- Co-Founder and Executive Chairperson Tom Jensen to return to
CEO role; Current Director Daniel Barcelo appointed Chair of the
Board
- Evan Calio, a recognized financial expert in the energy
sector, appointed Company’s new CFO
- Changes support FREYR’s accelerated strategic shift to the
U.S market and key initiatives to drive revenues and
profitability
FREYR Battery (NYSE: FREY) (“FREYR” or the “Company”), a
developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production
capacity, today announced the appointment of Co-Founder and current
Chairperson of the Board of Directors (the “Board”) Tom Jensen as
Chief Executive Officer. Current Director Daniel Barcelo has been
appointed the next Chair of the Board. Additionally, Evan Calio has
been appointed as the Company’s new CFO.
In connection with today’s changes, Birger Steen has stepped
down from his CEO and Board positions at FREYR. Mr. Steen will be
leaving the Board effective, immediately. Separately, Oscar Brown,
FREYR’s CFO, has been working with the Company on succession
planning, and recently notified the Company of his intention to
resign for personal reasons. Both Mr. Steen and Mr. Brown will stay
at the Company for a period to help ensure seamless transitions for
Mr. Jensen and Mr. Calio.
FREYR’s Board believes the new management team will be fully
aligned with the Company’s accelerated strategic shift to the U.S.,
and key initiatives, including:
- Pursuing organic and inorganic opportunities in the U.S. to
accelerate FREYR’s timelines to revenues and EBITDA;
- Advancing the next generation of the 24M SemiSolidTM technology
through operations at the Customer Qualification Plant
(“CQP”);
- Finalizing a conventional technology agreement with an
established cell producer.
The Board and new management are intently focused on shortening
the timelines to meaningful revenue and profitability, and
ultimately to generate sustainable shareholder value.
“Our industry, which continues to grow exponentially in all
relevant market segments, is going through a dynamic period of
rapid change. It became clear to us that we needed to adapt our
focus to capitalize on the unique technology advantage and deep
bench of talent that has set FREYR apart,” commented Tom Jensen.
“Following these moves, we are going to accelerate our efforts to
capitalize on the new participation strategies emerging on a
seemingly constant basis, and to take advantage of the white space
in the U.S. market. I am very proud of the progress our team
continues to make daily at the CQP with a world first industrial
scale US IP based battery technology. I am equally excited to be in
the final stages of finalizing an accretive partnership with a
well-established battery producer globally to provide cost
competitive products in the near term to our large customer base.
By devoting even more focus to bringing our initial production
facility online – while continuing to stay nimble in our constantly
evolving sector – we are getting back to the basics that made FREYR
exciting and successful from the beginning.”
“On behalf of FREYR’s Board of Directors, I wish to thank Birger
and Oscar for their contributions to the organization. We wish them
all the best in their future endeavors,” concluded Mr. Jensen.
Todd Kantor, a Director of FREYR and one of the Company’s
earliest investors, added, “Having now had an opportunity to assess
the Company in a different way since joining the Board last month,
I am confident the team announced today is the right one to lead
FREYR in this next stage of its growth. I have known Tom since 2020
when Encompass Capital Advisors LLC first invested in FREYR, and
Dan for 20 years dating back to his time as an equity research
analyst. I have also worked closely with Evan for 19 years,
including during FREYR’s public listing process. I am confident
that they all share a sense of urgency toward translating FREYR’s
technology and enviable market position into value-enhancing
partnership transactions in the near term that will drive
profitability. I look forward to continuing to work closely with
them in my role as a Director.”
“I am very excited to join FREYR at such a dynamic time in the
battery industry with a differentiated team, technology and balance
sheet,” said Evan Calio. “I look forward to working with a team
that I have known, respected and collaborated with for many years
to shape FREYR’s strategy, capital formation and strategic
positioning, as we advance our ambition to build a global clean
battery champion and create value for all our stakeholders.”
For more information on Daniel Barcelo, Tom Jensen, and Todd
Kantor, please refer to the corporate governance section of FREYR’s
website at www.Freyrbattery.com/governance/leadership
Evan Calio Biography
Mr. Calio has more than 30 years of energy experience on Wall
Street, including working closely with the Freyr management team in
conjunction with its IPO and $704 million capital raise. Over his
career, Mr. Calio has led more than $60 billion in capital raises
and executed over $75 billion of M&A transactions, most
recently as Managing Director at BTIG where he helped build an
energy transition banking team and business.
Prior to BTIG, Mr. Calio spent 14 years at Morgan Stanley, most
recently as a Managing Director within Equity Research, covering
U.S. exploration and production companies, refiners and integrated
oils. Mr. Calio was ranked by Institutional Investor’s Annual
All-America Research Survey in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016 and Rising
Star on Wall Street in 2011.
Mr. Calio earned a BS from Lehigh University, a JD from Widener
University School of Law and an LLM from Georgetown University Law
Center.
About FREYR Battery
FREYR Battery is a developer of clean, next-generation battery
cell production capacity. The Company’s mission is to accelerate
the decarbonization of global energy and transportation systems by
producing sustainable, cost-competitive batteries. FREYR seeks to
serve the primary markets of energy storage systems (“ESS”) and
commercial mobility, and the Company maintains an ambition to serve
the passenger electric vehicles market (“EV”). FREYR is operating
its Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”) for technology development
in Mo i Rana, Norway, and the Company is commencing development of
the Giga America battery manufacturing project in Coweta County,
Georgia, in the U.S. To learn more about FREYR, please visit
www.freyrbattery.com.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking
Statements
All statements, other than statements of present or historical
fact included in this letter, are forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and
uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ
materially from the expected results. Most of these factors are
outside FREYR’s control and are difficult to predict. Additional
information about factors that could materially affect FREYR is set
forth under the “Risk Factors” section in (i) FREYR’s Registration
Statement on Form S-3 filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (the “SEC”) on September 1, 2022, (ii) FREYR Battery,
Inc.’s Registration Statement on Form S-4 filed with the SEC on
September 8, 2023 and subsequent amendments thereto filed on
October 13, 2023, October 19, 2023, and October 31, 2023, (iii)
FREYR’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February
29, 2024, and (iv) FREYR’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed
with the SEC on May 8, 2024 and available on the SEC’s website at
www.sec.gov. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, FREYR
disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements, all of
which are expressly qualified by the statements in this section, to
reflect events or circumstances after the date of this
presentation. Should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual
results and projections could differ materially from those
expressed in any forward-looking statements.
FREYR intends to use its website as a channel of distribution to
disclose information which may be of interest or material to
investors and to communicate with investors and the public. Such
disclosures will be included on FREYR’s website in the ‘Investor
Relations’ sections. FREYR also intends to use certain social media
channels, including, but not limited to, X (former Twitter) and
LinkedIn, as means of communicating with the public and investors
about FREYR, its progress, products, and other matters. While not
all the information that FREYR posts to its digital platforms may
be deemed to be of a material nature, some information may be. As a
result, FREYR encourages investors and others interested to review
the information that it posts and to monitor such portions of
FREYR’s website and social media channels on a regular basis, in
addition to following FREYR’s press releases, SEC filings, and
public conference calls and webcasts. The contents of FREYR’s
website and other social media channels shall not be deemed
incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of
1933, as amended.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240606728110/en/
Investor: Jeffrey Spittel Vice President, Investor
Relations jeffrey.spittel@freyrbattery.com Tel: (+1) 409
599-5706 Media: Amy Jaick Global Head of Communications
amy.jaick@freyrbattery.com Tel: (+1) 973 713-5585
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