The need for skilled talent in the battery industry continues to grow, and one global recruitment agency is working to shape the workforce across the technology, future mobility, industrial, and clean energy markets. The Strativ Group’s Head of Battery Technologies, Jamie Sheard, sits down with Dr. Denis Phares inside the Volta Foundation Lounge at the 2024 Battery Show in Detroit to discuss the evolving global landscape of battery production on this episode of the Li-MITLESS ENERGY Podcast.
Strativ’s Role in Powering Innovation and Clean Energy Recruitment
As a global recruiting company, Strativ Group is dedicated to helping technology and clean energy companies recruit world-class talent. Strativ understands that to drive innovation and make the world a better, more sustainable place, these cutting-edge companies need visionaries and forward-thinking individuals to lead a rapidly growing industry. Originally focused on electric vehicles (EV) and EV infrastructure, Strativ has shifted its attention to battery technology over the past four years, assembling a specialized team to address the industry’s talent needs across North America, Europe, and Asia.
In this episode of the Li-MITLESS ENERGY podcast, Jamie Sheard, head of Battery Technology at Strativ, discussed the company’s evolving role in talent recruitment for the clean energy sector. Facing challenges with reluctance to relocate and limited candidates with experience in scaling technologies from pilot to mass production, Strativ is turning toward key and emerging talent hubs for their clients. Looking ahead, Jamie expressed Strativ’s commitment to closing the skills gap by fostering talent, creating educational content, and facilitating industry connections. As the industry expands, the demand for talent is expected to outpace the supply, prompting companies like Strativ to consider launching mentorship and training programs to prepare for the future.
Listen to the full episode on YouTube or wherever you stream podcasts and follow along with Strativ Group and their radical vision for the future of the clean energy sector on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Podcast Transcript
Denis Phares 0:11
Welcome to the Li-MITLESS ENERGY Podcast. We are here today in Detroit at the battery show in the Volta Foundation Lounge, and my guest today is Jamie Sheard, head of battery technology at the Strativ Group. Thank you for joining.
Jamie Sheard 0:26
Thank you. Yeah, pleasure to be here. It’s nice to be on the other side.
Denis Phares 0:29
On the other side. That’s right. Jamie has his own podcast, we can talk about that. First, let’s talk about the Strativ Group. So, what does the Strativ Group do?
Jamie Sheard 0:39
Yeah. So, the core part of our business is talent solutions. So, we’re at our core recruitment business. And to give a bit of history, we founded the business around six years ago, six years at Christmas, and a large part of that business was focused around future mobility. So, we mainly focus on EV and eVTOL. And then, since then, over the years, we’ve evolved the different business units, and now a large part of what we do is actually batteries. So, we have a large team focusing on batteries. So, yeah, that’s the main focus. In terms of our battery team, mainly North America and Europe is where we focus. In terms of talent solutions, we do help some customers and clients in Asia as well.
Denis Phares 1:21
Well, the company originally started six years ago, but when did the focus on batteries really originate?
Jamie Sheard 1:28
So, I’d say maybe four years ago. My colleague, Reese, really kind of founded the cleantech division, and then we branched and kind of really put all of our eggs in the batteries basket. So, to give you an idea of the structure, there’s like 12 or 13 people now, consultants, who focus specifically on batteries. And that’s all the way through the chain from materials, cell, pack module, all the way through to recycling, kind of going full cycle. And then we have people who focus on more commercial positions and go to market, others who do more engineering disciplines like mechanical and electrical. So, helps us to have more specialists that can help clients in terms of whatever they might need.
Denis Phares 2:15
So, was this, I guess, expansion into batteries caused by the pool of talent that you had and that you’ve noticed a common theme there, or was it actually driven by the customers, by the companies you work with?
