Directors & Leadership Team
Gelion’s team is comprised of incredibly talented business and scientific leaders. They’re guided by a Board that shares a single-focus: to create a better tomorrow through next-generation energy-storage solutions.
The Board
Dr Steve Mahon
PhD in Geo and Planetary Physics
Non-Executive Chair
Dr Steve Mahon has been a Director of the Company since April 2016. He Chairs the Board’s ESG Committee and is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee and the Remuneration Committee. Dr Mahon is the founder and now Chairman of Armstrong Capital Management Limited which is an asset manager specialising in the ESG sector. Armstrong has managed over £300m of investment into the UK renewable energy sector over the last 10 years with a focus on the development, construction and operation of ground and rooftop solar. During this period Armstrong has successfully provided profitable exits for the investors in these assets including sales of solar investments to institutional investors such as Next Energy and Blackrock.
Dr Mahon has had a successful career in commercialising low-carbon technologies with more than 15 years in the sector and a track record in selecting and managing high-growth, low carbon companies, both in the private and public markets. He is the co-founder and CEO of Mura Technology Limited (“Mura”), which is an advanced recycling technology business formed to recycle mixed waste plastic that would otherwise go to incineration or landfill. Mura is deploying its solution globally with partners such as Dow Chemicals, KBR Inc and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation.
Before establishing Armstrong, Dr Mahon co-founded Low Carbon Investors Limited, a Guernsey-based fund management company and created the UK’s first dedicated feed-in-tariff fund with Downing LLP, the Downing Low Carbon EIS and went on to advise Downing on the investment of more than £45 million in feed-in-tariff projects in solar and wind assets.
Dr Mahon has a first-class degree and PhD in Geophysics and Planetary Physics.
Prof. Thomas Maschmeyer
HonDSc FAA FTSE MAE
Non-Executive Director
Professor Maschmeyer is Founder and Principal Technology Advisor at Gelion Technologies (2015), Co-Founder of Licella Holdings (2007) and inventor of its Cat-HTR™ technology. He has been a Director of the Company since April 2016. He is also the Principal Technology Consultant for Cat-HTR™ licensee’s Mura Technology and RenewELP. In 2001 he was one of the founding professors of Avantium, a Dutch high-tech company. Most recently he was awarded the Australian Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation (2020) – the Australian Academy of Science’s David Craig Medal (2021) and the Australian Financial Review Sustainability Prize (2021).
Professor Maschmeyer concurrently holds the position of Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sydney, where he established and leads the Laboratory of Advanced Catalysis for Sustainability and served as Founding Director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute (2015-2018). In 2011, he was elected youngest Foreign Member of the Academia Europe as well as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) and, in 2014, of the Royal Society of NSW.
In addition to the Le Févre Prize of the Australian Academy of Sciences (2007), the RACI Applied Research Award (2011), the RACI Weickhardt Medal for Economic Contributions (2012), the RACI R.K.Murphy Medal for Industrial Chemistry (2018) the Eureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science (2018) and the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies’ Contribution to Economic Development Award (2019), Professor Maschmeyer received an Honorary Doctorate from the Universities of Ca’Foscari Venice and Trieste in recognition of his scientific and societal contributions in chemistry. He has authored 330+ publications, has been cited 13,000+ times, and has 29 patents.
Joycelyn Morton
BEc, FCA, FCPA, FIPA, FAICD
Non-Executive Director
Joycelyn Morton joined the Board of Gelion as an independent, Non-Executive Director in November 2021. She Chairs the Board’s Audit and Risk Committee and is a member of the Remuneration Committee.
As a highly qualified accountant with particular expertise in taxation matters, Ms. Morton enjoyed a long and successful executive career, initially in chartered accounting, followed by senior management roles with Woolworths Ltd and global leadership roles within Shell Group of companies, including Vice President, Accounting Services. She has completed a senior executive programme at INSEAD Business School and has held a variety of government and international advisory positions. She is currently Chair of the Salvation Army Red Shield Doorknock Appeal for the Greater Sydney region.
