January 17, 2019: Steve Cotton was officially made CEO of Aqua Metals, the lead battery recycler, on January 9 after months as de facto president and CEO. He has also been appointed to the board of directors, bringing the total number of directors on the board to seven.
Board chairman Shariq Yosufzai said Cotton had “built an entirely new management team and strengthened existing partnerships while seeking new partnerships and building on relationships with investors, analysts and the industry as a whole”.
Last year there was a number of changes in Aqua Metals’ senior staff, starting with chief financial officer Mark Weinswig being replaced by former CFO Thomas Murphy in an interim move until Frank Knuettel replaced Murphy in April.
CEO, chairman and co-founder Steve Clarke was, according to the firm, ‘transitioned’ in April, to be replaced for an interim period by company co-founder and chief operating officer Selwyn Mould.
Cotton, who had left his position in the firm as chief commercial officer in June 2017, returned to Aqua Metals as president at the start of May 2018. Terri Bradfield was appointed vice president of human resources in August and in November Judd Merrill became the company’s fourth CFO in just over a year, replacing Frank Knuettel.
In December, the company said it had almost completed the first phase of its two-phase capital improvement programme and had begun processing lead into ingots.
At the same time, the company announced it had achieved 67% of its target for electrolyte recovery and predicted this would rise to 75% by the end of the first phase and 100% by the end of the second.
“As a result, the company expects to reach neutral to positive contribution margin in the first quarter of 2019, which should allow it to begin ramping AquaRefining operations,” the company said.
Aqua Metals won vendor approval from battery giant Johnson Controls in 2018.
* On January 16, Aqua Metals announced it was proposing to offer and sell shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering. The final terms will depend on market and other conditions at the time of pricing, and no assurances were offered as to the size or terms of the offering.
