Speaker Biographies

Dr. Parvin Adeli manages the Batteries Program at the Nickel Institute. She also develops strategies for stakeholder engagement and sees partnerships to success. She is the host of Battery Chats with Parri, a series of online interviews with leading experts in the field, and a contributor to the Nickel Magazine and the Chronickels Blog. In June 2023, she developed the program and moderated the Inaugural Nickel Institute Battery Day where more than 500 delegates from 70+ countries attended. Prior to joining the Nickel Institute in 2020, Parri held a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship with the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa where she worked on energy storage material formulation and optimization, particularly on solid-state batteries and composite electrolyte materials. She earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo (UW) in Canada. Parri is the recipient of multiple awards including the distinguished “Nickel Institute President Award”, Merit Scholarship from UW and the Nanotechnology fellowship from the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology. She has authored and co-authored several peer-reviewed papers in the field of batteries in well-reputed journals.

Sahin is a Research Technical Lead at Minviro, a UK-based life cycle assessment company that works within the raw material and battery industries to quantify and reduce the environmental impact of key materials and products for global decarbonisation. He is responsible for various academic and industrial research projects in the company, including UK and EU grants, and commercial collaborations. He works prominently integrating different pillars of raw material sustainability and recycling impact databases with Minviro’s technology solutions, leads projects investigating decarbonisation technology applications (photovoltaics, semiconductors, electric motors) and critical raw material supply chains, and manages a grant project alongside supporting Minviro’s other services and offerings. He completed his MSc in Mining Environmental Management at the University of Exeter, Camborne School of Mines, where he studied ecotoxicity and climate change impacts of acid mine drainage from legacy mine wastes in Cornwall, UK and has significant experience working with mineral processing and refining stages of gold extraction prior to commencing his role with Minviro.

David Anonychuk is Global Vice President of Metallurgy and Consulting, with over 30 years of international experience in mining, metallurgy, strategy, and consulting. He has held senior roles at Glencore, Xstrata, and mining consultancies. David is recognized for his expertise in critical minerals and the battery supply chain, with a focus on innovation. He has spoken at global forums including BNN Bloomberg, the White House, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. He serves as Co-Chair of the Critical Mineral Council for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Critical Mineral Expert Advisory Group for the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Dr. Brian Barnett serves as CTO for Nyobolt and leads the company's US operations. Dr. Barnett has extensive experience in development and commercialization of battery technology. He is recognized as both a technical and industry expert related to batteries and an expert in battery safety and has directed a series of successful lab-based, highly multidisciplinary battery technology development programs that resulted in technology licensing, spin-off or sale.

Marc-André is the CEO of Grivix, a leading technology company specializing in extreme high-power charging cable solutions (6 Megawatts and above) and charging automation. With over 14 years of experience in product innovation and commercially-driven roles within the global automotive sector, Marc-André has developed a deep expertise in electric vehicles.

Nathan is the Director for Mining & Industrial at Xerotech, a supplier of ruggedized batteries for off-highway electric vehicles. He has over 20 years' experience with technology applications in mining, including Computer Vision-based AI software, asset and workforce management, and productivity efficiency. He has held executive positions at ABB and Trimble Loadrite. Nathan has an MBA from Melbourne Business School, postgraduate marketing qualifications, and a six sigma black belt. He is also a massive fan of rugby, having both played and coached.

Caleb Cage has served in a number of leadership and policy positions throughout his twenty year career with the federal government and the State of Nevada. Following his public service, Caleb founded Arc Dome Strategies, a Nevada government affairs firm, and helped with establishment of the Nevada Battery Coalition.

Colin Campbell leads Redwood’s technology and product development as CTO. Colin joined after 17 years at Tesla as VP of Powertrain Engineering where he was responsible for the electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing engineering of high power electronics, as well as motors, gearboxes, battery packs, and charging systems across both the vehicle and energy businesses. Colin earned his BS in Physics and MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Frederico Carneiro serves as Business Development Manager for Nyobolt and is a member in the company's US operations. He has extensive experience in business and market development of novel battery materials. He is recognized as an industry expert in niobium-containing materials. He has contributed to Nyobolt's technology development and growth from the lab into commercialization. Frederico holds a Master's Degree in Environmental Engineering from Columbia University.