Ms. Morton is an experienced Board member of ASX-listed companies and government-owned corporations. She is currently a Non-Executive Director of Argo Investments Ltd (since 2012), Argo Global Listed Infrastructure Ltd (since 2015), Beach Energy Ltd (since 2018), Felix Holdings Group Ltd (since July 2021) and ASC Pty Ltd (since 2017). She was previously a Non-Executive Director and Chair of Noni B Ltd (2009 to 2015) and Thorn Group Ltd (2011 to 2018), and a Non-Executive Director of Invocare Ltd (2015 to 2018) and Snowy Hydro Ltd (2012 to 2021). Prior to that she served as a Non-Executive Director of Crane Group Ltd and Count Financial Ltd until their takeovers.
Michael Davie
Non-Executive Director
Michael Davie joined the Board of Gelion as an independent Non-Executive Director in November 2021. He Chairs the Board’s Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee and the ESG Committee.
Mr. Davie has more than 25 years’ experience working in financial services, most recently as Global Head of Rates at LCH Ltd, a company mostly owned by the London Stock Exchange Group. Before this, Mr. Davie was Head of Rate Services at the London Stock Exchange Group between 2015 and 2017. He has also held various executive positions at LCH Clearnet, latterly as CEO, and has previously been a Managing Director in JP Morgan’s Rates division.
Mr. Davie holds a degree in Zoology from the University of Oxford.
John Wood
Chief Executive Officer
John is an experienced and successful CEO of private and public companies and has led businesses both in the technology and energy industry over a 30-year career. He is also a proven sector specialist with significant commercial, scaling and manufacturing experience.
John has deep experience in the lead-acid sector having established Ecoult which gained recognition as one of the 100 Global Cleantech in 2013 and he implemented many seminal projects after its acquisition by East Penn Manufacturing.
Amit Gupta
Chief Financial Officer
Amit is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 years of experience in accounting and finance roles.
Amit is responsible for the financial strategy of the Gelion Group including financial reporting, corporate development, treasury, forecasting, transformation and M&A.
Prior to joining Gelion in August 2021, Amit worked for KPMG and Deloitte providing advice, predominantly for M&A and IPOs.
Amit holds a Bachelor of Commerce from St Xavier’s College, India and a Master of Finance and Master of Accounting from Bond University, Australia
Board Committees
The Board comprises of six Directors, of whom two are executive and four are non-executive.
The Board considers Michael Davie and Joycelyn Morton to be independent for the purposes of the QCA Code. With effect from Admission, the Board has established an Audit and Risk Committee, Remuneration Committee, and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG).
The Audit and Risk Committee comprises of Joycelyn Morton (as chair), Steve Mahon and Michael Davie. The Audit and Risk Committee meets at least three times a year at appropriate times in the reporting and audit cycle and otherwise as required. The Audit and Risk Committee also meets regularly with the Company’s external auditors. The Remuneration Committee comprises of Michael Davie (as chair), Joycelyn Morton and Steve Mahon. The Remuneration Committee meets at least twice a year and otherwise as required. The ESG Committee comprises of Steve Mahon (as chair), John Wood and Michael Davie. The ESG Committee meets at least four times a year and otherwise as required.
The Leadership Team
John Wood
Chief Executive Officer
John is an experienced and successful CEO of private and public companies and has led businesses both in the technology and energy industry over a 30-year career. He is also a proven sector specialist with significant commercial, scaling and manufacturing experience.
Amit Gupta
Chief Financial Officer
Amit is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 years of experience in accounting and finance roles.
Amit is responsible for the financial strategy of the Gelion Group including financial reporting, corporate development, treasury, forecasting, transformation and M&A.
Louis Adriaenssens
Chief Technology Officer
Louis has 20 years of experience in synthesis, characterization and electrochemistry of small-molecules and materials. He has worked at leading companies, and research institutes across continental Europe and in the UK where he held the position of Assistant Professor with a focus on electrochemically-active self-assembled materials.
Most recently, Louis worked in manufacturing as the Supervisor of Chemistry for Panasonic at the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada, USA. Here Louis’ team oversaw the chemical considerations of a process that produces 5.5 million batteries per day (a staggering 60 batteries per second). Louis’ strategy towards successful commercial and manufacturing initiatives is to work through all scales, from the molecular-level all the way to giga-scale manufacture.
