Australian battery company Redflow has named Tim Harris, an experienced technology executive, as its new CEO. A statement by the company said the decision was in line with Reflow’s focus on growth and commercialisation.
Long-term Redflow executive Richard Aird returns to the role of Chief Operating Officer, a critical position that focuses his deep skills and experience with development of Redflow’s unique ZBM2 battery to ensure its successful production by the new factory in Thailand.
“Richard will continue driving cost-downs, optimisations and quality improvements in the supply-chain and manufacturing process as the company prepares to ramp-up battery production during 2018,” the press release said.
Redflow’s ZBM2 battery is a scalable 10 kilowatt-hour (kWh) zinc-bromine flow battery that delivers 100 per cent depth of discharge each day without causing any damage to the battery.
Since its last year strategic review, Redflow has transferred its manufacturing operations from North America to Thailand, where it is now successfully producing battery stacks – the critical component of its zinc-bromine flow batteries – and is on track to produce full batteries by June this year.
Tim Harris has extensive international business experience from the telecommunications sector – a key market for Redflow – where he was previously Chief Commercial Officer for Chorus in New Zealand and held senior leadership roles for BT Group in Singapore and the UK.
Redflow Chairman Brett Johnson said the company was now focussed on growth. “After a year of change, we are enormously grateful for Richard’s leadership to establish the new factory in Thailand, which is the foundation for our next phase of growth,” he said.
“We have recruited Tim as CEO to allow Richard to focus on his operational strengths in scaling up production from Thailand to deliver fully tested quality batteries,” Johnson said.