Skyllas-Kazacos joins Tivan advisory group

Vanadium redox flow battery pioneer Maria SkyllasKazacos has joined a new technical advisory group set up by minerals processing tech company Tivan.

Tivan said on May 31 supply chain in EMEA — was formed in 1957 and was originally based in Switzerland.

Skyllas-Kazacos’s technical knowledge and experience would be keenly sought in developing and standardizing the global value chain in VRFB.

Other initial appointments to the group included Stéphane Leblanc and Simon Flowers.

Leblanc is a former MD of Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium. Flowers is the director and principal of Sustainergy Consulting and a former international team leader with US energy firm ConocoPhillips.

The group will provide independent technical advice to support development of two projects, including Tivan’s Mount Peake in Australia’s Northern Territory — which the company says has one of the largest flat-lying, shallow vanadium-titanium deposits in the country.

The other is the Speewah vanadium-titanium-iron project in Western Australia, of which Tivan acquired 100% ownership in April.

But it was only when it moved to Brussels at the turn of the century that it became the lobbying and trade body that it is today.

EUROBAT is a non-profit association under Belgian law and is staffed by association management company Kellen. Westgeest became Kellen Europe’s board member for global develop- ment in 2022.

Before EUROBAT, Westgeest was the founder and managing partner of Ernst & Young’s association management practice in 1988 in Brussels. He joined EY in 1981 and left the firm in 2004.

This year’s EUROBAT general assembly and convention was held on June 6-7 in Madrid.

See our event review towards the end of the magazine.

Roden joins ENTEK International as North America account manager

James Roden has joined ENTEK International’s lead acid separator sales team as North America account manager, the company announced on May 31.

Roden, who has more than 10 years of sales experience in the automotive industry, will be based at ENTEK’s headquarters in Oregon.

ENTEK announced last year that it was to expand its manufacturing of AGM battery separators to India and the US, in response to expanding demand for energy storage solutions for inverters, industrial applications and electric vehicles.

In March, the company said it was also investing

$1.5 billion to build a lithium ion battery separator production facility in the US state of Indiana. The Terre Haute plant, on a 340-acre greenfield site, will be the biggest investment to date by the US-based producer of wet-process lithium-ion battery separator materials, in support of the growing EV industry in Indiana and across the country.

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