Board of Directors

The RBC is governed by a diverse board representing battery makers, recyclers, original equipment manufacturers and large-scale users of energy storage devices.

Adam Mullerweiss
President of RBC

Executive Director of Sustainability, Government and Industry Affairs, Clarios

Phil Cozad
Secretary of RBC

Staff Engineer,
Honda North America, Inc.

Micah Thompson
Treasurer of RBC

Director, Environmental and Sustainability,
Advance Stores Company, Inc.

V. Anand Sankaran

Director, Ford Ion Park - Battery Center of Excellence at Ford Motor Company

Danny Iseminger

Director of Merchandise, O’Reilly Auto Parts

Boris Kort-Packard

Chief Engineer, Global Vehicles, FedEx Express

David McKinney

Vice President, Government & Community Relations,
AutoZone

Leadership Team

Steve Christensen
Executive Director

Steve Christensen brings deep public and private sector experience ideal to ensure we achieve our mission through impactful multi-stakeholder partnerships and programs.

He has worked seamlessly across government, academia and business to both improve communication on complex issues and to fundamentally address them. As a senior official at the USDA, Steve was responsible for working closely with the White House, Congress, and stakeholders to develop science-based public policy to support U.S. agriculture.

Since his time at USDA Steve has advised numerous industry organizations and corporate clients, among them some of the world’s leading commodity groups, chemical manufacturers and energy providers.His work has included:

  • Preventing unwarranted EPA regulation on a naturally occurring substance.
  • Mobilizing a group of independent health and radiation experts to ensure scientific rigor guided the debate on the safety of nuclear energy following the incident in Fukushima, Daiichi.
  • Working with a group of industry experts and outside technical advisors to develop new traceability protocols for U.S. dairy products.

Steve is a graduate of Harvard University’s JFK School of Government and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside.

John Kyte
Director of Communications and Programs

John Kyte specializes in issues and crisis management, corporate reputation, media relations and government relations. A former news reporter, lobbyist and lawyer, he has more than three decades of experience assisting corporations, associations and clients in managing difficult, often controversial, issues with public, state and federal government entities and the media.

John has an extensive background in energy and environmental issues and  has provided counsel and program execution services to companies and clients involved in facility siting, power plant operations and regulation, chemical contamination and cleanup, product recalls, waste management, litigation and bankruptcy proceedings.

Prior to serving 17 years as a Managing Director at a major global communications agency and its government relations subsidiary, John practiced energy and environmental law and regulation in Washington, D.C. He also served for two years as Director of Environmental Quality for the National Association of Manufacturers, and as Vice President, Legislative Affairs, for The New England Council, Inc.

John received his Juris Doctor degree from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Keene (NH) State College.

Timothy J. Lafond, P.E.
Technical Consultant

Timothy Lafond has provided leadership in all areas of global environmental compliance and manufacturing facilities engineering management. He spent the past 30 plus years leading the Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI) Power Solutions and S.C. Johnson (SCJ) environmental and sustainability programs.

Both JCI and SCJ are among only a handful of U.S. corporations that have received the World Environmental Center’s Gold Medal for excellence in environmental management. Tim was instrumental in the development of these internationally recognized environmental programs.

Tim was awarded the W. Wesley Eckenfelder, Jr. Industrial Waste Treatment Medal in 2013 by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists for his design of the stormwater and wastewater treatment systems at the JCI lead acid battery recycling center in South Carolina.

Tim holds a Master of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry, both from the University of Iowa. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Wisconsin.

Mathy Stanislaus
Technical Consultant

Mathy Stanislaus is currently Circular Economy Fellow for the World Resources Institute and previously served in the Obama Administration as Assistant Administrator for the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management.

Mathy will advise the RBC as it moves forward on defining and developing best practices for creating a circular economy for the next generation of vehicle batteries. Additionally building on his work at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Mathy will continue to work with RBC on its important participation in the WEF Global Battery Alliance.

A native of Sri Lanka, Mathy has a J.D. with an Environmental Law Program Certificate from Chicago Kent Law School and a bachelor’s in chemical engineering with a specialization in materials science from city College of New York.

Science Advisory Board

The Responsible Battery Coalition collaborates with leading scientific experts through its Science Advisory Board. This board is an independent entity that advises the coalition on priority issues related to evaluating, developing and promoting the best practices for responsibly managing the life-cycle of energy storage technologies.

Ramon Sanchez, PhD
Chair of the Science Advisory Board

Director of the Sustainable Technologies and Health Program, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Carole Mars, PhD

Senior Research Lead, The Sustainability Consortium

Peter B. Littlewood, PhD

Professor of physics at University of Chicago

George Crabtree, PhD

Director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research

Robert Huggins, ScD

Professor of Materials Science and Engineer, Emeritus at Stanford University

Charles Barnhart, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Huxley College of the Environment

Linda Gaines, PhD

Transportation System Analyst, Argonne National Laboratory

Michael Carbajales-Dale, PhD

Assistant Professor, Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences department at Clemson University

James Tansey, PhD

Executive Director, Centre for Social Innovation & Impact Investing Associate, The W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics (former Chair in Business Ethics at CAE)

Greg Keoleian, PhD

Director of the Center for Sustainable Systems at University of Michigan

Executive Advisory Council

The Responsible Battery Coalition works closely with its Executive Advisory Council on issues related to life-cycle management activities relevant to current or new technologies for application to closed loop recycling.

Dominic Waughray

Head of Public-Private Partnerships and member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum

Steve Hellem

Executive Director, Suppliers Partnership for the Environment & Global Environmental Management Institute

Bruce Schlein

Vice President, Environmental Affairs, CitiGroup

Chad Pregracke

Founder & President, Living Lands and Waters

Euan Murray

Chief Executive Officer, The Sustainability Consortium

Lisa Jacobson

President, Business Council for Sustainable Energy

Rolando Ibarra

Director General, Instituto para la Protección Ambientall, Former Partnerships Manager, and Legal Officer, Commission on Environmental Cooperation of North America

Bill Davis

Former Director, National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium