Standard Lithium named two new vice presidents in an announcement Monday.
Daniel Rosen will be vice president of strategy and investor relations. And Tim Sobel will be vice president of health, safety, social and environment.
Standard is the lead partner in a venture set to build a $1.3 billion lithium plant in Lafayette County.
Its South West Arkansas project is a venture with global energy leader Equinor of Norway. The joint company, Smackover Lithium, has $225 million in federal funding to build the direct lithium extraction plant near Lewisville. It also has significant backing from Koch Inc. of Wichita, Kansas. That’s the second largest privately owned company in the nation, behind Cargill.
Smackover Lithium also has the state’s first lithium royalty for mineral owners. The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission set the royalty in May. The action gave Standard a head start toward domestic production for the lithium battery market.
Construction to Start This Year
“We are thrilled to welcome the additions of Daniel and Tim to our leadership team,” Standard CEO and Director David Park said in a statement.
“Dan’s strategic insight and deep experience in investor relations and capital markets, as well as Tim’s extensive history in ensuring that HSSE standards are not only met, but exceeded and built-in to organizational culture, will be invaluable as we continue to execute our growth strategy on a path towards first production.”
The lithium project looks to start construction this year. Standard officials expect to be delivering lithium hydroxide monohydrate to buyers by sometime in 2027. The first phase of the project could have a capacity of 30,000 to 35,000 tons of the battery ingredient per year. Smackover Lithium is competing in south Arkansas’ Smackover geological formation with energy giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron, among others.
“Bringing on Daniel and Tim is the next step in our process of continuing to evolve and strengthen our capabilities.” That was the statement by Salah Gamoudi, Standard’s chief financial officer. “We’d also like to thank Chris Lang for helping to support our investor relations function this past year. With Daniel coming on board, this will allow Chris to prioritize and focus more on the financial planning and treasury aspects of his role.”
Lang is the company’s director of finance.
Industry Experience
Rosen has more than 13 years of experience in corporate strategy, finance, and capital markets, the company said. He recently played a key role in the integration of Arcadium Lithium into Rio Tinto of London. That was a $ 6.7 billion acquisition completed in March. Before becoming Rio Tinto’s director of integration, Rosen held jobs in strategy, mergers & acquisitions and investor relations for Arcadium, of Shannon, Ireland. He also spent more than six years in the investment division of Barclays of London.
Standard Lithium, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, described Sobel as a seasoned HSSE executive. It cited his three decades of distinguished leadership in health, safety, security, environmental, quality, sustainability, and risk management.
He was previously vice president of HSSE for the Americas at DP World of Dubai. There, he oversaw HSSE execution in more than 40 logistics, port and terminal operations in North and South America. Earlier in his career, he held executive posts at Air Liquide, New Fortress Energy, Wilhelmsen Ship Management and Sunoco Logistics. Sobel also served in the United States Coast Guard.
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