Li-Cycle names commercial vice president for battery supply

Li-Cycle Holdings Corp., a lithium-ion battery resource recycler based in Toronto, has announced the appointment of Manfred Schmidt as commercial vice president of battery supply for Europe, the Middle East and Asia (EMEA). Schmidt will oversee Li-Cycle’s battery supply customer team, existing and new battery supply customer relationships and business development in those regions. 

 “I am excited to play an important part in Li-Cycle’s global rollout strategy, facilitating its ability to achieve its goal of becoming the world’s leading lithium-ion battery recycling solution while contributing to a circular economy,” Schmidt says.

Schmidt will support the company’s execution of its global expansion plans as it brings its commercial lithium-ion recycling technologies to the EMEA markets. Li-Cycle recently received an investment from Koch Industries to aid in its expansion efforts.

According to a news release from Li-Cycle, Schmidt has more than 20 years of experience with commercial business development and customer relations and 14 years in the battery industry. 

He served as vice president of sales at Voltabox AG in Germany, a system provider for electromobility in industrial applications with lithium-ion batteries. Before that, Schmidt was the head of key account management for Hoppecke Batterien GmbH, an industrial batteries and energy storage solutions provider in Germany. He holds a degree in industrial engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.

Schmidt will report to Kunal Phalpher, Li-Cycle’s chief commercial officer.

"We believe the EMEA regions present a substantial opportunity for Li-Cycle due to the amount of lithium-ion battery production scrap available for recycling today, and the expected influx of end-of-life batteries in the years to come, driven by Europe’s early adoption of electric vehicles,” Phalpher says. “Manfred has extensive knowledge of the EMEA battery markets and will play an important role in supporting our efforts to bring North America’s leading advanced recycling technologies to the EMEA regions.”