Jamie Sheard 2:28
Yeah, probably the latter. So, a big customer of ours, Lillian, so they were big customer of ours on the eVTOL side, but then they needed some support on the battery side of the business. Same with the Supernal and a couple of others focusing on eVTOL. And then, since then, we’ve got some introductions into more battery-focused businesses, battery-centric businesses. And then, we just identified the opportunity. And we’ll talk about it later in the conversation, but we just think it’s a super dynamic industry. A lot of people who want to do good in the industry. I worked in a few different spaces, and, yeah, we just thought, “Let’s really go at this because it’s exciting, there’s a lot of investment, and it’s obviously the future.”
Denis Phares 3:15
So, was the talent pool already there and ready for the transition, or did you have to do something actively to fundamentally change your talent pool?
Jamie Sheard 3:21
Well, it’s a good question. As I mentioned before, we focus more on North America and Europe, whereas, typically, the main talent pool is in Asia, so China and South Korea. So, sure enough, over the years, it’s got better, but still we have a lot of clients who are looking for people, and sometimes those people just aren’t in North America. So, we’re either recruiting them from China or South Korea and recruiting them over, or sometimes they have to compromise on what they need. So, it’s a real ongoing journey, which, again, is exciting because we need to upskill. We need to look at new ways of allowing our kind of current talent force to make the move, make that more comfortable.
Denis Phares 4:06
Have you seen a move overall, the distribution of the talent pool to be shifting over more from Asia to Western countries at all?
Jamie Sheard 4:14
In terms of it being attractive to move over?
Denis Phares 4:18
In terms of if you’re trying to identify potential talent, is the distribution still very much skewed to Asia the way that it used to be, or is it starting to become a little bit more distributed globally?
Jamie Sheard 4:32
It’s getting better. It’s definitely distributed more globally. But then, with that comes the challenge of language as well. Something that I’ve identified, I’ve recently moved to Spain. You don’t realize how difficult it is to actually move somewhere and not be able to speak a language. So, a lot of talent is moving from Asia over to North America, which is great, but it’s not easy to learn a new language and a new culture and everything else, and that is sometimes undervalued in terms of how difficult that can be for somebody’s life. But still, a big part of the demographic in North America, of those experienced people who’ve taken small-scale pilot line all the way through to mass scale, and gone all the way through to commercialization, a lot of those people are from Asia still. We don’t have many people…
Denis Phares 5:27
Yeah, that’s what I was getting at.
Jamie Sheard 5:28
…From North America, from Europe, who’ve done that. And so, that’s the thing a lot of the time. Clients need to understand that they need to compromise because these people are very difficult to… There’s not many of them, and they’re kept very happy.
Denis Phares 5:45
Mm-hmm. That is interesting. As you noted earlier, it’s a very dynamic industry, and it has been dominated by Asia for such a long time, for decades now. And in terms of how it becomes more global, and how North America and Europe really compete on the world stage, in your view, what needs to change?
Jamie Sheard 6:12
I think, in terms of the Vita system, I don’t know the intricacies, but I know it’s fairly difficult times. We had somebody who we relocated from South Korea to Massachusetts, and still they’re in the system. This happened back end of 2023, and they’re still in the system waiting to get that kind of full approval. And it takes a long time, and it’s stressful. And for an entire family to make a decision around, “Do we make the move?” That process being easy makes that a lot easier for the family to go, “Yeah, let’s do this. It’s an exciting adventure.” It’s just complicated and it’s too big a risk if somebody is set up and has roots right there. And I think something else that is needed is identifying peripheral markets where we can, not take people from, but upskill individuals to move into batteries…
Denis Phares 7:10
Just material scientists, and…
Jamie Sheard 7:12
Material scientists. And then, on the manufacturing side, there’s not many individuals as wet coating experience from other industries. Dry coating, sure, with kind of powder and rubber and papers, I think maybe stand a bit more of a chance on that side. So, it’d be interesting to see if that plays a factor in what technologies and what processes become mainstream and become large, the talent pool, whereas other times it’s more the viability of the technology. I think, yeah, the demographic and the availability of talent pool might have more of a pull or a say on what companies are successful and what aren’t.