Stefan Debruyne is Director of External Affairs at SQM, focusing on SQM’s engagement with stakeholders of the global EV battery value chain. He joined SQM in 2005 as Lithium and Iodine Sales Director Asia-Pacific where he witnessed firsthand the boom in lithium-ion battery production in Asia and the emerging electrification of transportation in China. He earned a Master's degree in Commercial Engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1997 and an Executive MBA from Vlerick Business School (in Belgium) in 2021. Prior to joining SQM in 2005, he held a variety of international commercial roles in different listed companies.

David has Bachelor and Ph.D. degrees in Metallurgical Engineering from Queen's University (Canada) and since 1984 has worked at the University of British Columbia as Professor and Chair of the Industrial Research Chair in Hydrometallurgy. David is a co-founder of Atlas Materials and serves as CEO and CTO. David’s current work focuses on materials processing for decarbonization of battery materials production. David has received a number of professional awards including the Sherritt Hydrometallurgy Award (METSOC), the EPD Science Award (TMS), the Wadsworth Award (TMS) and the INCO Medal (CIM). David is a Fellow of CIM, Engineers Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He was recently inducted into the US Academy of Engineering as an International Member.

Jesus Eduardo Escobar graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of San Diego in San Diego, CA and Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington; a graduate level program focused on the financial services industry. Mr. Escobar was employed by the former Valley Independent Bank currently Mechanic’s Bank and enjoyed a successful 16-year banking career that included multiple senior level management positions and the corporate titles of Senior Vice President and Regional President. Currently, Mr. Escobar is a licensed U.S. Customs Broker, managing offices in Calexico, CA and San Diego, CA. Mr. Escobar was a member of the Calexico City Council (2016-2019) and his civic and community involvement includes being, board member of Border Communities Capital Company, past president of the Calexico Rotary Club and the Calexico Noontimer’s Lion’s Club. Mr. Escobar has also taught business and finance courses at Imperial Valley College and San Diego State University.

Tom Fairlie is Senior Sustainability Manager for Cobalt Institute, the global not-for-profit industry association representing the full cobalt value chain. His work focuses on the development of life cycle assessment data, circular economy approaches, decarbonization, and cobalt as an enabler of the green transition – whilst advocating the need for a just transition.

With 15 years’ experience in biomining and sustainable processing, Homay enjoys working with people, nature and data to address significant mining industry challenges. As an operational decarbonizer, Homay aims to deliver intelligent solutions by identifying the bigger picture behind key problems in the mine value chain and extracting values inherent in each. Homay holds a PhD in Mining and Metallurgy Engineering from Australia (Western Australian School of Mines, Curtin University) and MSc in Soil and Water Management from Sweden (SLU).

Advised clients on both short- and long-term growth strategy while bridge-making between Asian-USA/European companies as a management consultant for 20 years. Expertise Area: Business strategy, Transformation, Cross border M&A, Business Due Diligence, Alliance advisory & PMI (Post Merger Integration). Industries: Chemical / materials and automotive / auto-parts / aerospace industries including lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle.

Surinder Ghag is an experienced mining executive with almost 30 years of broad commodities experience across copper-gold, mineral sands, iron ore and graphite. Since 2017 Surinder has been involved in upstream graphite studies, acquisition and optimisation of Skaland graphite in Norway, as well as downstream studies for the production of active anode materials. Surinder joined Sovereign Metals as consulting Chief Technology Officer- Graphite earlier this year to support the development of Sovereign's Kasiya project

Dr. Tobias Glossmann is a Principal Engineer at Mercedes-Benz R&D North America and works on battery research from material level to vehicle integration for more than 20 years. He is engaged in community education as an officer of the Detroit section of the Electrochemical Society. His current research interests include Li-metal batteries and interfaces in batteries and electrochemical sensors.

Steven is currently the Corporate Development Officer at IMPACT Silver Corp. He has nearly 25 years of capital markets experience in the natural resources sector, having held various positions in the investment industry across both the buy and sell sides. More recently, Steven held senior officer and corporate development roles at various junior and mid-level global mining-sector companies.

