Ms. Landers completes e-Zinc’s executive team of seasoned energy technology industry leaders who will drive the company’s next stage of growth.
e-Zinc, the company enabling sustainable, long-duration energy storage with its zinc-air battery, announced that it has appointed Rhonda Landers as its Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Landers will lead the company’s financial operations and play an integral role in business strategy development. She joins e-Zinc at a pivotal growth stage for the company and completes the executive leadership team, along with Zakiul (Zaki) Kabir, Chief Technology Officer, Rob Howard, Chief Operating Officer, and Balakrishnan (Balki) Iyer, Chief Commercial Officer.
“I am thrilled to complete our executive team with the addition of Rhonda. In addition to her deep experience and expertise in financial operations and M&A within high growth innovation-led organizations, she brings a strong strategic mindset and astute financial perspective,” said James Larsen, CEO of e-Zinc. “Her successful track record in value creation will be central to our strategy as we move through our product development to commercialization.”
Ms. Landers has more than two decades of experience in leadership roles within finance, strategy, and operations. Through similar advanced technology CFO positions at companies such as Nanosteel, Globe Wireless, and Seawave LCC, she has demonstrated leadership in capital raising, strategic planning, scaling operations, and strategic initiatives including strategic investments, licensing and acquisitions to progress technology maturation and achieve commercialization. Her experience spans diverse environments including startups, turnarounds and large industrial, public and private international companies in advanced materials and communications industries. Ms. Landers began her career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
“It’s a significant opportunity for me to join e-Zinc at this stage in its trajectory. I look forward to playing an integral role in its success to achieve important milestones and deliver a product to the marketplace that has the potential to impact the clean energy transition and provide value to our stakeholder community,” said Ms. Landers.
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Ms. Landers is the newest member to join the e-Zinc executive leadership team, bringing additional relevant experience in innovative technologies to an already impressive team of energy industry leaders, including:
Zaki Kabir, CTO brings over 25 years of experience as a senior executive to e-Zinc from his time as CTO of ClearEdge Power, COO at RF Biocidics, and CTO of SiEngery Systems. Zaki has previously developed, commercialized, and reconfigured complex products and services across various industries, including electrochemistry, energy conversion, clean energy, aerospace, and food science. He has taken these early-stage technologies from R&D to rapid prototyping, and through maturation cycles to ultimately introduce commercially viable products.
Rob Howard, COO joined e-Zinc with over 25 years of experience in executive leadership and spent the last 15 years of his career launching operations for new cutting-edge technologies in the energy and consumer electronics sector. Rob served as both COO and CEO at HiQ Solar, as well as Senior Director of Global Manufacturing at Enphase. Rob’s earlier experience includes 17 years in the automotive industry with companies such as Daimler, Chrysler, and General Motors, and he has a long history in operations management, quality, and commodity management.
Balki Iyer, CCO and Executive Lead of U.S. Expansion is a seasoned energy industry management professional with rich experience and a proven track record of driving growth for global conglomerates such as General Electric (GE) and other energy startups. Balki has successfully steered three startups from inception to exit and helped list one of them on NASDAQ. He was recently CCO of Eos Energy, a zinc-based stationary energy storage company, and prior to that he was the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Utopus Insights, a New York-based global renewable energy analytics company, acquired by Vestas. Balki began his career at Schlumberger and has also served as COO of renewable energy giant, Enel Green Power, and as VP, Business Development at GE, where he drove technology developments for renewable energy and smart grid.
Larsen further stated, “As we execute our goal of accelerating the clean energy transition with sustainable, long-duration solutions that transform how our world stores energy, I am excited to harness the strength of Rhonda, Zaki, Rob, and Balki. They each come with decades of deep experience imagining and commercializing innovative concepts, navigating companies from early capability demonstrations to sustainable business models, and rapidly scaling organizations driving value creation. I’m honored by their decisions to deploy their incredible capabilities toward accelerating e-Zinc’s mission.”
SOURCE: BusinessWire