Electra is building North America’s only fully integrated, localized and environmentally sustainable battery materials park. Leveraging the Company’s own mining assets and business partners, the Electra Battery Materials Park will host cobalt and nickel sulfate production plants, a large-scale lithium-ion battery recycling facility, and battery precursor materials production, which will serve both North American and global customers.
Electra also owns the advanced exploration-stage Iron Creek cobalt-copper project in Idaho, USA. Electra Battery Materials is an integral part of the North American battery supply chain, providing low-carbon, sustainable and traceable raw materials for the region’s fast growing electric vehicle industry.
Board of directors
John Pollesel
Chairman
Member of : Audit Committee, Compensation, Governance and Nominating Committee and Technical and Sustainability Committee
John Pollesel
John Pollesel has over 30 years of experience in mining and most recently was Senior Vice President, Mining at Finning Canada. He was previously COO and Director of Base Metals Operations for Vale’s North Atlantic Operations, where he was responsible for the largest underground mining and metallurgical operations in Canada. Prior to this, he was Vice President and General Manager for Vale’s Ontario Operations. He also served as the CFO for Compania Minera Antamina in Peru, responsible for executive management in one of the largest copper/zinc mining and milling operations in the world. John is currently leading a private company that is developing an international fertilizer mining operation and serves on the board of directors for North American Construction Group and Noront Resources Ltd.
Garett Macdonald
Director
Member of : Audit Committee and Technical and Sustainability Committee
Garret Macdonald
Garett is a professional mining engineer with extensive experience in project development and mine operations with over 25 years of industry experience. Garett served as Vice President of Project Development for JDS Energy and Mining and was responsible for leading the Curraghinalt Feasibility Study for Dalradian Resources, a +5M ounce high grade, narrow vein gold project in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Dalradian was acquired by Orion Mine Finance for $537M in 2018. From 2009 to 2013 he served as Vice President of Operations for Rainy River Resources prior to the $310M sale of Rainy River to New Gold Inc. Garett also held roles in mine operations and project engineering throughout his career with senior Canadian mining firms Placer Dome, Teck Corporation and Suncor Energy.
Garett is currently President and CEO of Maritime Resources and a director of Aurelius Minerals and Gungnir Resources. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Western University’s Ivey Business School and a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) from Laurentian University in Sudbury.
Trent Mell
Chief Executive Officer & Director
Trent Mell
Trent Mell is the Founder & CEO of Electra Battery Materials Corporation (formerly First Cobalt Corp.). Electra’s mission is to create the only fully integrated, localized and environmentally sustainable Battery Materials Park in North America.
Trent brings more than 20 years of international business and operational experience. His mining career includes mine permitting, development and operations with Barrick Gold, Sherritt International, North American Palladium and AuRico Gold. Trent’s commercial experience includes M&A, joint ventures, offtake contracts and over $2.6 billion in equity and debt financings. He was also CEO of Falco Resources, owner of the Horne project which has mineral reserves of over 6 million gold equivalent ounces. As President and Head of Mining of PearTree Securities, Trent created a mining team and led the firm to become the largest provider of flow-through capital in Canada, placing more than $300 million in capital in their first year.
Trent holds an EMBA from the Kellogg School of Management and Schulich School of Business, a LL.M from Osgoode Hall as well as a B.A., B.C.L. and LL.B. from McGill University.
Gov. Butch Otter
Director
Member of : Compensation, Governance and Nominating Committee
Gov. Butch Otter
Former Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter is an American businessman and politician who served as the 32nd Governor of Idaho, from 2007 to 2019. He was elected in 2006 and reelected in 2010 and 2014. Gov. Otter served as lieutenant governor for 14 years, from 1987 to 2001, and in U.S. Congress from the first district from 2001 to 2007. When he left office in January 2019, Gov. Otter was the longest-serving governor in the United States whose time in office had ran consecutively, at 12 years. His election win in 2014 was his tenth consecutive victory.
Before devoting his career full-time to politics. Gov. Otter spent more than 30 years as a business leader including 12 years as President of Simplot International.
Susan Uthayakumar
Director
Member of : Audit Committee
Susan Uthayakumar
Susan Uthayakumar leads the Prologis’ customer-focused sustainability and energy solutions business as Chief Energy and Sustainability Officer. In this capacity, she is responsible for evaluating and scaling both existing and emerging energy solutions across the Prologis platform. She also partners with Prologis’ environmental stewardship, social responsibility and governance (ESG) team on strategy, progress, stakeholder engagement and related initiatives.
Prior to joining Prologis, Susan was president of Schneider Electric’s Sustainability Business Division. During her 16-year tenure with the company, she was instrumental in transforming Schneider Electric to a digital power and automation technology company by driving sustainability, efficiency and resiliency. Before that, she was CEO of Schneider Canada. Uthayakumar recently was recognized as a 2021 Environment+Energy Leader 100 Honoree for successfully delivering climate mitigation action to enterprise customers.