Oliver is a serial entrepreneur having founded and led 3 technology companies. His top achievements include: Growing ARM’s mobile market share from 0% to 95%, executing the 2006 acquisition of Falanx (Mali GPU) at ARM, Co-founder of the non-profit MIPI Alliance in 2003, Sponsoring and founding NGCodec as its CEO for 7 years till its successful 5x exit to AMD (was Xilinx) in 2019, Founding Impossible Metals including recruiting co-founders and closing over $12M in seed funding. In 1994 he joined ARM, at the time a 60-person startup in the UK. Initially he pioneered the segment marketing activity by leading the mobile marketing team, which resulted in growing its market share from 0% to over 90%. He lived and worked in Japan for two and half years. In his last role at ARM as VP of Corporate Business Development and M&A, Oliver championed the acquisition of Falanx in 2006, whose technology (Mali) went on to become the number one shipping GPU in the world. In September 2023 ARM IPO for the 2nd time at a valuation of $65 billion. In 2012, Oliver founded NGCodec, a start-up focused on next generation cloud video acceleration, leveraging programmable hardware. As CEO he raised over $15M, grew the team to ~40 people and won SaaS business with Amazon/Twitch. In 2019 the company was acquired by AMD (was Xilinx) data center group, returning over 5x to his investors. In 2023 AMD released a 5nm ASIC for data centers with NGCodec encoder IP. In 2020, Oliver founded Impossible Metals to provide responsible seabed mining and refining of battery metals, enabling the world’s transition to sustainable energy. Impossible Metals is building underwater robotics vehicles which collect battery metals from the seabed without harming the environment as well as using bacteria to refine battery metals without generating tailings. Oliver holds a Bachelor's degree with honors in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Greenwich London, UK, and a Mini-MBA from the AeA/Executive Institute, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Palo Alto, CA, USA. He is the inventor of multiple patents in the semiconductor, video and robotics space.

Ryan Kelley was elected to represent District #4 (Brawley, Bombay Beach, Calipatria, Desert Shores, Niland, Salton City, Salton Sea Beach, Vista Del Mar, and Westmoreland) in 2012. He is a lifelong and third generation resident of Imperial Valley. Ryan holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Long Beach State University and an Associate’s of Science degree from Miramar College, as well as, a Paramedic Certificate from Imperial Valley College. As an Imperial County and Brawley Firefighter, he fought fires across Imperial County. As a Paramedic, he treated and cared for patients from Bombay Beach to Salton City. As an Imperial Valley College Instructor, he taught fire science and emergency medical services to the next generation of firefighters and EMTs. As the Imperial County Emergency Medical Services Administrator, he developed and enhanced the Emergency Medical Services system and capabilities. In addition to being the Imperial County Supervisor, Ryan is a past president and current member of the Salton Sea Authority, member of the Imperial County Local Health Authority, member of the Local Area Formation Commission, and Vice Chair of the California Lithium Valley Commission.

Kurt is currently the vice president of battery cell and pack for General Motors. Prior to that Kurt was the VP of Automotive at Sila Nanotechnologies, a battery materials company that enables lighter, higher energy density lithium-ion batteries for mass adoption of electric vehicles, longer-lasting portable electronics, and broader use of renewable power sources. Kelty brings more than 25 years of experience in the battery industry, including 11 years at Tesla, where he most recently served as Senior Director of Battery Technology. There he was responsible for leading numerous key initiatives, including setting the company’s battery cell usage strategy, delivering the batteries implemented in the Roadster, Model S/X and Model 3, and leading partnerships and material sourcing efforts at the Gigafactory, among many others. Prior to Tesla, Kelty was Director of Business Development at Panasonic, where he founded the U.S. battery R&D lab. Kelty holds a BA in Biology from Swarthmore College and a Master of Science from Stanford.

John Kwarta is a Strategic Account Executive at Schneider Electric, supporting a Digital, Electric and Sustainable Mining and Metals industry. With a wealth of experience, he fosters partnerships and collaborations to advance impactful change in efficiency, decarbonization and technology adoption. John Kwarta, a seasoned professional with a career spanning over 25 years, has excelled in various roles, including field service, technology research and development, marketing, and account management. At Schneider Electric, John is helping shape a sustainable future through open collaboration with one of the world's largest mining & metals companies.

