US battery distributor and recycler Ecobat announced the appointment of Thomas Slabe as CEO. He takes over from Marcus Randolph, who is also Ecobat’s chairman. Randolph will continue on the board of directors to provide a smooth transition, the company said.
The firm has operations in Europe and the US. They include 11 smelters, three lithium-based facilities, a collection truck fleet and 65,000 battery collection points.
In January, Ecobat announced plans to enter lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling, with construction of a facility in Casa Grande, Arizona. The company said it will have capacity for some 10,000 tons of recycled LIB material per year, and plans to expand capacity. The new facility will be Ecobat’s first LIB recycling facility in North America. It has a LIB recycling plant in Germany and is planning another for the UK.
The company already operates a facility nearby in Arizona facility where it has manufactured anodes for 15 years.
Before joining Ecobat, Slabe was president and CEO of foundry company Neenah Enterprises from 2018 to 2023. Before that, he was president of stormwater and drainage at engineering supplies company Contech Engineered Solutions.