Previously, Susan led strategy and M&A projects globally with McCain Foods Limited, an international leader in the frozen food industry, and held various leadership positions with Deloitte, a global advisory firm.
Susan has an Executive MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with a focus on international business practices. In addition, she holds a Master of Accounting (MAcc) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo.
Susan has also completed the Women’s Senior Leadership Program and Executive Scholar Certification from the Kellogg School of Management and holds the Chartered Accountant (CA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designations.
Leadership Team
Mark Trevisiol, P.ENG
Vice President, Project Development
Mark Trevisiol, P.ENG.
Mark Trevisiol is a professional engineer with 30 years of experience in mineral processing, mining, capital projects and executive management. He spent over 20 years with Glencore predecessor companies Falconbridge Ltd. and Xstrata Nickel, where he was General Manager of Business Development and Strategy, General Manager of the Sudbury Smelter Business Unit, Manager of Smelter Operations and Superintendent of the Kidd Creek Zinc Plant. More recently, Mark held a number of executive leadership and board positions, including CEO positions at Crowflight Minerals and Silver Bear Resources.
During his career, Mark has had responsibility in mining and mineral processing for teams of up to 300 people, with responsibility for operations, safety & environment, custom feed, engineering, maintenance and technology. He has a demonstrated track record of increasing plant efficiency and margins, notably in treating third party feeds. With Falconbridge Ltd., he championed a new recycling facility primarily designed to handle spent cobalt-based lithium batteries. He has worked across several commodities, including nickel, cobalt, zinc, copper, lithium, gold, and silver.
Mark has an Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo.
Craig Cunningham CPA, CA
Chief Financial Officer
Craig Cunningham, CPA, CA
Craig Cunningham has more than 15 years of professional experience leading Finance teams in multinational, publicly listed companies with a specific concentration in large mining operations. Before joining Electra, Craig served Kinross Gold Corporation in progressively senior roles since 2010 and last held the title of VP, Finance Russia. In this capacity, Craig oversaw Finance, Supply Chain, Logistics, Information Technology and Administration functions with a combined headcount of more than 200. Craig has strong business acumen and the ability to deliver insightful guidance on diverse strategic initiatives, including investment and cash flow strategies, financial controls, and multibillion-dollar construction projects.
As Chief Financial Officer, Craig will manage all aspects of Finance and control and oversee the Company’s enterprise risk management.
Craig is an accredited Certified Professional Accountant and Chartered Accountant in the province of Ontario. Additionally, Craig holds an honours BA in accounting from the Goodman School of Business at Brock University as well as an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
Joe Racanelli
Vice President, Investor Relations
Joe Racanelli
Joe Racanelli is Vice President of Investor Relations with Electra Battery Materials Corporation, which is building North America’s only fully-integrated, localized, and environmentally sustainable battery materials park.
He has more than 20 years of investor relations, marketing and corporate communications experience focusing on strategic metals.
Over the years, Joe has led the communication efforts for complex financial transactions valued at more than $3 billion, helped five companies go public, scheduled more than 500 road show meetings and established strong relations with buy-side and sell-side contacts around the world. He is a frequent speaker on IR issues and topics.
Joe is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Concordia University.
Renata Cardoso
Vice President, Sustainability and Low Carbon
Renata Cardoso
Renata Cardoso is an economist with MBA and an extensive experience leading corporate sustainability and climate change strategy in the international mining and metals industry.
Prior to joining Electra, Renata spent her over 15 years with global miner Vale, based both at headquarters in Brazil and at Base Metals HQ in Canada. She began her career in Vale’s corporate strategy group and transitioned in 2008 to help create Vale’s approach for Sustainability, and has served as Climate Change Manager and Sustainability General Manager in Brazil, and most recently, as Low Carbon Manager for Vale’s global Base Metals business operating from Canada. In her last role, she led cross functional efforts across the organization for the development and implementation of a decarbonization program, touching everything from mines to processing plants in several countries.
Renata truly believes in mining with purpose and is passionate about the world’s transition to a low carbon economy.
Michael Insulan
Vice President, Commercial
Michael Insulan
Michael Insulan has nearly 20 years of experience across oil and gas, bulk commodities, base and minor metals. He has worked for Royal Dutch Shell, CRU, and Eurasian Resources Group. Over the past four years, Michael has been primarily focused on the cobalt market where he has built a reputation as an industry expert.
As Vice President, Commercial, Michael will have overall responsibility for marketing of the Company’s refined cobalt sulfate production to electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers and battery cell makers. He will also be responsible for marketing recycled cobalt, nickel, lithium and other battery materials produced by Electra Battery Materials’ Canadian refinery under a proposed Phase 2 expansion to refine black mass recovered from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries.
