Innovative recycler for critical metals, battery grade metals and cathode precursors
Management Team
Tarun Bhatt
Mr. Bhatt is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Aleon Metals, Gladieux Metals Recycling and Aleon Renewable Metals. His experience includes engineering, research, product development, manufacturing, and finance. He led global cross-functional engineering teams and product launches at Ford Motor Company and Caterpillar. He led corporate finance groups at Bank of Montreal/KGS-Alpha Capital, J.P. Morgan Chase & Company, and Knight Capital Group. He co-founded Postlane Partners, a commodities investment group, and led acquisitions of transmix processing refinery in Indiana and spent catalyst recycling company in Texas. Mr. Bhatt holds B.S. and M.S in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from Tennessee Technological University; and dual MBA/MEM degrees from Kellogg School of Management and McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. He has published research papers in artificial neural networks, and hold U.S. patents in Automotive NVH and Spent Catalyst & Battery Recycling.
Kim Baker
Ms. Baker is the Senior Vice President of Finance at Aleon Metals. She is an experienced veteran of entrepreneurial mid-market firms and brings over 30 years of financial and managerial experience to the company. Prior to joining the private sector, she spent four years as an auditor for a large national accounting firm. She has since served in senior accounting positions in industry, including serving as Controller and CFO for high growth private companies, as well as providing outsourced CFO consulting services. Ms. Baker graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Giles Dunn
Mr. Dunn is the Senior Vice President of Strategy and Investor Relations at Aleon Metals. Giles has over 15 years of experience in project delivery, strategic planning, finance, and capital raising. Previously, as SVP at Tellurian – he supported development and financing of the $14.5 billion Driftwood LNG project, and as Chief of Staff to Executive Chairman assisted the Board in formulating capital strategy. At Bank of America, he was Managing Director in the investment banking team, where he successfully executed over $100 billion of transformational transactions from M&A to capital markets in the energy and resource sectors. Giles previously worked at Standard Chartered Bank and Poten & Partners. He holds a Master of Engineering (Honors) in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London.
Gerardo Valdes
Mr. Valdes is the Senior Vice President of Commercial Development at Aleon Metals. Mr. Valdes has over 20 years’ experience in procurement and sales of chemicals and metal commodities, including the last ten years at Gulf Chemical and GMR. During that time, he has managed all the commercial aspects of the GMR facility. He earned a BBA with a Purchasing specialization and an MBA from Thunderbird, American Graduate School of International Management.
Martha Estrada
Ms. Estrada is the Human Resources Manager at Aleon Metals. She manages employee relations, recruitment, payroll, benefits, and compensation. Ms. Estrada experience spans over 25 years in Human Resources in both private and public companies. She has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.
Board of Directors
Al Salazar
Mr. Salazar serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Salazar brings over 30 years of experience in funding, startup operations, and oversight of commercial scale projects. He is currently the CEO of all Jefferson Enterprise entities. He started the Jefferson group of companies when he conceived of and executed the end-to-end development of the Jefferson Energy Terminal in Beaumont, Texas -the largest multi-modal petroleum liquids terminal in the nation. He has now focused the Jefferson team on the development of a portfolio of “green energy” assets.
Ken Nicholson
Mr. Nicholson serves as a member of our Board of Directors. Mr. Nicholson is the Chief Executive Officer and President of FTAI Infrastructure. He has served on the Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC (Nasdaq: FTAI) board of directors since May 2016. Mr. Nicholson is a Managing Director at Fortress focusing on investments in the transportation, infrastructure and energy industries, including investments made by FTAI. He joined Fortress in May 2006. Previously, Mr. Nicholson worked in investment banking at UBS Investment Bank and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette where he was a member of the transportation industry group. Mr. Nicholson holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Tarun Bhatt
Mr. Bhatt serves as a member of our Board of Directors. His experience includes engineering, research, product development, manufacturing, and corporate finance at global companies. Mr. Bhatt holds B.S. and M.S in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from Tennessee Technological University; and dual MBA/MEM degrees from Kellogg School of Management and McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. He has published research papers in artificial neural networks and holds U.S. patents.
Gladieux Metals Recycling (GMR) | Aleon Renewable Metals (ARM) | 302 Midway Road, Freeport, Texas