Denis Phares 7:54
Right. Well, we’ve talked about the evolution of the talent pool, what about of the customers? What about of the companies? How has that been evolving over the last, let’s say, five years?
Jamie Sheard 8:02
Yeah. Well, just kind of going back to my history. So, I originated in the medical devices field. So, I worked in medical devices, then I moved into the mining industry, and then I moved into batteries. That was quite an interesting transition.
Denis Phares 8:19
What were you doing in medical devices?
Jamie Sheard 8:20
So, I was doing neurology and endoscopy. So, endoscopy, their kind of medical devices. All around kind of laparoscopy and keyhole surgery, essentially. Minimally invasive. And then I also did some neurology
Denis Phares 8:33
That’s kind of mining. Sorry.
(Laughter)
Jamie Sheard 8:36
In a way. We’re searching for stuff, for sure. And then, the whole reason for moving to mining was we were actually going to relocate to Australia. And, of course, there’s a huge, huge presence there, particularly in the West Coast of Australia. So, I learned a lot about lithium and that kind of mining process. And then, obviously, moving now into batteries. Again, it was more of a situation in terms of lifestyle because we got married. We couldn’t move to Australia because of COVID, of course, in 2020. And then, we got married, and then we decided to move to Barcelona where we live now. And I joined Strativ Group. And just happened at the time that batteries were really emerging, and, “We want you to kind of take this,” and really moved with it. So, I’ve had the benefit of working in different industries. And what I identified in batteries straight away was people are so friendly, honestly. First and foremost, I was like, “People are so open-minded, and they’re forward-thinking,” which is refreshing.
Denis Phares 9:36
I agree.
Jamie Sheard 8:36
I’m paying you a compliment.
Denis Phares 9:36
Thank you.
Jamie Sheard 9:40
But I was like, “This is so interesting.” And then in terms of the investment, the dynamic element of the industry, and very, very kind of fast-moving. And that’s why we almost kind of put all of our eggs in the battery basket was because we just saw a huge potential. Things have been challenging over recent past year, 18 months, but still, the outlook is very, very positive. You just need to look at the show today. It’s the first time it’s in downtown Detroit, it was in Nova last year. It was way too small a facility for so many people. It’s just growing so much. I think there’s going to be one in Atlanta now as well, next year maybe, I’m not sure. But it’s just a testament to all the work everybody has been doing. Everyone’s forward-thinking, excited. And as I said before, do-gooders, like, people want to do good. And the Volta Foundation is a key example that people want to come in and actually give their time to educate, help the entire industry improve. And that’s invaluable to the success of an industry. So, that’s why I’m optimistic.
Denis Phares 10:53
So, your role at Strativ as a head of battery technology, how did that evolve into a relationship with the Volta Foundation podcast? How did the podcast come about? You’re doing more than just recruiting talent?
Jamie Sheard 11:06
Yeah. I think it was important to be fully embedded in the community. So, a lot of recruiters have a bad reputation, and sometimes for good reason. But what I think we wanted to do was demonstrate our investment and our commitment to the industry by creating a not-for-profit community like TakeCharge. We were inspired by what Volta Foundation was doing, and we saw an amazing opportunity to form a partnership with them, create more content. Create more content to put people on the map and help our customers talk about key issues. Because a lot of the businesses in this space are fairly small, kind of small, and starting up and scaling, and it’s important to get the message out there because everybody has an amazing message, but doesn’t always have the platform to express it. So, that’s what TakeCharge was born to do. And from a selfish perspective, it was to show people that we’re good people, and that we care, and that we’re invested in this space, and we’re in it for the long run, not just to work with a customer once and then and then go away. Because if you do a bad job for one or two customers, we’re talking about how big the show is today, but the industry is very small, and people can talk ill about a business, and ultimately, it will affect reputation. So, yeah, going all-in in the industry is a risk, but I think a risk worth taking, for sure.