Stuart Rayner
Commercial Director
Stuart’s focus at Gelion is to commercialise the technology platform by raising capital from industry and government organisations and working with key stakeholders and customers to grow Gelion’s product sales in the market.
Stuart brings to Gelion over twenty years of technology solution and professional services sales experience gained from IBM, Computer Associates (CA) and Ernst & Young. Stuart worked with Ignite Energy Resources and Licella for 6 years commercialising novel waste to energy technologies, which resulted in successful, significant projects with joint venture partners based in the UK and Canada.
Adrien Amigues
President – Gelion UK & Europe
Adrien graduated in Chemistry with first class honours from the University of Bordeaux (France) in 2010. Passionate about contributing to the shift towards a greener society, he completed a European Masters degree in energy storage and conversion, studying at leading academic energy institutions in France, Poland, Spain and the UK. He then completed his academic journey with a PhD on the discovery of new electrode materials for Li-ion and Na-ion batteries at the University of Cambridge.
Adrien specialised in high energy battery technologies when he joined OXIS Energy Ltd as a Research Scientist in 2016 and later Head of Intellectual Property in 2018. He has since co-authored 12 patent families on solid-state and lithium sulfur (Li-S) battery technologies.
He then founded and became the CEO of OXLiD Ltd in 2021 to accelerate the development and commercialisation of Li-S batteries. He led on the establishment of industrial Research Collaborations, securing over £2m in grant and private funding to support OXLiD’s activities. In 2023, he sold OXLiD to Gelion plc to create a world leading Li-S battery platform. Adrien has now become the President of Gelion UK/Europe.
Emma Dyer
GM People & Culture
Emma has over twenty five years, operational, commercial and human resources experience, including senior management, executive and HR Director appointments across a number of industries including FMCG, Healthcare and Retail in the UK, Europe and Australia.
Prior to joining Licella Holdings in 2013, Emma provided HR consultancy services to entrepreneurial start-ups and small businesses.
Emma is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Chartered FCIPD) equivalent to a Fellow of AHRI (Australia Human Resources Institute).
Michael Lanfranconi
GM Research & Innovation
Michael is a chemical engineer with a background in electrochemistry, organic and analytical chemistry. He has an extensive experience in various energy storage technologies, such as PEM fuel cells, metal-air batteries, various types of flow batteries and coating techniques for Lithium-Ion electrodes and has been engaged in the field for the last 15 years.
Michael is an experienced leader of product and process focused research and development teams for various battery technologies. He holds a PhD in Electrochemistry from TU Claustal, Germany, a Master’s degree in Micro- and Nanotechnology from the University of Applied Science in Gelsenkirchen, Germany and a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the University of Applied Science in Basel, Switzerland. He has started his career at Novartis Pharma, as a chemical laboratory technician and thoroughly understands the entire process of product development.
Nick Batt
GM Engineering & Operations
Nick Batt has two decades’ experience in the energy generation, energy storage and electricity distribution industries. He is a highly experienced engineer working on energy storage projects of varying scales, from start-ups to grid-scale. Nick has experience working directly for a battery company (Ecoult); a global developer and system integrator (RES); and an electricity network service provider (Ausgrid).
This gives him a great understanding of projects from a range of perspectives in power systems, energy storage, smart grid, micro-grid and control systems design, and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. Nick is a proven program and project management professional with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in French, both from the University of Newcastle in Australia.
Gareth Hartley
GM Engineering & Operations
Gareth is an accomplished leader in energy storage and battery technology. As the Head of Lithium, he drives Gelion’s research and development efforts on Li-S batteries. Gareth’s expertise lies in translating scientific advancements into practical solutions, ensuring innovation and sustainability.
Previously, Gareth served as the Principal Scientist at OXLiD Ltd, a company that was acquired by Gelion in 2023. In this capacity, he guided the product development team, connecting technical expertise with business insight.
Before joining OXLiD, Gareth worked as a Business Intelligence Manager at the Faraday Institution, where he established strong networks across the battery sector and shaped commercialisation strategies for early-stage battery research.
Gareth’s prior academic journey included work at the cutting edge of solid-state battery research. He pursued a DPhil in Materials from the University of Oxford, working under the renowned Prof. Peter G. Bruce FRS, FRSE. Additionally, Gareth holds a First-Class Master’s Degree in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield.