G.J. la O’, Ph.D. is Co-founder/Chief Executive Officer at Tyfast. Prior to Tyfast, he spent a decade leading technology development of grid-scale energy storage systems at Primus Power. In his role as VP of Technology, he lead the engineering team focused on scaling and commercialization of a novel long-duration ESS platform. G.J. helped the company raised over $100M in venture capital and deploy over a dozen grid-scale battery systems. At Tyfast, he leads fundraising and business development activities for their novel high-performance lithium battery aimed at obsoleting diesel in heavy duty equipment. G.J. has 23 patents issued and received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Recognized for more than 25 years of developing and commercializing lithium-ion batteries, Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud is Founder and CEO of Cadenza Innovation, a growth-stage company transforming energy storage for grid, EV, commercial and industrial, and urban battery deployments. Previously, Dr. Lampe-Onnerud was Founder, CEO, and International Chairman of Boston-Power, a battery company providing products to the consumer electronics, transportation, and other end markets. Earlier in her career, Dr. Lampe-Onnerud held executive positions with Bridgewater Associates and Arthur D. Little, where she led the world’s largest non-captive battery lab. A two-time World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and former co-chair of its Global Future Councils, Dr. Lampe-Onnerud is a co-chair of Li-Bridge, a public-private alliance convened by the U.S. Department of Energy to accelerate the creation of a robust domestic manufacturing base and supply chain for lithium-based batteries. She is also a former board director with the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology (NY-BEST) Consortium, a coalition working to build a vibrant, world-class, advanced battery and energy storage sector in New York State. Dr. Lampe-Onnerud holds a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Uppsala University, Sweden, conducted post-doctoral work at MIT and currently sits on MIT’s Chemistry Department Visiting Committee.

Mr. Lu graduated from Department of Business Administration in National Cheng-chi University, Taiwan, and continued to acquire an MBA degree from National Sun Yat-sen University. His first job concerned with the optical film in China for two years, then came back Taiwan to serve Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) as an analyst in Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center (ISTI) until now. As a certified industrial analyst of the biggest think-tank in Taiwan, he is responsible for the research about Taiwan battery-related industry, including material, cell, pack and related applications. Not only handling the official government statistics about Taiwan battery industry, sometimes he also plays a role to provide consulting suggestions for Taiwan government and firms. From 2010 to June 2020, he served as the secretary-general of the Taiwan Battery Association.

Tom Maull works as the Principal Product Manager—Innovation for Elysia Battery Intelligence. Prior to his current role, he lead battery modelling activities and algorithm development for several high-profile battery programmes ranging from large Haul Trucks to top-tier motorsport, including Formula E Gen 3 and LMDh. In his current role, Tom develops the R&D strategy for Elysia Battery Intelligence, working in close collaboration with academic and technical partners. Before joining Elysia, Tom worked as a mechanical engineering consultant, serving clients in the automotive and offroad industry.

Michael McKibben is a geochemist and economic geologist at U. C. Riverside who studies mineral and energy resources. He retired in 2021 but was recalled as a Research Professor in 2022 to work on assessing Salton Sea geothermal lithium resources with colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and is co-author of a recent DOE-sponsored report on California’s Geothermal Lithium Resources. He serves as a technical consultant/advisor to both domestic and international geothermal companies on Li extraction efforts and was a member of a Cornell-Utah-UCR research group competing as one of five finalists for the Dept. of Energy’s $4M Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize. He recently contributed to a General Accounting Office/National Academy of Sciences national panel of experts assembled to assess the Recovery of Critical Minerals from Nontraditional Resources. He has a book chapter in press on the recovery of critical minerals from geothermal brines for an Elsevier textbook on Geothermal Power Generation.

Jake has spent over a decade in materials R&D including development of novel NMP-free cathode binder solutions. In the last 4 years, Jake has been focused on how data management and AI can accelerate materials design and commercialization for the broader chemicals and materials market.​

Anil Paryani is an innovator, entrepreneur and environmentalist who has developed and deployed EV battery and charging technology since 1990. He led Tesla’s battery management system for almost 6 years. He started his career at Honda R&D and held various leadership roles at FF, BTC Power, and AeroVironment. In 2017, Anil founded AMP, an E-Mobility company with the mission of electrifying the world. In 2023, Ford Motor Company acquired AMP, where he presently leading the EV Systems Architecture of a ‘Skunk Works” program. Anil has over 35 patents in the field. He graduated with a BSEE from Cal Poly Pomona.