Denis Phares 12:38
Yeah. Well, you have a unique view of the state of the industry by being the big player in managing the talent, so is there anything that you can tell me in terms of long-term and short-term trends? Certainly, with the IRA, and, all of a sudden, all these gigafactories are being announced, there was probably a boom in what you’re doing, and then maybe a little bit of a correction in the EV demand that we’ve seen globally, or at least, in North America. Is there anything you can say about your observations of these trends?
Jamie Sheard 13:10
I’d say short-term, and interesting trend that we’re seeing is a reluctance to relocate.
Denis Phares 13:18
Really?
Jamie Sheard 13:18
Yeah. It’s really interesting.
Denis Phares 13:19
People are used to remote work?
Jamie Sheard 13:22
Well, remote work, and, obviously, as we know, working in laboratories just getting [Inaudible 13:28] you need to be on-site at least four days a week, normally five days a week, so, therefore, people need to relocate. And over the years, that’s typically been the nature of our work, relocating people to different facilities. There’s a huge ecosystem in the Bay Area, for example. But if you have clients in Indiana, or Chicago, North-South Carolina, these ecosystems are growing, but they’re not the finished article yet. So, a lot of people have to relocate, and they can’t just rely on growing their career in one state or one location. But, in the past, I’d say, two or three months, we’ve seen a trend of just a reluctance to relocate or make the jump, make the move. Maybe that’s the upcoming election, potentially.
Denis Phares 14:09
Uncertainty in the world.
Jamie Sheard 14:10
Uncertainty, and just maybe we’ll kind of want things to settle before they uproot the whole family and make a move across the states. So, that’s a real short-term one that we’re seeing. In terms of what our clients are demanding, the trends we see in there is more on somebody who has experience scaling pilot lines all the way through to mass scale and commercialization. So, somebody who’s really gone commercial within their career. Lot of great academics who’ve moved into different businesses and have great success. But bringing somebody in who’s been there and done that, that’s what all of our clients need, which is almost hard to find. Like we said before, a lot of these people are in Asia. Something we don’t see is… Something I say to myself is why can’t our clients just bring somebody on board and upskill them, and develop them? They can find the people themselves, they pay us to find the people that are super difficult to find.
Denis Phares 15:11
Are they paying you to find people that can come in and train them? Is that the difficulty?
Jamie Sheard 15:17
Essentially. It’s the really hard-to-fill positions that there’s only a few people who can actually do this role. Are they available? Can they relocate? Are they in budget? There’s so many factors and that’s why it’s difficult. Some people see… It’s a super difficult job, it’s a difficult industry to work in, but so is every industry.
Denis Phares 15:42
Well, it’s unique in terms of how quickly it grew, the industry, and also because it’s not a software industry. Maybe there’s some software, but you’re actually manufacturing, you’re making something. And I guess we see something similar with, let’s say, AI, just a boom in that industry, but now you’re looking for coders. You’re looking for software. This is pretty unique in terms of you have to find people that are used to mass-producing things. So, is there any, you kind of alluded to this, but adjacent industries that you can draw from? And there’s obviously manufacturing in North America and in Europe, and people know how to mass produce certain things, and you’ve alluded to maybe powder coating, powder coats might be easier to find, but what can you say in terms of the talent pool associated with adjacent industries that you can pull into the battery industry?
Jamie Sheard 16:45
Yeah. I’d say, as I mentioned before, wet coating processes. There’s not many industries, there’s not much talent there available. So, that’s, I think, where the biggest need will be in terms of upskilling. There’s a lot of great universities now and lecturers, whether that be material science, or chemical engineering, or mechanical engineering associated to batteries, that’s improving a lot. So, I think there are a lot of people coming from their Ph. D.s better qualified from within the states, so that’s great. In terms of adjacent industries, as I said before, for dry process, paper, powder, rubber, anything that deals with powders is going to be, I think, where the easiest transition can be made. And something that I speak to clients about a lot is the location of their factories. Obviously, conditions in terms of the climate. Climate conditions is important, but then also available talent. Customers and clients are thinking quite carefully about where they locate their facilities. And, at the moment, it’s difficult. There’s not many ecosystems that’s perfectly set up for it, there’s always going to be some kind of compromise. So, adjacent industries. I’ve only mentioned a few there, I’m sure there’s others that we could seem to look at as well, but it’s definitely essential to be able to staff all of our requirements.
