Board of Directors

Vincent L DiVito has served as a member of our Board since May 2015.  From April 2018 to May, 2, 2018, Mr. DiVito served as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board and he currently serves as Chairman of the Audit Committee and Non-Executive Chair.  He had served on the board of directors and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc, a Nasdaq listed gaming company from October 2005 until its acquisition in July 2017, and also served as a member of the board of directors of Riviera Holdings Corporation, formerly an AMEX listed gaming and resort company, from July 2002 until the consummation of a change in control of the corporation in March 2011 serving as Non-Executive Chairman during the final year leading up to the change in control.  Mr. DiVito also serves on the board of directors of Variety Child Learning Center, a Not-For-Profit school for children with special needs.

Since April 2010, Mr. DiVito has served as the Managing Director of Vincent L DiVito, Inc, a financial and management consulting firm.  From January 2008 to April 2010, Mr. DiVito served as president of Lonza America, Inc, a global life sciences/chemical company headquartered in Allendale, New Jersey and also served as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Lonza America, Inc from September 2000 to April 2010.  Lonza America, Inc is part of Lonza Group whose stock is traded on the Swiss Stock Exchange.  From 1990 to September 2000, Mr. DiVito was employed by Algroup Wheaton, a global pharmaceutical and cosmetics packaging company, first as its director of business development and later as its Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.  Early in his career Mr. DiVito spent two years on the audit staff of Ernst & Young.  Mr. DiVito is a certified public accountant, certified management accountant and holds an MBA in Finance.  Mr. DiVito is a National Association of Corporate Director Leadership Fellow.

Why Aqua

One of the reasons I am passionate about board service is the opportunity to work alongside some really talented and passionate people who share a common mission. AquaMetals has a powerful mission that has the potential to make an enormous difference from both an environmental and sustainability perspective and from a commercial perspective. I am proud to be a part of this story and to contribute to the success of the company.

Steve Cotton has served as President of the Company since May 2, 2018 and was promoted by the Board of Directors to President and CEO joining the Board as an Executive Director in January, 2019.  Steve also served as Chief Commercial Officer of the Company from January 2015 to June, 2017.  Previously, Steve co-founded Canara, Inc. (formerly Data Power Monitoring and IntelliBatt) in December 2001 and served as its Chief Executive Officer through the sale of the company to a private equity firm in June 2012, after which he served as Founder and Executive Chairman until April 2014. Canara (now part of CPG Data Center Innovators) is a global provider of stationary battery systems with integrated monitoring systems and cloud-based monitoring services to many of the largest data center operators. Prior to Canara, Steve led a team to commercialize Sendmail (the Worlds' most commonly used Internet email open source software) from free open source to a paid for commercial offering for Internet service providers and cloud offerings requiring mass email volume management including DoubleClick's standardization (acquired by Google).  Steve's career began in the early days of voice messaging systems, including  Octel Communications (through its $1.1B exit to Lucent Technologies in 1997 and now part of Avaya).  From International Product Manager, to Product Manager for Multimedia, Steve then became the top market development person on a staff of 100+ for 2 years running while managing the AT&T Wireless account, then developing new wireless and local exchange carrier markets.  His decision to convince AT&T Wireless (and ultimately other operators which followed) to offer voice messaging for free vs. charge, resulted in multi-million dollar sales of Octel equipment to each region. From April 2014 to January 2015 and June 2017 to April 2018, Steve managed his private investments.

Why Aqua

During my time at Canara, part of my duties was to source batteries from battery  manufacturers and battery recycling partners in the U.S., China and Europe so I spent quite a bit of time in battery manufacturing and recycling facilities.  In 2014, after exiting Canara and while looking for new opportunities, I saw the original pilot electrolyzer that the founders had built making pure, spongy lead before my eyes and immediately knew that AquaRefining could transform energy storage.  Knowing that our Aqua journey could transform an industry and significantly help the planet reduce harmful emissions, in the summer of 2019, my family and I moved from our native Bay Area to Tahoe-Reno.  We wanted to be fully immersed in this exciting Company and to see through our vision of upgrading an industry and the environment with such a critical core set of technologies.

Dr. Molly P. Zhang has served as a director of Aqua Metals since March 2021. Ms. Zhang is a seasoned corporate director and a former global executive with expertise in driving business growth, technology commercialization and operational leadership in the chemical and industrial sector. Ms. Zhang currently serves on the board of directors of Gates Industrial Corporation (NYSE: GTES), Arch Resources (NYSE: ARCH) and she is an advisory board member at Circular Innovation fund specializing in sustainability related technologies. Her past public company directorship included GEA Group, Cooper Standard Holdings and Newmont Mining. Ms. Zhang was also an executive advisor and board member at Enerkem, a late-stage start-up with disruptive technologies to convert waste to biofuel.

From 2011 to 2016, Ms. Zhang held various global executive roles at Orica Ltd including vice president, asset management and vice president/global manufacturing executive, Mining Systems. Prior to Orica, Ms. Zhang spent over two decades at Dow Inc. and held various senior leadership positions, most recently as managing director of SCG-Dow Group. Ms. Zhang also served as the global business vice president for Dow Technology Licensing and Catalyst business, manufacturing director for Dow Asia Pacific and global technology director at Dow Inc.

Ms. Zhang earned a MS degree in Chemistry and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Clausthal, Germany.

Why Aqua

Sustainability is an important strategic business focus for all companies. Aqua Metals’ proprietary technologies have the potential to be a game-changer to deliver cost competitive critical mineral products with a reduced environmental footprint. As someone with a deep expertise in technology licensing, I also like Aqua Metals' licensing business aspect to accelerate market adoption. I am excited to contribute to the company's future success through the board service.