About Us

Working to make our scalable technologies possible

Li-Metal’s founders Maciej Jastrzebski and Tim Johnston recognized that rapid electrification of transportation, and the adoption of next generation high-performance batteries (solid-state, lithium-sulfur, lithium-air, etc.) will require a vast expansion of lithium anode and lithium metal production.

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Leveraging their respective engineering expertise in the metallurgical and lithium chemicals industries, they founded Li-Metal in response to this need.

Since its inception in 2019, the company has made dramatic progress in developing patent-pending technologies that will allow the lithium anodes and lithium metal needed by next generation batteries to be produced from widely-available feedstocks, at scale, and at a fraction of the cost of the conventional processes.

Management Team

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Maciej Jastrzebski

Co-Founder CEO and Director
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Dean Frankel

Chief Commercial Officer
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Carlos Pinglo

Carlos Pinglo

Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary
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Keshav Kochhar

GM Operations & Capital Projects
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Maciej Jastrzebski

Co-Founder
CEO and Director

Maciej Jastrzebski joined Li-Metal in 2018 as co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. With 15 years of experience, Mr. Jastrzebski has worked in technology development, project engineering, IP protection and technology commercialization with Hatch Ltd., Barrick Gold Corporation, AuTec and Li-Metal. A natural innovator, Maciej is a named inventor on 15 patent families in a variety of fields and the author of a number of technical publications. Mr. Jastrzebski is a professional engineer and holds a Bachelor degree of Applied Science and a Master degree of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto.

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Dean Frankel

Chief Commercial Officer

Dean Frankel joined Li-Metal in 2021 as Chief Commercial Officer, bringing with him nine years of experience in the advanced battery industry, as a business leader, consultant and market analyst. Prior to this, Mr. Frankel held various roles in the battery sector including, business development at Solid Power, lead analyst for the energy storage research practice at Lux Research and sales and marketing at Voltaiq. He has supported due diligence for over US$7 billion in energy storage acquisitions and investments and he is a value-chain expert from raw materials to end-product applications. Mr. Frankel holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Energy & Environmental Systems from the University of Pennsylvania.

Carlos Pinglo

Carlos Pinglo

Chief Financial Officer
and Corporate Secretary

Carlos Pinglo is the Chief Financial Officer at Li-Metal. He is an economist with over 25 years senior management experience, and has worked with both private and public companies in corporate finance, strategic planning, financial reporting, turnarounds and mergers and acquisitions.

 

Prior to joining Li-Metal, Mr. Pinglo held a variety of roles in the metals and industry including Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary at AbraSilver Resource Corp., the Chief Financial Officer at Adriana Resources Corporation, Carpathian Gold Inc., First Bauxite Corporation and Medoro Resources Ltd., the Controller of both Silver Eagle Mines Inc. and Excellon Resources Inc., and as a member of the board of directors at MinerosNacionales S.A.

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Keshav Kochhar

GM
Operations & Capital Projects

Keshav Kochhar joined Li-Metal in 2021 as General Manager, Operations & Capital Projects, overseeing the budget, managing buildouts, commissioning of new facilities & capital projects, planning and strategy, and managing overall operations. Prior to this, Mr. Kochhar held the role of CEO and Co-Founder of Lacero Solutions, a clean tech firm focused on the safe destruction and recycling of airbags. Under Mr. Kochhar’s guidance, Lacero Solutions has safely destroyed 300,000 airbags and recovered 725,000 lbs of recyclable material to date. He has over 8 years of industry experience working in various chemical industries, beginning his career as a field engineer at Howe Sound Pulp & Paper, where he was involved in identifying bottlenecks in the plant and increasing daily throughput. Following this role, Mr. Kochhar moved on to PeroxyChem leading many safety and process improvement projects to help reduce production costs. He has led and been involved with design and execution projects for various plant optimization initiatives totalling ~ $15 million. Mr. Kochhar holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of British Columbia.

Board of Directors

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Mark Wellings

Chairman
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Maciej Jastrzebski

Co-Founder CEO and Director
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Tim Johnston

Co-Founder and Director
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Anthony Tse

Director
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Ernie Ortiz

Director
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Mark Wellings

Chairman

Mark Wellings was appointed Chairman in September 2021 and joins Li-Metal bringing with him over 25 years experience in the global mining industry and mining finance sector.

