People

Kamran Mahdavi

CEO

Kamran Mahdavi is co-founder and CEO of Altilium. Kamran is international businessman with over 20 years’ experience in the commodities sector. During his career he has led numerous large-scale exploration projects in Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe, and the acquisitions of various commodity assets. He also setup and ran one of the largest global alumina trade houses based on volume.

Dr Christian Marston

President, COO

Dr Christian Marston is president, COO and co-founder of Altilium. He previously spent 13 years at global trading and investment company Sumitomo Corporation, where he managed a number of businesses units, including Energy products. Christian has a Ph.D. in Materials Science and completed his Postdoctoral Research at the University of Southern California. He has an MBA from Edinburgh Business School.

Sean Joseph

Finance Director

With over 23 years’ experience as an investment banking professional, Sean co-founded Altilium and is responsible for the financing and funding arrangements for Altililium’s large scale infrastructure projects. He was previously Head of Investment Banking EMEA at ANZ Bank, where he was responsible for leveraged finance, M&A, project finance, export finance and asset finance. Sean sat on the international leadership team, reporting to the CEO of International Banking.

Chris Newson

CFO

Chris Newson joined Altilium in 2021 and is now the Company Secretary and Chief Financial Officer. A qualified Chartered Accountant, Chris has over 25 years’ experience working at fund managers and investment banks, including Janus Henderson, Fidelity Investments, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup. Chris has also consulted for major fund management firms and spent two years working for the first UK financial services regulator, IMRO.

Dr Ben Wickham

CTO

Dr Benjamin Wickham joined Altilium in 2022, prior to that Ben spent nine years working for Element Six, a De Beers Group company, as a senior scientist and has a wealth of experience in process management. Ben has a PhD in Inorganic & Synthetic Chemistry from the University of Bath and 1st Class Bachelors and Masters degree in Chemistry.

Anthony McDougall

Director of Sustainable Mine Waste Recovery

Anthony McDougall has over 27-years’ experience in the international mining and resources sector and has held multiple senior management positions. Tony has made significant contributions to the recovery of critical metals from tailings, playing a crucial role in addressing the challenges of resource scarcity and environmental sustainability. Anthony is a Competent Person JORC. He holds BSc and MSc (hons) degrees in Geology.

Rod Savage

Program Director, End-of-Life Batteries

Rod Savage joined Altlilium in 2022 to establish and oversee the supply chain for collecting end-of-life EV batteries, ensuring a secure supply of black mass and plant scrap to the company’s recycling facilities. Rod has over 30 years’ experience in UK and global energy markets, mining, waste-recycling, trading and logistics. He has set up and led international & physical commodity trading operations and built and operated mineral preparation and process plants.

Sheila O’Brien

Head of Partnerships and Grant Delivery

Sheila joined Altilium in 2022 as Commercial Manager. Sheila has over 20 years experience in BP working in various business management roles including business development in a multi-cultural global commodity chemicals business, as well as extensive experience in supply chain optimisation including procurement of logistics and critical feedstocks in a European JV and the management of strategic supplier relationships.
Sheila is a graduate of Dublin City University and has a BA Hons In Applied Languages (French and German) and a Diploma in Business Management.

Emily Hatcher

Head of People and Culture

Emily is an experienced People & Culture leader, who possesses a robust and versatile skill set honed through her experience in supporting growth of global startups and scale-ups, as well as people-related change management advice for public sector transformation. Her expertise and passion lie in building cultures that drive employee engagement whilst solving organisational development issues. Emily has a BA in International Business, a MA in Human Resource Management, a PG Dip in Professional Development (Leadership) and is a Chartered Member of CIPD.

Prof Daniel Trinder

Risk, Compliance and Governance Board Advisor

Daniel Trinder is currently an Executive at the Financial Markets Authority in New Zealand responsible for Strategy and Design. Daniel has over 25 years’ experience in strategy, policy and regulatory affairs, including senior roles at HM Treasury in the UK, the IMF and international investment banking firms. He has an MA in Economics, from York University, Toronto, and a Ph.D. Economics, from Queen Mary University of London, where he is also an honorary professor.

Maarten Holtslag

ESG Board Advisor

Maarten Holtslag is co-founder of Amsterdam-based venture capital firm K+U Ventures, which was set up in 2021 to invest in the circular economy. He also is  Impact Venture Partner with 4impact and sits on the Impact Committee of Thuja Capital, a life sciences VC fund. Maarten has a BA in Business Management, and a MSc in Management.