Andrew Skalski
Executive director
Andrew is a mining industry professional with 38 years’ international experience in operations, the corporate sphere and greenfield project development. Having graduated from the WA School of Mines with a science degree in extractive metallurgy, he has accumulated extensive experience in project management for gold, copper, magnetite, phosphate and lithium, both within Australia and in New Zealand, West and South Africa, Indonesia and Germany. Andrew joined Lithium Australia in 2015, being responsible for the planning, implementation, intellectual property management and feasibility studies for all research and development activities for its lithium processing and battery recycling technologies. Bringing with him this existing Company corporate knowledge, Andrew will now progress VSPC’s implementation of a definitive feasibility study and guide its global expansion plans.
John Worsley
Manager – pilot plant
John is a chartered professional engineer (chemical) with an MBA majoring in innovation and technology management. He began his career in 1988, working in South African gold mines, and has since held a range of technical, operational and project management roles in mineral and chemical processing, with an emphasis on process and product development. Named as one of Australia’s most innovative engineers in 2016, John brings with him a wealth of experience in process development, engineering design and pilot plant operations, with a particular interest in the development and commercialisation of new process technologies. Since joining VSPC in May 2018, he has applied his expertise to further enhancing battery material performance while reducing manufacturing costs. John’s ability in scale-up has positioned VSPC well to advance its proprietary LFP technology from pilot-scale to world-class commercial manufacture.
Rosalind Gummow
Technical advisor
Rosalind is an RACI chartered chemist with a PhD in chemistry (1993, University of Cape Town), obtained under the supervision of Dr M M Thackeray at the Battery Materials Group at South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). She began her battery career at the CSIR in 1989, with a focus on improving the performance of lithium transition metal oxide electrodes. Rosalind is a co-inventor on 10 international patents for Li-ion battery cathode materials – in particular, the patent for stabilised LiMn2O4 (LMO) spinel cathodes, which has been licensed widely in the battery industry, with the material incorporated as a major component of electric vehicle batteries in first-generation Nissan Leafs and Chevy Volts. Having moved to Australia in 2008, Rosalind worked as a researcher, casual lecturer and adjunct at James Cook University in Townsville, focused on the development of poly-anionic cathodes for high-capacity stationary battery applications. Since 2018, in her role as technical advisor at VSPC, she has applied her experience and knowledge to guiding and assisting in the development of research capacity, as well as contributing to the thorough technical understanding required to optimise current and future VSPC battery materials.