e-Zinc Appoints Three Clean Tech Leaders as C-Level Executives to Charge the Next Phase of Growth
New CTO, COO, and CCO with experience from United Technologies, Enphase, and GE join the company to commercialize its sustainable, long-duration energy storage technology
TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#Battery—e-Zinc, the company enabling sustainable, long-duration energy storage with its zinc-air battery, today announced the expansion of its senior leadership team with the appointments of Zakiul (Zaki) Kabir as Chief Technology Officer, Rob Howard as Chief Operating Officer, and Balakrishnan (Balki) Iyer as Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Lead of U.S. Expansion. Additionally, Pieter de Koning was promoted from Vice President to Senior Vice President of Engineering.
“e-Zinc is fortunate to have attracted a stellar cast of investors, partners, advisors, mentors, and staff to support its mission. The new additions to our c-suite will allow us to continue building on this momentum,” said James Larsen, CEO of e-Zinc. “Zaki, Rob, and Balki bring the right mix of experience and passion that we need to achieve our goal of accelerating the clean energy transition with sustainable, long-duration solutions that transform how our world stores energy. I’m proud to bring them on board while also promoting our internal team member, Pieter, who has already demonstrated a commitment to this mission.”
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.
“I’m excited to join e-Zinc because of the potential its energy storage technology has to power the clean energy transition,” said Zaki Kabir. “I hope to foster a culture of calculated risk taking to continue driving innovation and will collaborate with the rest of the e-Zinc team to develop a technology roadmap that will allow us to deliver world-class products that meet current and future market demand.”
Rob Howard, COO joins 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.
“I believe e-Zinc is in a unique position with its cutting-edge storage technology because it is rare to have the right product, at the right time, in the right space,” said Rob Howard. “I’m looking forward to enhancing e-Zinc’s existing operations capabilities and developing new operational processes that are needed to grow and launch our disruptive energy storage product.”
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.
“e-Zinc’s mission aligns with my personal passion of bringing clean, reliable, and affordable power to the grid. I hope to bring my experience in helping the team deliver products faster to the market addressing the current and future requirements for long duration energy storage in grid,” said Balki Iyer. “I’m also very excited to lead the company’s efforts to expand in the U.S. and establish e-Zinc as a leading energy storage manufacturer creating many green collar jobs for years to come. “
Pieter de Koning, SVP of Engineering joined e-Zinc in 2019 as its sixth employee to lead product development. Since then, he has built and led the engineering team to deliver e-Zinc’s first field deployment. Pieter has spent about a decade in the renewable power industry and he believes energy storage is a key enabler to a clean energy future. Pieter developed his skills in technology and product development while working for companies like Xerox, Spinmaster, and Hatch.
“Throughout my time at e-Zinc, the aspiration to bring an energy storage product to market that helps to address the global climate challenge has been a unifying and motivating factor,” said Pieter de Koning. “I’m thrilled to work alongside high-caliber, like-minded people who are as equally driven to succeed, and I’m eager to work with the new leadership team to produce a valuable and meaningful energy storage product that will make e-Zinc even stronger than it is today.”
For more information, visit www.e-zinc.ca.
About e-Zinc
e-Zinc is a purpose-driven energy storage solutions company based in Toronto, Canada, that is winning domestic and international awards and stacking world-class investors and advisors. Our unique zinc-based long-duration energy storage technology is enabling a reliable transition away from fossil fuel powered energy sources and providing the platform for the world’s energy markets to be fully powered by renewable energy. By utilizing zinc as the base metal in our technology, we deliver a product that not only holds energy for multiple days, but can safely and reliably perform in the world’s harshest environments. In addition, zinc is light on impact to the planet, readily available, and inexpensive because of its abundance, ubiquity, and recyclability. At e-Zinc, we are dedicated to a zero-carbon future – a future to look forward to, with thriving nature and affordable, clean, and reliable energy for all. www.e-zinc.ca.
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Brandon Reid for e-Zinc
brandon.reid@e-zinc.ca
