the team

Leadership

Saad Dara CEO and founder of Mangrove Lithium

Saad Dara

Co-Founder and CEO
Dr. Dara is an entrepreneur with a track record of taking research from the lab bench to a commercial scale.
Francisco Davis

Francisco Velasco Davis

VP Commercialization
Francisco has a proven record of success in commercial roles in leading blue-chip companies such as 3M, Walmart, Daimler, and SQM.
David St. Angelo CTO

David St. Angelo

Chief Technology Officer
David brings over 30-years experience in sustainable technology commercialization, plant construction, technoeconomic analysis, and technical operations leadership.
Briac

Briac de Chardon

VP Engineering and Projects
Briac is a leader of technology development projects and has a track record of innovation and IP generation from the idea phase through to commercialization.
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Priscila Costa Lima

Director Finance and Administration
Priscila is a Finance and Accounting Executive with a proven track record in the junior mining/resource industry.

Board of Directors

Vivian

Vivian Kan

Board Director
Vivian is an investment director in BDC Capital's Cleantech Practice with over 18 years of experience in financial and contract risk analysis, commercial and corporate finance, business development and venture capital.
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Christina Karapataki

Board Director
Christina is an investor with experience building companies and commercializing technology in the energy and sustainability sectors. With Breakthrough Energy Ventures, she focuses on decarbonization solutions for the electricity, transportation and manufacturing sectors.
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Alfred Lam

Co-Founder and Director
Alfred is an innovator, company builder and investor with 10+ years R&D experience in electrochemical systems,. He helped incubate and grow Mangrove and is currently a Partner at Chrysalix Venture Capital.
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Richard Reese

Board Director
Richard joined the Mangrove board in 2017, and offers strategy, business development, operations and finance insight gained over the past three decades as an engineer, general manager and executive.

Advisors

Co-Founder and Technical Advisor

David Wilkinson

Co-Founder and Technical Advisor
Dr. Wilkinson is a Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) at the University of British Columbia. Before joining academia, Dr. Wilkinson was VP-Research at Ballard Power Systems and Moli Energy. Dr. Wilkinson was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2020 for his contributions to electrochemical science and technology.
Arman Bonakdarpour

Arman Bonakdarpour

Co-Founder and Technical Advisor
Arman has an extensive R&D background in clean technology sector covering diverse areas such as water treatment, CO2 conversion, advanced batteries and hydrogen energy technologies. His work has led to over 55 peer-reviewed and highly cited scientific publications and a number of patent/patent applications.
Steve Scott

Steve Scott

Legal & Business Management Advisor
Steve graduated from the University of Southern California, receiving both an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and his Juris Doctor. Steve lives in Hawaii and is the proprietor of both Business Law Center of Hawaii LLC and Island Diligence LLC. Steve has also been employed by several mid-size U.S. corporations providing hi-tech environmental services where he performed in executive, management, and legal capacities.