Tesla engineering VP Colin Campbell joins Redwood Materials as CTO

Redwood Materials is a battery recycling startup tesla Board member JB Straubel recently named Colin Campbell, Tesla’s vice president of powertrain engineering, as chief technology officer.

Based in Carson City, Nevada, Redwood was founded by Straubel in 2017 while he was still Tesla’s chief technology officer. Straubel resigned from Tesla in 2019 to focus on Redwood.

campbell Announced the move on LinkedIn On Monday, his 17-year tenure in various engineering and leadership roles at Elon Musk’s electric car company came to an end. He thanked Tesla’s former colleagues for giving him “the experience of a lifetime.”

“At Redwood, I will continue to work on electrification – but this time, by addressing upstream issues to ensure widespread adoption of electric vehicles and clean energy!” Campbell wrote. “Redwood’s mission is to create a circular battery supply chain that localizes the current fragmented system by mass-producing key battery components in the United States for the first time and utilizing a growing pool of recycled materials.”

Redwood turns end-of-life electric vehicle batteries and waste from auto factories into raw materials and components for making new batteries. The company also mixes “sustainably mined materials” in its manufacturing process, Straubel told CNBC in February.

According to Tesla shareholder disclosures, before Campbell’s departure from Tesla, the company’s financial chief Zach Kirkhorn announced his resignation earlier this month, replaced by Tesla’s accounting chief Wajbaf. Vaibhav Taneja, who is currently serving as chief financial officer and accountant, takes over. .

Redwood has been poaching top talent from Tesla for years. Another Redwood executive, chief operating officer Kevin Kassekert, previously served as Tesla’s vice president of people and local affairs. More than 120 ex-Tesla employees now work at Straubel’s company, according to LinkedIn data.

Straubel, who is considered a co-founder of Tesla, was elected an independent member of the board earlier this year by the automaker’s shareholders.

Tesla did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

watch: Electric car batteries are far from coming mostly from the U.S.