leveraging their family office relationships. Mr. Dahlberg is a graduate of Baylor University where he received a BBA and also served in the US Navy as an intelligence specialist throughout and after the Iraq war.
Austin Devaney as Vice President of Sales and Marketing leads the commercial activities and sustainability efforts for Piedmont Lithium. He has responsibility for working with automotive, battery and materials companies to deliver Lithium for the expansion of Electric Vehicles as well as leading the efforts to produce our products more sustainably. Prior to this Austin served in a variety of roles managing the Lithium business with Albemarle Corporation for ten years with a focus on the battery market. Austin has over twenty five years of experience in the Chemical Industry leading commercial efforts. Austin holds an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.
As Business Development Manager for Amphenol Advanced Sensors, Brian Engle is responsible for developing new technologies and partnerships to address emerging sensor needs across various industries. With over 30 years of experience in research, development, and business roles within global OEM and Tier 1 automotive companies, Brian blends system engineering disciplines with business acumen to develop cost effective solutions to the most challenging needs within the industry. As an active member of SAE, Brian supports a number of battery and xEV safety initiatives including chairing the EV and Fuel Cell First Responders Task Force and through participation in NAATBATT consortium, works together with OEM’s, xEV supply chain partners, and government organizations to develop technology to support the rapidly growing xEV and battery energy storage market.
Robert (Bob) Galyen serves as Chief Technology Officer of NAATBatt International and President of Galyen Energy. Bob is recognized as one of the top international leaders in the battery energy storage world. Bob served in management roles at General Motors, Delphi, Magna and CATL, where he was its Chief Technology Officer. He is Chairman of SAE International Battery Standards Steering Committee and Chairman Emeritus of NAATBatt International. Industry awards include China “National Distinguished Expert” and “Friendship Awards,” along with USA “SAE Fellow,” “Lifetime Achievement Award,” “Circle of Excellence Award,” and several others.
Jim Greenberger has served as Executive Director of NAATBatt International since co-founding the organization in 2008. Under his leadership, NAATBatt has worked to build the market for advanced battery technology in North America and a sustainable domestic supply chain to meet the demands of that market. Jim serves on the board of directors of the International Battery Materials Association (IBA) and as an advisor to numerous other battery-related organizations and companies. Prior to entering the battery industry full-time, Jim was a partner in the law firm of Reed Smith LLP in Chicago.
Jeff Harris joined Clarios in 2009 and currently serves as the Global Product Line Leader, Lithium and Smart Electronics.
Harris has played a key role in the development and launch of automotive advanced battery systems across the low voltage to high voltage technology continuum. He has also lead activities in product vision, strategy, product roadmap development, portfolio management, and competitive product benchmarking.
Harris has held several leadership roles in Program Management, Technical Account Management, Commercial Sales, and Product Management
Harris holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Marquette University.
Ken Hoffman is an Expert for McKinsey’s Basic Materials Institute (BMI). Prior to McKinsey, Ken was the global head of metals and mining research for Bloomberg Intelligence. Mr. Hoffman began his career at Prudential Securities, covering base and precious metals as well as the global steel industry, and headed Prudential’s global steel research team for five years. Mr. Hoffman ran the top quartile Orbitex Energy & Basic Materials fund for three years and for four years was a partner and head of research at MarCap European Investors Fund.
Dr. Judy Jeevarajan is the Vice President, Research in the Electrochemical Safety Research Institute (ESRI) for Underwriters Laboratories (UL) with more than 25 years of experience in the area of battery safety research. Dr. Jeevarajan is a published contributor on battery safety with more than 150 presentations at conferences and several journal publications. She has three book chapters to her credit.
Shmuel De-Leon, Founder and CEO of Shmuel De-Leon Energy.
Shmuel is a leading international expert in the business of Energy storage.
Prior to founding the company, Shmuel held for over 21 years various positions as an energy storage, electronic engineering and quality control team manager.
Shmuel holds a BSc. in mechanical engineering from Tel-Aviv University and an MBA in quality control and reliability engineering from the Technion Institute in Haifa as well as an Electronic Technician’s diploma.
Shmuel is an advisory board member of several industry companies.
Josh Li is a Managing Director in Equity Capital Markets at Citi, responsible for the Technology and Communications sectors. He has spent the last 20 years helping companies raise equity capital, ranging from pre-IPO privates, to IPOs, to SPAC merger combinations. He has spent considerable time around Mobility 2.0, having worked on transactions for Lucid, Embark, Li-Cycle, Ouster, etc.
