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Redwood Materials chief operating officer Chris Lister is leaving the battery recycling company to retire, TechCrunch has learned \u2014 and he\u2019s not the only executive that recently departed.<\/p>\n
Lister, a former vice president who led operations at Tesla\u2019s Nevada Gigafactory, has been with Redwood since late 2023. He started as the company\u2019s chief supply chain officer and was quickly promoted to the COO role in 2024. The promotion put him closer in the org chart to Redwood founder and CEO JB Straubel, who was Tesla\u2019s longtime chief technology officer and currently sits on the automaker\u2019s board.<\/p>\n
Redwood Materials recently informed employees that Lister was retiring, according to an employee who was granted anonymity to speak about the announcement. The company confirmed Lister\u2019s departure to TechCrunch on Thursday. \u201cWe wish him the best in his retirement,\u201d a spokesperson said via email.<\/p>\n
News of Lister\u2019s retirement comes just a few days after TechCrunch revealed Redwood Materials recently laid off around 10% of its workforce, or roughly 135 employees.<\/p>\n
Those cuts were part of a restructuring that Straubel told employees about in an email viewed by TechCrunch earlier this week. He said the shuffle will help support the company\u2019s growing energy storage business. Redwood has recently signed deals with automaker Rivian and artificial intelligence company Crusoe to provide refurbished batteries that can be used as grid storage.<\/p>\n
Other executives have left Redwood in recent months, too.<\/p>\n
Bradley Mayhew, Redwood\u2019s vice president of integrated supply chain and a former Tesla employee, left the company earlier this month, according to LinkedIn. Guillermo Urquiza, Redwood\u2019s vice president of mechanical engineering \u2014 and another former Tesla employee \u2014 left in March. And Carlos Lozano, the company\u2019s vice president of manufacturing, left earlier this year for a leadership role at Panasonic, according to LinkedIn. <\/p>\n
Techcrunch event<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> Mayhew, Urquiza, and Lozano didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment. Redwood declined to specifically comment on their departures, but noted that Straubel said in his all-staff email that he is trying to reduce layers of management at the company.<\/p>\n Straubel also told employees in his message that \u201cparts of the company have expanded faster than needed\u201d and that he was \u201cmore excited than ever with our path ahead as we build the most integrated and cost-effective critical materials and energy storage business in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are confident that we can deliver on our critical projects with a smaller team that is more focused,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe have successfully adapted to changes in the market that have bankrupted many of our competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n