Dr Allan Paterson is Head of Battery Development for Fortescue Zero, leading cell technology and applications analysis for high performance battery systems development across breadth of technology areas including motorsport, road car and heavy-duty markets. Prior to joining Fortescue, Allan was the CTO for Britishvolt, leading the technology programme for development of a UK Gigafactory. Previously, Allan has held positions as the Faraday Institution’s Head of Programme Management, and as Chief Electrochemist at both Cummins and Johnson Matthey Battery Systems where he investigated new battery technologies and their application in next generation low carbon EV, PHEV and HEV applications. Allan has 25 years’ experience in the field of lithium-ion batteries and holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of St Andrews on advanced cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

Dr. Pesaran has dedicated his career at NREL to advancing energy-efficient technologies, with a focus on electrified vehicles and next-generation batteries. He led NREL’s Energy Storage Group, driving research in high-energy battery materials, advanced thermal management, safety and thermal-runaway, second-use batteries, techno-economic analysis, and recycling. He also directed DOE’s national Computer-Aided Engineering for Electric-Drive Vehicle Batteries initiative. From 2016–2018, he served as a technical advisor in DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office. Over the past seven years, Ahmad built a strong business-development portfolio, securing major new funding and projects for NREL. Prior to retiring, he led a major NHTSA’s EV-safety activities at NREL.

Bruce has led Anson Resources as CEO since 2018, navigating the business through significant growth and transformation. Prior to Anson, Bruce spent more than 30 years developing business opportunities internationally and is fluent in Mandarin. Bruce has over 15 years’ experience in senior management and director positions across exploration, mining and production based operations within private and public companies. He has previously developed exploration projects through to commercial production and raised over $275 million for the development of these projects. Bruce had 10 years’ experience in the public sector having worked as an Australian Trade Commissioner in the Australian Embassy in Beijing, with responsibility for the resources portfolio, and as Trade Development Director, Australian Commerce & Industry Office Taipei, Taiwan.

The development of resilient supply chains in pursuit of in-country climate change goals and energy security has become the imperative of the century at both the national and international levels. Adele is responsible for reviewing regulatory and policy trends and risks impacting global critical mineral supply chains, from fractious geopolitical forces to the challenges of implementing effective policies. She has also completed extensive mine-level due diligence, providing an objective view of ESG and regulatory risks for critical mineral supply chains. With increasing scrutiny of how corporations operate in multiple jurisdictions, fulfilling and demonstrating high standards of ESG is no longer an option but a requirement from both a market access and investment perspective. She brings her techno-legal background and experience working with stakeholders throughout the mineral supply chain to identify effective ESG strategies in support of responsible business practices.

Mike has significant energy storage materials value chain understanding with an emphasis on lithium-ion batteries and systems with 13 years of market knowledge and relationships. Successful program leadership experience with significant business growth in ventures and existing businesses with a proven track record leading mergers and acquisition teams to enter the lithium-ion battery materials market. He joined AVICENNE in May of 2016 as a Senior Advisor. Since joining the AVICENNE team, Mike has been leading the US AVICENNE activity working with many clients holding strategy workshops, validation of growth opportunities, helping clients establish their growth plans in energy storage, and establishing M&A targets/diligence. Before joining AVICENNE, Mike had a very long career with DuPont, his most recent role was the Global Marketing Director – Energy Storage Venture where he developed significant understanding and insights for the energy storage materials market, device manufacturing, and systems while leading global marketing and customer interface efforts to establish programs to enter the $20B energy storage materials market. Executed strategic and market planning for opportunity evaluation, research, choices, and M&A activity for entry into rapidly growing new market. He has a degree in Chemistry from the University of Delaware and is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and Electrochemical Society.

Kandler Smith leads the battery computational modeling team in NREL's Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences. His energy storage research projects focus on predicting and extending the lifetime of lithium-ion batteries. He also applies machine-learning techniques for model identification, fast charging, and the computational design and multi-scale modeling of electrochemical/thermal/mechanical-coupled phenomena in lithium-ion batteries. Kandler holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University.

