Executive Search Success Story: Building the Leadership Team to Stand Up a Domestic Cathode Active Material Plant for a Battery Materials Company

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a strategic- and government-backed battery materials company with the plant, process engineering, quality, supply chain, and commercial leadership required to build and qualify a $1.2B cathode active material facility, meet automotive cell-maker qualification standards, and deliver on domestic content commitments.

The Challenge

A battery materials company had secured offtake agreements, automotive investor backing, and federal incentives for a domestic cathode active material plant, but its team was built around technology development and pilot production. It had never operated a continuous chemical plant at scale, cathode qualification with automotive cell makers required quality systems and consistency it had not demonstrated, lithium, nickel, and cobalt supply had to meet domestic and allied sourcing rules, and offtake agreements carried milestone and specification obligations. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the program:

• A technology-stage team with no experience operating a continuous chemical plant at scale
• Cathode process scale-up from pilot to 30,000 tonnes per year with no scale-up leadership
• Automotive cell-maker qualification requiring quality systems and process capability not yet in place
• Critical mineral supply subject to domestic and allied sourcing rules under incentive programs
• Offtake agreements with milestone, volume, and specification obligations
• Government incentive milestones tied to construction, hiring, and production dates

Recognizing that the plant and offtakes required leadership from scaled battery materials and chemical operations, the CEO and board engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Vice President & Plant General Manager, Vice President of Process Engineering & Scale-Up, Vice President of Quality & Customer Qualification, Vice President of Critical Mineral Supply Chain, and Vice President of Commercial & Offtake Management. The company required an executive search partner with deep battery and energy storage expertise and access to leaders from battery materials and specialty chemicals.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Battery & Energy Storage Industry Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving battery and energy storage companies across materials, cells, modules and packs, storage systems, and recycling, with deep recruiting expertise in plant operations, process engineering, quality, supply chain, and commercial leadership. This focus ensured an immediate understanding of cathode scale-up, cell-maker qualification, critical mineral sourcing, and the leadership profiles that deliver new plants.

Chemical Process Scale-Up Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting executives who have scaled specialty chemical and battery material processes from pilot to commercial production, with a clear understanding of continuous process start-up and quality consistency.

Multi-Role Execution

Our team specializes in running coordinated plant, engineering, quality, supply chain, and commercial searches in parallel, ensuring leaders are selected as a complementary unit aligned to a single start-up plan.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Program Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the CEO, chief technology officer, and board to review the plant design, scale-up plan, offtake obligations, sourcing rules, and incentive milestones, defining five executive profiles sequenced to construction and qualification milestones.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting plant, process engineering, quality, supply chain, and commercial executives at battery materials, specialty chemicals, mining and metals processing, and automotive supply chain companies who had led documented plant start-ups and customer qualifications. Over 420 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of starting up continuous chemical plants, scaling cathode or precursor processes, achieving automotive-grade quality qualification, securing critical mineral supply under sourcing rules, and managing offtake agreements with cell manufacturers. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented start-up and qualification plans to the CEO and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified start-up, quality, and supply outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 420+ battery materials, specialty chemicals, and process manufacturing executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning plant leadership, process engineering, quality, supply chain, and commercial within eight months.
• Reached specification-grade output within four months of start-up.
• Achieved qualification with both offtake cell manufacturers within six months.
• Secured compliant critical mineral supply protecting incentive eligibility.
• Met every offtake and incentive milestone and reached full commercial production on time.