Ryan Melsert

Ryan Melsert brings twenty years of multidisciplinary expertise to his positions as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Company. Melsert previously served as R&D Manager for Tesla’s Gigafactory Battery Materials Processing group. He founded and led a cross-functional team of mechanical and chemical engineers who implemented first principles design to develop novel first-of-kind systems for the extraction, purification, and synthesis of precursor and active battery materials. This development scope included the fundamental conceptual design, rigorous thermodynamic and process modeling, design and fabrication of bench-scale prototypes, construction and operation of integrated pilot systems, and implementation of commercial scale systems for the processing of battery materials.Other roles include R&D Manager (Advanced Energy & Transportation Technologies) for Southern Research and Energy Systems Consultant for the Advanced Technology Development Center in Atlanta Georgia. He has a variety of publications and patents in his name, and in previous positions has won several Department of Energy grants and innovation competitions, including the BASF Circularity Challenge in 2019, which was hosted in order to identify the most promising lithium-ion battery recycling technologies in the world. Melsert was recently acknowledged as Waste360’s 40 under 40 Innovator of the Year 2022.Melsert holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering science and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Penn State University, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Master of Business (MBA) from the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business.