Executive Management

Ajay Kochhar is the President, CEO and co-founder of Li-Cycle. In this role, Ajay provides strategic oversight and leadership for Li-Cycle’s operations, commercial and financing activities, as well as shared services.

Before founding Li-Cycle, Ajay gained extensive technology and project development experience through a series of progressive roles within Hatch’s industrial cleantech and advisory practices. While working at Hatch, he developed in-depth, engineering and project management experience through clean technology development in the lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, gold, lead, zinc, molybdenum, and rare earth metals industries. He has demonstrated technical expertise that spans the entire project lifecycle, from conceptual and pre-feasibility studies to construction and commissioning.

Born and raised in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, Ajay comes from entrepreneurial roots, having gained experience from a young age via a family business.

Ajay is a graduate of the University of Toronto and holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) in Chemical Engineering.

Craig Cunningham is Li-Cycle’s Chief Financial Officer. In this role, Craig is responsible for leading the finance function to support the company’s operations and long-term growth plans. Craig has an extensive background in executive-level leadership and brings more than 17 years of accounting, finance, operational, and capital markets experience.

Craig was previously Chief Financial Officer at Electra Battery Materials where he was a key contributor to the company’s strategy and provided key financial oversight and controls to major projects.

Prior to joining Electra, Craig was Vice President and Regional Financial Officer at Kinross Gold where he oversaw finance, information technology, supply chain and logistics, and administration functions in Russia. 

Craig has a Bachelor of Accounting from Brock University and received an MBA from Ivey Business School at Western University in Canada. He is a Chartered Public Accountant and a Chartered Accountant.

As Chief Operating Officer, Conor Spollen is responsible for overseeing Li-Cycle’s global Spoke operations, including driving safety, productivity, and cost-efficiency. In addition to overseeing our Spoke operations, following the completion of the technical and economic review of the Rochester Hub project, he will be responsible for project delivery and the planned operation of the Rochester Hub. Conor first joined Li-Cycle in January 2022 as SVP, Project Delivery, and has played a key role in the development of the Rochester Hub project.

Conor has more than 33 years of international mining and metallurgical experience, having served in global leadership roles in a number of companies, including Vale Canada, where he was, among other roles, Chief Operating Officer for the company’s base metals operating mines and processing facilities in Canada, UK, China, and Japan.

Conor is a Professional Engineer, a Chartered Engineer, and sat on the Board of the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI). He is on the panel of experts for Geoscience Ireland.

Conor holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Minerals Engineering from Exeter University in England and received an MBA from Chifley School of Business at Torrens University Australia.

Carl DeLuca is Li-Cycle’s General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.

With nearly 25 years of legal and public company experience, Carl leads Li-Cycle’s legal and regulatory functions in support of the company’s global expansion plans. He also manages the organization’s corporate governance processes through the Board and its committees.

Prior to joining Li-Cycle, Carl served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for gold producer Detour Gold Corporation, where he facilitated the company’s stabilization, resulting in a 95% stock price increase.

Carl also held various roles at Vale Canada Limited, including Head of Legal for North American Operations and M&A/Strategic Projects while there, he played a key role in the company’s gold streaming transactions on Vale’s copper mine in Brazil, delivering $1.7 billion in aggregate proceeds.

Carl, a barrister and solicitor, was born and raised in Ontario, and currently calls Toronto home. He holds his LL.B. from the University of Windsor, where he received the R.L. Deshield Award for having achieved the second highest standing in his graduating class, and holds an H.B.A and a B.A. in History and French from The University of Western Ontario.

Chris Biederman is a Professional Engineer with 15 years of process engineering experience. He joined Li-Cycle in 2020 as the company’s Chief Process Engineer and was quickly promoted to Chief Technical Officer.

Chris brings extensive expertise to his current role, having acted as Lead Process Engineer for numerous large and small EPCM projects in the mining industry. He has experience working on greenfield and brownfield projects and overseeing bench-scale and pilot-scale testing. Chris is also a skilledproject manager with a robust history leading multi-disciplinary engineering teams and delivering successful projects. Previous to his role with Li-Cycle, he spent time at Hatch as a Senior Engineer and Technology Commercialization Portfolio Manager; he is also the Founder and Managing Director of Biederman Engineering.

At Li-Cycle, Chris’ portfolio includes the management of the company’s intellectual property portfolio, the commercialization of intellectual property, and oversight of capital projects. He also provides technical leadership for the organization.

A native of Hamilton, Canada, Chris is a graduate of the University of Waterloo’s Chemical Engineering program and is a registered engineer with the Professional Engineers of Ontario.

Christine Barwell is Li-Cycle’s Chief Human Resources Officer and is responsible for Li-Cycle’s overall HR strategy, function, and processes.

Christine has over 20 years of HR experience and is a seasoned human resources leader who has built and managed global teams through periods of rapid growth. She brings more than a decade of progressive HR experience in the mining sector preceded by over a decade in HR professional services at PwC.

Before joining Li-Cycle, Christine was Vice President, Human Resources, at Alamos Gold where she oversaw the global HR strategy and policy framework, regulatory compliance, succession planning, and the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion mandate.

Christine received a Master of Business Administration from McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business with a specialty in digital transformation. She holds a number of HR designations including Certified Human Resources Leader, Global Remuneration Professional, and Certified Compensation Professional and recently completed the Diversity and Equity certificate program from Cornell University. She is based in Toronto, where she lives with her family.

Dawei Li is Li-Cycle’s Chief Commercial Officer. Dawei has been with Li-Cycle since July 2021 and leads Li-Cycle’s global commercial function, consolidating the global team’s strategy and approach to continue building strong partnerships with key battery market players. He previously led Li-Cycle’s Asia-Pacific region and brings 20 years of experience in strategy, business development, and leading growth in untapped markets to drive robust performance.

Before joining Li-Cycle, Dawei served as the Global Business Director for battery-grade lithium carbonate at the Albemarle Corporation where he developed growth strategy and executed business development plans and commercial negotiations. He has also held roles at Eastman Chemical Company, where he managed global product lines, led growth initiatives, and launched efforts to generate demand for existing products while commercializing novel ones. Dawei began his career in Shanghai, China working for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Dawei holds a BBA in Marketing from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.