Brian Krzanich, a former top dog at Intel and CDK Global, is taking a seat at the high-stakes table of battery manufacturing. Joining SES AI Corp.'s board as an independent director, Krzanich is back in the game but this time, it's all about juicing up the future of automotive tech with li-metal batteries. His appointment, effective since January 26, signals SES AI's charge into the next-gen battery domain.
Krzanich climbed the corporate ladder at Intel, leading the chip giant from 2013 to 2018, before a workplace dalliance led to him resigning, thanks to a rule about not fraternizing with underlings. In his next play, he took the wheel at CDK Global for a roughly four-year stint before selling it off to investment firm Brookfield Business Partners, as reported by Bizjournals.com.
SES AI CEO Qichao Hu welcomes Krzanich's know-how on commercializing cutting-edge auto tech. Hu is banking on Krzanich's experience to supercharge SES AI's AI and machine learning innovations in battery tech – a move that's promising to rev up performance and safety, according to Nasdaq.com.
SES AI, not resting on its laurels after striking a landmark B-sample Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with an unnamed car-making juggernaut, is firing on all cylinders. They're developing a deep-learning platform for their new Electrolyte Foundry, reimagining their Li-Metal cell design, and eyeing the nascent Urban Air Mobility (UAM) market. Krzanich is hyped about joining the board, giving a nod to their mission to electrify our world with solid battery tech, as he shared with Businesswire.com.
The SES AI board's expansion includes some heavy hitters aside from Krzanich. There's Dr. Jiong Ma, who's got a resume that spans from Bell Labs to Braemar Energy Ventures, Eric Luo, a past honcho at GCL System Integration, Michael Noonen of Swave Photonics, Prof. Jang Wook Choi of Seoul National University, and Anirvan Coomer, the big gun at GM Ventures. With this dream team in place, SES AI's future looks as bright as the batteries they're crafting.
