PEOPLE NEWS
Beckley joins Hammond as new CTO as Lulsdorf moves to Exide Industries Gordon Beckley has been appointed vice-president and chief technical officer of the Hammond Group, the global producer of lead oxides, expanders, and specialty chemicals for lead-acid batteries, He succeeds Achim Lulsdorf who left Hammond in December and has moved to Exide Industries, the Indian battery group. Beckley’s appointment comes at an exciting time for Hammond. “We have made revolutionary breakthroughs in lead acid battery charge acceptance with our K2 Expanders and have committed significant investments to serve the current and emerging requirements of our battery customers,” said Terry Murphy, president and CEO of the Hammond Group. Beckley has a long career in the lead acid business. He spent the last 11 years as senior vice president for engineering and quality at deep cycle battery manufacturer Trojan. He developed Trojan’s T2 Technology line which introduced a T2 metal agent into the paste mix. He was also behind the development of the Traveler, Ranger and Reliant product lines. Previous to that he spent two years as director for engineering and strategic planning for GS Battery, the US subsidiary of Japan Storage Battery Company. From 1989 to 2002 he worked for GNB Technologies in a series of rising senior positions being in charge of its operations in New Zealand and later Australia. He became a vice president of engineering with Exide when GNB was taken over in 1999 and was responsible for integrating the two firms’ engineering department. Beckley also spent two years with legendary AGM firm Gates. He also participates in research and development programmes with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and is chairman of the Deep Cycle and Electric Vehicle Battery Committee for Battery Council International. “Gordon brings a wealth of techni-
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cal and practical experience — along with a personal passion — to Hammond’s strategy of enabling lead-acid chemistry for advanced energy storage”, said Murphy. “His first-hand knowledge and experience in tailoring customer-specific solutions will allow us to better serve our industry in competition with Lithium-Ion for micro-hybrid vehicle and energy storage markets.” As Hammond’s CTO, Beckley will report directly to Murphy and be responsible for all R&D efforts headquartered at Hammond’s new leadacid battery laboratory.
“Gordon brings a wealth of technical and practical experience — along with a personal passion — to Hammond’s strategy of enabling lead-acid chemistry for advanced energy storage” – Terry Murphy, president and CEO of the Hammond Group
Aqua Metals appoints two to new management team Aqua Metals, the lead recycling firm that offers an alternative to smelting announced in November new hires to its management team with the appointment of Alex Laleh as special projects manager and the hire of Thomas Akright in October as a corporate controller. Laleh’s primary responsibility is setting up the AquaRefining module production line in the company’s Alameda headquarters. Laleh joined from Siemens, where he was responsible for oversight of production planning and production configuration management. Akright is responsible for building the company’s financial systems, internal controls, performance metrics and reporting capabilities.
Aqua Metals raised $36 million in a share raising called an IPO last summer. It has used the proceeds to acquire more staff in the run-up to the commercialization of its operations this summer. (A profile of the firm is found in the latter part of this issue.)
Batteries International • Winter 2015/2016 • 9