Michael holds a PhD in Economics, focused on the extractive industries.
Regan P. Watts
Vice President, Corporate Affairs
Regan P. Watts
Regan Watts is a seasoned and entrepreneurial executive with more than 20 years of public and private sector experience in corporate communications, strategy, innovation, and regulatory and corporate affairs. His experience spans various industries including infrastructure, transportation, industrial manufacturing, information technology and financial services.
Mr. Watts has provided services to Electra Battery Materials since 2019 and has been instrumental in helping communicate Electra priorities and plans to the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario. In his executive capacity, Mr. Watts will add U.S. corporate and regulatory affairs to his responsibilities. Electra has ambitious plans for its Iron Creek copper-cobalt project in Idaho, which align with President Biden’s US$2 trillion green energy plan.
Prior to working with Electra, Mr. Watts was a member of IBM Canada’s senior leadership group, heading the Innovation, Citizenship and Government Affairs team. Prior to IBM, he served on the Executive Committee of Lafarge Canada, where he led corporate communications, public and regulatory affairs, and corporate social responsibility. Mr. Watts had an extensive career in public service, serving in leadership roles in the Government of Canada across four federal departments. From 2006 to 2012, he served at Finance Canada, Transport Canada, Health Canada, and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. In 2012, Mr. Watts was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his public service to Canada. A published author, Mr. Watts holds an MBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University and is President of consultancy Fratton Park Inc.
Dan Pace
Principal Geologist
Dan Pace
Dan is a geoscientist with over 14 years of mineral exploration experience. Prior to joining Electra Battery Materials, Dan worked on a variety of mineral systems throughout the western US. He began his career with Barrick’s near mine exploration team at Bald Mountain where they made significant blind gold discoveries in the camp. Dan then transitioned to a generative exploration role with Renaissance Exploration. Over his 10 years with Renaissance, Dan executed programs and joint-venture funded partnerships on a wide variety of mineral systems throughout the western US. This involved acquisition of the Silicon low sulfidation epithermal gold prospect in 2015 and option-agreement with Anglo-Gold Ashanti in 2017. Anglo is developing the project into a tier-1 asset with multiple new gold discoveries under barren alteration cells.
Renaissance was acquired in 2020 by Evrim resources to create Orogen Royalties where Dan served as Vice President of Exploration. Dan and his team at Orogen developed and vended a large portfolio of exploration projects throughout western North America which are currently being advanced by funding partners.
Dan has a MSc from the University of Nevada, Reno and a BA from Colby College.
Dr. George Puvvada
Refinery Technical Manager
Dr. George Puvvada
Dr. George Puvvada, P.Eng., PMP, PhD, is a highly qualified metallurgist with over 25 years of industrial metallurgical experience. Over his career, Dr. Puvvada built a reputation developing flowsheets for difficult ores and delivered projects for some of the world’s largest mining companies, including Vale, Xstrata and Barrick Gold.
As Electra Battery Materials Technical Manager, Dr. Puvvada will be a key member of the senior leadership team tasked with executing on Electra refinery expansion and commissioning strategy and qualifying the Company’s cobalt sulfate product for inclusion in Western automaker electric vehicle batteries.
Prior to joining Electra, Dr. Puvvada was employed with Northern Sun Mining, overseeing all aspects of feed evaluation, metallurgical processing, lab supervision and project development. He previously spent several years as a metallurgist at the Peko Mine in Australia, testing, developing and piloting for the recovery of base and precious metals. Dr. Puvvada has also worked with some of the world’s leading metallurgical and engineering firms, including SNC Lavalin, Tetra Tech, Ortech and SGS. Dr. Puvvada holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mineral Processing from Andhra University in India and a PhD in Extractive Metallurgy from the University of New South Wales in Australia.
Vuka Bondzi-Simpson
Manager, Finance
Vuka Bondzi-Simpson
Vuka is a finance professional with a half decade-plus of experience. Prior to joining Electra Battery Materials, Vuka provided assurance services for small to mid cap companies in mining & metals.
Vuka holds an Accounting degree from the Goodman School of Business at Brock University and obtained his Chartered Professional Accountant Designation with Ernst & Young LLP.
Sabrina Gunness
Administration
Sabrina Gunness
Sabrina Gunness has more than a decade of office management experience in the financial industry. Prior to joining Electra Battery Materials, she held a dual role as an Institutional Trading Desk Sales Assistant and oversaw the daily office administration at Jennings Capital Inc. Sabrina is an experienced Branch Administrator for Retail Boutique Brokerage firms where she was responsible for the daily branch administration and direct supervision of sales assistants and support staff at MacDougall, MacDougall and MacTier and Blackmont Capital Inc.
Sabrina holds a B.Sc (Hons) from The University of Toronto.