Dr. Zheng Li is the co-CEO of Li Industries, Inc. Li Industries focuses on developing next-generation lithium-ion battery recycling technologies and is currently operating in Blacksburg VA. He has more than 16 years of experience in battery research and development, including lithium-ion battery design, manufacturing and recycling, and long-duration energy storage systems. He has been the first inventor and led the prototype design of several game-changing battery technologies at MIT, Virginia Tech and Li Industries.
Dr. Brian Morin is co-Founder and CEO of the Soteria Battery Innovation Group (BIG), a company that is promoting broad adoption of a technology that will eliminate lithium-ion battery fires, reduce weight of lithium ion batteries and reduce cost. Soteria BIG has formed a consortium of companies and licensees to support this mission, which will work to set safety standards and use branding to drive adoption of the technology.
Nathan Niese is a Partner based in the Chicago office of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He currently leads BCG’s Center for Climate Change & Electrification in Automotive. Nathan has helped leading companies in the transportation, energy, and public sectors to create winning businesses fit for a low-carbon future. His experience covers the full battery value chain — from material extraction to product integration to battery charging to the circular economy. He earned his PhD in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering.
Dave Roberts serves as Indiana’s Chief Innovation Officer and is a Vice President of NAATBatt International. He previously held a variety of roles in the battery & hybrid drivetrain sector, including President of the Battery Innovation Center, CEO of EnerDel, and legal counsel for Caterpillar. He has degrees in law from Indiana University and Materials Science & Engineering from Lehigh University, and is an attorney with Gutwein Law.
Mike Sanders joined the Avicenne Energy team in May of 2016 as a Senior Advisor after a long career with DuPont in multiple roles. Since joining the Avicenne team, Mike has been working with clients holding strategy workshops, validation of growth opportunities and helping clients establish their growth plans in energy storage. Mike has significant energy storage materials value chain understanding with an emphasis on lithium ion batteries and systems with 10 years of market knowledge and relationships. Successful program leadership experience with significant business growth in ventures and existing businesses with a proven track record leading mergers and acquisition team to enter the lithium ion battery materials market. Mike’s recent role with DuPont was the Global Marketing Director – Energy Storage Venture, where he led global marketing and customer interface efforts to establish programs to enter the $20B energy storage materials market.
Dan Shreve is the Global Head of Energy Storage at Wood Mackenzie. Dan has 20 years of experience in the power and renewables sector He leads a research team responsible for delivering strategic market intelligence spanning both commercial and technical issues impacting energy storage’s role within the energy transition. Dan is a recognized authority on the decarbonization of power markets and the global renewable energy sector. He joined Wood Mackenzie in 2017 via the acquisition of MAKE, a global wind energy advisory, where he was a Managing Partner. He has helped to transform economic modeling of power generation assets by successfully integrating Wood Mackenzie’s unrivaled analysis of commodity markets worldwide with the deep technical expertise of research teams from MAKE and GTM.
Eddie has more than 25-years of experience in commodities and related sectors. Prior to the founding of EAS Advisors, Eddie was the Managing Director of Jefferies & Co. in New York from 1999 till 2008, responsible for international equity sales and trading. Prior to Jefferies, Eddie worked as Managing Director for Marc Rich & Co. in Sydney, Australia and as a personal and private advisor to Solomon Lew and his associated companies out of Melbourne, Australia.
Joern Tinnemeyer is Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice President of EnerSys and serves this year as the Chairman of NAATBatt International. Enersys is the global leader in industrial energy storage systems. Joern is responsible for global engineering, global quality, and technology development. Joern studied applied mathematics and electrical engineering at the University of Toronto and holds a MSc in Astronautics and Space Engineering. His primary focus of expertise includes energy storage systems, system design optimization, safety topologies and control theory. He has worked on some of the most advanced lithium battery packs for major automotive OEMs.
Libby Wayman is a business and technology leader with experience research, product development, entrepreneurship, corporate strategy, and venture capital. Libby served as the Global Director of Innovation for GE’s Ecomagination strategy, in which GE invested over $20B in clean innovation and generated over $300B in revenue. Prior to GE, Libby served as the Director for the U.S. Department of Energy, Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative. Earlier in her career, Libby developed solar energy technologies at SunPower and Alion Energy, and co-founded a company focused on energy and cold-chain infrastructure in Africa and India.
M. Stanley Whittingham is a SUNY distinguished professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering at Binghamton and the 2019 Chemistry Nobel Laureate. Prof. Whittingham serves as Chief Science Officer of NAATBatt International. He has been active in Li-batteries since 1971 when he won the Young Author Award of the Electrochemical Society for his work on beta-alumina. In 1972, he joined Exxon and discovered the role of intercalation in battery reactions, which resulted in the first commercial lithium rechargeable batteries that were built by Exxon Enterprises. In 2018 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering and received the Turnbull Award from MRS. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, of MRS, ECS, ISE and ICDD.
