Piedmont Lithium (Piedmont), a global developer of lithium resources critical to the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, announced that the Board of Directors has voted to increase the size of the Board from five to seven directors, adding two new directors.
Christina Alvord and Michael Bless have been appointed to these positions, providing additional executive, operational, and strategic guidance to the Company as it advances in its mission to supply the U.S. with lithium hydroxide from a global portfolio of projects.
What do the appointments mean for Piedmont?
Commenting on the appointments, Jeff Armstrong, Chairman of the Board for Piedmont, said, “We are honored to welcome Christy and Mike to the newly-created directorships. Their extensive knowledge and backgrounds will be key as we and our partners look toward our targeted timeline of bringing lithium production online in 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026.”
President and CEO of Piedmont Keith Phillips echoed Armstrong’s said, “Christy and Mike both have strong strategic leadership experience and have successfully led substantial, integrated mining businesses. We are pleased to have these respected industry leaders join our Board and lend us their invaluable expertise as we work to become a large, low-cost, sustainable producer of lithium hydroxide and a prime contributor to U.S. energy national security.”
What is the industry expertise of the appointees?
Ms. Alvord served as the President of the Central Division of Vulcan Materials Company, the nation’s largest producer of construction aggregates. She served as Vulcan’s President of the Southern & Gulf Coast Division and VP of Corporate Planning and Performance Improvement.
Prior to Vulcan, Ms. Alvord held various executive management positions at GE Aviation, including serving as President of GE Aviation-Unison Industries and GE Aviation-Middle River Aircraft Systems. In addition to serving as a board member for Piedmont, Ms. Alvord also serves on the boards of Apogee Enterprises and Albany International. She began her career as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co. after graduating from Harvard Business School.
For nearly a decade, Mr. Bless served as President and CEO of Century Aluminum Company (Century), a U.S.-based, publicly-held, global producer of primary aluminum, and was a member of the company’s Board of Directors. Prior to becoming CEO, Mr. Bless served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Century for five years.
He held a range of executive positions with several companies like Maxtor Corporation and Rockwell Automation, Inc. Mr. Bless also is a board member of CNA Financial Corporation and Enact Holdings. Mr. Bless is a graduate of Princeton University. Alvord and Bless will participate in the standard compensation program for non-employee directors as determined by the Board from time to time and disclosed in the Company’s Form 8-K filed on January 4, 2023.
