Redwood Materials loses COO amid layoffs, restructuring

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TLDR

  • Redwood Materials cut ~10% of staff (~135 people) and lost COO Chris Lister plus at least three VPs in a restructuring toward energy storage.

Key Takeaways

  • COO Chris Lister, a former Tesla Nevada Gigafactory VP who joined in late 2023 and was promoted in 2024, retired amid the cuts.
  • Three additional VPs departed: Bradley Mayhew (Integrated Supply Chain), Guillermo Urquiza (Mechanical Engineering), and Carlos Lozano (Manufacturing, now at Panasonic).
  • CEO JB Straubel acknowledged the company “expanded faster than needed” and said critical projects can be delivered with a smaller team.
  • Redwood recently secured deals with Rivian and Crusoe Energy and is pivoting focus toward grid-scale energy storage using refurbished batteries.

Why It Matters

  • A ~10% headcount cut at a high-profile battery recycling startup signals that clean-energy hardware companies face the same over-hiring corrections as software firms.
  • Losing a COO and three VPs simultaneously creates real execution risk as Redwood tries to scale a capital-intensive manufacturing business.
  • The pivot toward grid storage with Rivian and Crusoe as anchors suggests Redwood is narrowing its bet rather than broadening, a meaningful strategic signal for battery supply chain watchers.

TechCrunch · 2026-04-23 · Read the original