Ace Green Recycling appoints senior VP of operations

Battery recycling technology company Ace Green Recycling Inc., Houston, has named battery industry veteran Rick Stollsteimer as its senior vice president of operations. 

Stollsteimer joins Ace Green from Gopher Resource, an Eagan, Minnesota-based environmental solutions provider that specializes in battery recycling, where he served as vice president of operations, overseeing a 24/7/365 smelting facility that produces more than 175,000 tons of finished product annually. At Gopher, Stollsteimer led initiatives that improved safety performance, increased operational uptime and drove gains in output efficiency.

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“I am thrilled to join Ace, which is building out market-leading, cutting-edge battery recycling technology," Stollsteimer says. “I've experienced both the constraints and the challenges of traditional smelting. Ace's proprietary technology eliminates the need for high-temperature furnaces altogether, offering a smarter, safer and more sustainable model for how battery recycling should operate at scale.

"I'm thrilled to help lead this transformation from the ground up in Texas and beyond.” 

At Ace Green, he will oversee operational readiness and scale-up of the company's flagship facility in Silsbee, Texas. The facility is expected to deploy the company’s lead-acid recycling system in 2026, followed by its lithium iron phosphate focused lithium-ion system in 2027. Stollsteimer will also play a central role in driving the company's broader operational and commercial expansion throughout the region. 

“Rick's decision to join Ace is a strong endorsement of our mission to build a cleaner, safer, and more efficient battery recycling ecosystem in the United States,” Ace Green co-founder and CEO Nishchay Chadha says. “His firsthand experience in conventional smelting and track record of operational excellence will be invaluable as we bring our zero-emission technologies online and expand across North America.”