Dr Shelley Brown-Malker, BEng(Hons), PhD – Chief Technical and Operations Manager
Dr Brown-Malker joined VSPC in August 2010 and has a background in chemical engineering, applied electrochemistry and bioelectrochemical engineering. She completed a PhD in Electrochemical Engineering in 2008, spending 4.5 years in Sweden researching lithium-ion batteries for power-assist hybrid electric vehicles as part of the Swedish Green Car project. This research focused on GEN2 nickelate-based chemistry and was a combination of lifetime experimental and physics-based modelling work. As part of her PhD studies, Dr Brown-Malker spent a year in Japan at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency working in the energy storage group. She collaborated together with NEC-Tokin and Argonne National Laboratory to study the lifetime degradation of manganese-based batteries, validating results with the performance of the lithium-ion battery pack on-board the low-earth-orbit satellite REIMI. Prior to joining VSPC, Dr Brown-Malker was a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. In this role, she was a project manager for the BioElectrochemical System work performed by the Advanced Water Management Centre as a part of the EU project Neptune.
Wendy Smith, BBus, CPA, GAICD, C.dec – Chief Financial Officer
Wendy Smith joined VSPC in September 2010 as Chief Financial Officer. She is a Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) and has over 15 years experience in providing accounting support to companies in various industries including mining, oil and gas, psychometric testing and market research. Wendy’s career has included positions in the UK and South America. She is also a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Commissioner for Declarations.
Niklas Bengtsson, M.Sc. Chem. Eng. – Production Manager
Mr Bengtsson is a Chemical Engineer who joined VSPC in June 2009 as the Production Manager. He oversees all aspects in the running of VSPC’s Pilot Plant including maintenance and improvements to production and equipment. Prior to starting at VSPC he worked in a global food manufacturing company in Europe as the Engineering Manager & Production Manager and later in Australia as the Plant Manager. He has experience in Production Planning, Logistics, Quality Assurance, OH & S, Plant Maintenance and HR and has been instrumental in the identification and introduction of a range of manufacturing efficiencies.
Mark Quinlan, BSc – Laboratory Manager
Mark joined VSPC in 2003 as a research scientist and Laboratory Manager. He has over 25 years of mutlidiscplinary experience in research, management and consultation (Biotechnology, UNSW; Faculty of Science, USC). He has been actively involved in the formulation and optimization of VSPC’s LFP process from its inception.