Pallets of depleted lithium-ion batteries at JB Straubel’s Redwood Materials are prepared for recycling.
Source: CNBC
Redwood Materials, the battery-recycling startup based by Tesla board member JB Straubel, just lately nabbed Tesla’s vp of powertrain engineering, Colin Campbell, to serve as chief technology officer.
Based in Carson City, Nevada, Redwood was based by Straubel in 2017 whereas he was nonetheless serving as Tesla’s CTO. Straubel resigned from Tesla in 2019 to deal with Redwood.
Campbell announced the move on LinkedIn on Monday, capping a 17-year tenure working for Elon Musk’s electrical automobile firm in a wide range of engineering and management roles. He thanked his former colleagues at Tesla for a “once-in-a-lifetime expertise.”
“At Redwood, I’ll proceed to work on electrification — however this time, making certain broad EV and clear vitality adoption by fixing issues additional upstream!” Campbell wrote. “Redwood’s mission is to create a round battery provide chain, localizing the present fragmented system by creating important battery parts at scale within the US for the primary time — and from an ever-increasing quantity of recycled content material.”
Redwood turns end-of-life electrical automobile batteries and scrap from automotive factories into uncooked supplies and parts to make new battery cells. Straubel informed CNBC in February that the corporate additionally blends “sustainably mined materials” in its manufacturing processes.
Campbell’s departure from Tesla follows an announcement earlier this month that the corporate’s finance chief, Zach Kirkhorn, was stepping down, to get replaced by Tesla accounting chief Vaibhav Taneja, who now holds each the chief monetary officer and accounting function, in response to Tesla’s shareholder disclosure.
Redwood has lured high expertise away from Tesla for years. Another executive at Redwood, working chief Kevin Kassekert, beforehand served as vp of individuals and locations at Tesla. More than 120 folks at present work at Straubel’s firm after beforehand working for Tesla, in response to LinkedIn knowledge.
Straubel, who’s credited as a co-founder of Tesla, was elected by the automaker’s shareholders earlier this 12 months to serve as an unbiased director on the board.
Tesla didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
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