 

Mr. Wellings held several senior capital market roles including Principal at INFOR Financial Group and Managing Director, Investment Banking at GMP Securities LP (GMP). During his 18 years at GMP, he co-founded the firm’s corporate finance mining practice and advised on some of the largest mining deals in Canada, working on both equity financings and M&A transactions.

 

From 1988 to 2004, Mr. Wellings held a number of roles with a variety of companies including, Drry, Michener, Booth & Wahl, Arimco NL, Inco Ltd. and Watts GriffisMcOuat, acquiring valuable hands-on experience in exploration, development and production. Mr. Welling is a professional engineer and holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from the University of Windsor and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario.

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Maciej Jastrzebski

Co-Founder
CEO and Director

Maciej Jastrzebski joined Li-Metal in 2018 as co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. With 15 years of experience, Mr. Jastrzebski has worked in technology development, project engineering, IP protection and technology commercialization with Hatch Ltd., Barrick Gold Corporation, AuTec and Li-Metal. A natural innovator, Maciej is a named inventor on 15 patent families in a variety of fields and the author of a number of technical publications. Mr. Jastrzebski is a professional engineer and holds a Bachelor degree of Applied Science and a Master degree of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto.

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Tim Johnston

Co-Founder
and Director

Tim Johnston joined Li-Metal in 2018 as co-founder and Executive Chairman. With more than 15 years of experience, he has overseen the development and operation of batteries, metals, industrial minerals, and large infrastructure assets. Prior to Li-Metal, Mr. Johnston served as CEO and President of Desert Lion Energy, a junior mining company operating lithium mines in Namibia. Mr. Johnston has also held progressively senior positions during his 10-year tenure at Hatch, working as a senior consultant specialiizing in project management and transactional analysis for their global lithium business. During his time with Hatch, he evaluated hundreds of lithium projects, and managed the development of lithium projects around the world for SQM, Rockwood Lithium (Albemarle), Bacanora Minerals, AMG-NV, Rio Tinto, Galaxy Resources and other key developers.

 

Mr. Johnston currently holds the role of Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at Li-Cycle Holdings. He has co-authored 7 technical publications with a focus on project execution in the lithium sector. Mr. Johnston is a chartered professional engineer (CPEng) and CFA charter holder.

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Anthony Tse

Director

Anthony Tse joined Li-Metal as a non-executive director in 2021, bringing with him over 25 years of corporate private and public company experience in numerous high-growth industries such as technology, media and telecoms, as well as in resources and commodities, where he has held various senior management, corporate finance, capital markets and M&A roles across Greater China and the Asia Pacific region. His previous senior roles include positions at News Corporation’s STAR TV, the Deputy General Manager of TOM Online, Director of Corporate Development at Hutchison Whampoa’s TOM Group, President of China Entertainment Television and CEO of CSN Corp. Mr. Tse is currently Executive Director of Galaxy Resources Limited, a leading ASX-listed lithium producer. He joined the Board at Galaxy Resources in 2010 and, from June 2013 to July 2019, served as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer during the corporate turnaround and growth stage.

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Ernie Ortiz

Director

Ernie Ortiz joined Li-Metal as a non-executive director in 2021. He currently holds the role of President and Managing Director of LRC, a position he has held since 2018. Prior to joining LRC in 2018, Mr. Ortiz was an investment analyst at a US based equity fund where he specialized in lithium, battery materials and specialty chemicals. Prior to this, he worked at Credit Suisse where he was the lead associate in the basic materials group, where he led the research and due diligence on lithium, which called for the imbalance between supply and demand the market faced in 2016/2017. Mr. Ortiz sits on the London Metal Exchange (LME) Lithium Advisory Committee and has been quoted in Reuters and the Wall Street Journal for comments on the lithium market. Ernie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Chicago and holds the CFA designation.

Governance Documents

Contact

We are your friendly, honest, and reliable lithium technology supplier in Toronto

To learn more about our services and products, feel free to contact us today by emailing us at info@li-metal.com. We look forward to helping your business take the lead in the world of battery technologies and energy storage.