David St. Angelo is the Chief Technology Officer at Mangrove Lithium in Vancouver BC. He brings over 30-years experience in sustainable technology commercialization, plant construction, technoeconomic analysis, and technical leadership. At Mangrove he leads the operations and advanced development teams commercializing an electrochemical process for converting lithium feedstocks into lithium hydroxide. David holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University.

Dr. Frederick Steinmann is currently the Director of the University Center for Economic Development, part of The College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno, and is the Principal Investigator for the Nevada Lithium Battery and Other EV Materials Loop Regional Technology and Innovation Hub, designated by the U.S. Economic Development Administration in October 2023. He began his professional economic development career with the Reno Redevelopment Agency in the City of Reno, Nevada. Since then, he has worked for the Nevada Small Business Development Center, the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, and for the Carson Economic Development Services Department in the City of Carson, California. Frederick has also worked as a Senior Associate for David Paul Rosen & Associates, one of the elite economic development and public policy consulting firms in California. Frederick earned his Doctorate in Policy, Planning, and Development, with areas of study including economic development, public policy, public finance, and real estate development, from the University of Southern California with the successful defense of his dissertation titled, “The Twilight of the Local Redevelopment Era: The Past, Present, and Future of Urban Revitalization and Urban Economic Development in Nevada and California.” As a doctoral student at the University of Southern California, Frederick also received the William A. Carlson Fellowship from the California Redevelopment Association in 2008. He also earned a Bachelor’s of Science and Masters of Science in Economics from the University of Nevada, Reno. He is currently a member of the International Economic Development Council, the American Society for Public Administration, and the American Planning Association.

Since joining Cambridge EnerTech in Feb 2024, Sarah has worked within the recycling, mining and mineral processing areas of the battery value chain. She has industry experience in power supply and conversion for clean energy applications, Li-ion battery cathode research, oil and gas and mineral processing. Sarah holds a PhD in Materials Science & Metallurgy from the University of Cambridge and a BEng in Mineral Engineering from the University of Leeds.

Mika Takahashi is a Technology Analyst at IDTechEx, focusing primarily on Electric Vehicle technologies. Prior to joining IDTechEx in 2023, Mika graduated with First Class Honors from the University of Edinburgh with a Masters in Physics. During his final year, he conducted research on novel methods of locomotion in granular systems, with commercial applications in the agriculture industry. This was conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems. He is also well-versed in a variety of topics including advanced computational modeling, statistical physics, and biophysics.

Ben is the Chief Commercial Officer at Echion, with 12 years’ experience across defense, high-value manufacturing, and transportation industries, and with expertise in systems engineering and technology commercialization. At Echion, he is responsible for Echion’s Commercialization activities, spanning Marketing, Business Development, Applications Engineering, Commercial and Sales. This includes engagement with OEMs and End Users and Cell and Battery System Manufacturers to accelerate the commercial adoption of Echion’s XNO™ battery anode technology.

Craig currently serves as the General Manager of Cambridge EnerTech with primary responsibilities for scientific conference organization and program development within energy market sectors with conferences based in the United States, Asia, Australia and Europe. Prior to that and since 2014, Craig served as Executive Director of Conferences for Cambridge Enertech. Previously to joining CII and forming Cambridge EnerTech, Craig was the Founder and President of the Knowledge Foundation, a scientific conference and publishing company until it was acquired by CII in 2014. Additionally, Craig was a Director at IBC USA (now Informa), and has previous experience in conference development, publishing and technical marketing.

Dave Yantek is a Lead Research Engineer at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Pittsburgh Mining Research Division. Dave attended Penn State University to study mechanical engineering, receiving a BSME in 1995 and an MSME in 1996. In addition, he completed Penn State’s Noise Control Engineering Program. After graduating from Penn State, Dave worked for Ingersoll-Rand’s Road Machinery Division in Shippensburg, PA where he performed a wide variety of engineering tests and analyses on construction equipment. In 2001, Dave joined NIOSH. For over ten years, he conducted research on mining equipment noise and miner noise exposure. In 2012, Dave switched to research on refuge alternatives for underground coal mines. Currently, Dave is the principal investigator for a NIOSH research project that is investigating the susceptibility of mine utility vehicle and rubber-tired mantrip lithium-ion batteries to the harsh mining environment.