Jeff Yambrick serves this year as President of NAATBatt International and as the International Business Development Director for SVOLT Energy Technology Company, an affiliate of Great Wall Motors. Jeff is on several SAE International Battery Standards committees and has served in leadership positions at Xalt Energy and Magna eCar/Steyr Battery Systems. Jeff currently serves as Co-Chair of NAATBatt’s Manufacturing in North America Committee and Policy & Regulatory Committee.
Libby Wayman is a business and technology leader with experience research, product development, entrepreneurship, corporate strategy, and venture capital. Libby served as the Global Director of Innovation for GE’s Ecomagination strategy, in which GE invested over $20B in clean innovation and generated over $300B in revenue. Prior to GE, Libby served as the Director for the U.S. Department of Energy, Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative. Earlier in her career, Libby developed solar energy technologies at SunPower and Alion Energy, and co-founded a company focused on energy and cold-chain infrastructure in Africa and India.
Kelly Speakes-Backman is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) at the U.S. Department of Energy. In her role, Speakes-Backman leads and directs the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, focused on creating and sustaining American leadership in the transition to a global clean energy economy. She oversees the planning and execution of the organization’s $2.8B portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable transportation. Speakes-Backman most recently served as the first CEO of the Energy Storage Association, the national trade organization for the energy storage industry. She has spent more than 20 years working in energy and environmental issues in the public, NGO and private sectors. In 2019, Speakes-Backman was honored by The Cleanie Awards as Woman of the Year.
Tony Modafferi recently retired following a 38 year career at General Motors. Prior to joining GM, he worked for seven years at Ford Motor Company. Mr. Modafferi originally joined GM in 1983 as a calibration engineer for Buick Motor Division in Flint. After a year of calibration work, he was given the opportunity to manage the Flint dynamometer lab. Mr. Modafferi held many positions at GM from program management to Engineering Group Manager for design release groups to manager of the engineering facility, while working in Flint. In 1995, he accepted the position of Program Manager for the China V6 program. This was GM’s opportunity to build a complete vehicle and powertrain in China for the China market. In less than four years the first car rolled off the assembly line in China in December 1998. In 1999, Mr. Modafferi moved to China as the Director of Powertrain Engineering at PATAC (Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center), a joint venture between GM and SAIC.
Mr. Modafferi returned from China in 2003 and developed a plan to consolidate five Powertrain Test Labs into one lab now located in Pontiac, Michigan. In 2008, he was given the opportunity to design, build, staff and manage the GM battery lab. Mr. Modafferri believes that working on building the battery lab gave him the opportunity to work with, and learn from, an incredible, diverse team that made the GM battery lab the best battery lab in the world.
Subhash Dhar is the Founder, Chairman and CEO, of American Battery Solutions Inc., a company engaged in developing, designing, and manufacturing complete Li-Ion battery systems for the electrification of vehicles, industrial equipment, and the fast-growing stationery storage applications. Mr. Dhar’s journey in the field of electrochemistry and batteries started in 1981 with pioneering work in Nickel-Metal Hydride technology which was launched in GM’s first electric car the EV1 in 1994. This technology later became the enabling battery for Toyota’s Prius in 1997. Mr. Dhar was the founding President of ECD-Ovonic Battery Company during, where he developed and commercialized Nickel Metal hydride batteries for the electrification of vehicles and setup business alliances and manufacturing operations in the US, Japan, China, and Europe. He also served as the President of Ovonic Fuel Cell Company where he developed a novel regenerative low-cost fuel cell.
Mr. Dhar was the founder, Chairman and CEO of Energy Power Systems (January 2011 thru’ April 2017) and CEO of XALT Energy (January 2014 thru’ April 2017), a leading manufacturer of Li-Ion cells and battery packs for heavy-duty electric vehicles and marine applications. Previously, Mr. Dhar served as the Chairman and CEO of Envia Systems, a company engaged in developing advanced Mn-rich cathode for NMC-based Li-Ion battery technology.
Mr. Dhar has also served at various technology and manufacturing companies in the following capacities. As Vice-Chairman of EnerDel, President of its parent company Ener1 Inc, was CEO of Eletra Hybrid Bus; a company based in Brazil and was CEO of PlasmaDrive, a Seattle based company engaged in the development of a novel combustion technology. Mr. Dhar has been involved in many aspects of alternative and advanced technology including hydrogen generation, hydrogen storage and Fuel Cells. He is a co-inventor of over 45 US patents and has co-authored more than 45 technical papers and delivered dozens of invited keynote addresses at numerous global energy and automotive conferences. Mr. Dhar also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Curtis Instruments for 15 years. He has a master’s in engineering management and Chemical Engineering from University of Detroit and Institute of Technology, India.