Denis Phares 18:16
Right. Well, I would argue that a perfect ecosystem is in Reno, Nevada. Will you agree with me?
Jamie Sheard 18:21
Of course, I agree with you on your podcast.
(Laughter)
Denis Phares 18:26
Well, it’s so beautiful out there. To be fair, there’s a lot of companies that have popped up in and around Reno both on the upstream side and on the pack production side. Everything from mining to the, as you noted, the processing, all the way to the recycling. So, I would imagine that Reno is one of the hotspots in the country. Is it generally considered to be?
Jamie Sheard 18:53
For sure? We talked before about the kind of changes in the trends, what we found before was very… California, of course, the Bay Area, of course, Massachusetts, around Boston, yeah, for sure. But now there’s more pockets of pretty sustainable hubs of talent and businesses that can all kind of support each other.
Denis Phares 19:16
Where else? Where are one of the less expected pockets?
Jamie Sheard 19:21
I think we’re seeing more in Chicago, for example. Michigan, of course, has always been strong, hence we’re here today. We have some clients in Indiana, and then North and South Carolina. I think we’re seeing a lot more variances in terms of batch manufacturing. So, they’re less obvious, but Texas as well, we’ve seen some good movement there. But that’s what’s been exciting is now when we’re given an assignment to work on a position at a certain location, we have more options because there’s actually people with not maybe the perfect experience, but peripheral experience that they could move into and they don’t need to relocate. Five years ago, it was mostly relocation because the talent wasn’t there. So, it’s improving, for sure. And the rate of improvement and available talent is quite staggering. It’s the fastest rate of improvement I’ve seen versus other industries I’ve worked in.
Denis Phares 20:21
So, where do you see the industry in 5, 10 years, and what is Strativ doing to prepare for that evolution?
Jamie Sheard 20:28
This is a question I ask at the end of my podcast as well. It’s a good question. I see maybe a chemistry that’s actually going somewhere, and this works. I’m fascinated by dry electrode and solid-state technologies, so I hope there’s been some movement there. Not just a case of making more batteries, maybe a different sort of battery. So, the availability of talent is going to improve, but I think the demand for talent is actually going to increase at a higher rate. And the skills gap could actually increase, which is exciting in a way for us, but also we need to do more. And I think something that we’re going to do is actually look at ways of, rather than just finding talent that’s even harder to find, actually, can we just put on a training program, or can we put some kind of mentor?
Denis Phares 21:30
Is that a unique place for a recruitment plan to do that?
Jamie Sheard 21:34
Yeah, sure. Normally, it’s pretty one-dimensional, kind of head [Inaudible 21:38] positions, but the TakeCharge podcast was there to help spread the message and spread the words because it kind of improves the awareness. But I think we could add more value, some more tangible value, from whether that be a mentorship program, or training, or connecting people together for the good of the industry. So, that’s kind of what the Volta Foundation do. So, I think with a foundation like volta that we can learn from and lean on it, the industry’s got a good chance. The future’s exciting, for sure. That’s why we invested so much into it because we see ourselves in it for a long time.
Denis Phares 22:21
It is interesting how analogous it is to the rate that we can get raw materials out of the ground, resources out of the ground, to the demand of batteries and it’s similar to people. You need the people too, in addition to the raw materials.
Jamie Sheard 22:37
Yeah. Something I didn’t mention was the supply chain. I think we see a big change in the supply chain in the next 5, 10. That needs to happen, both from a sustainability perspective, but also a kind of geo-geopolitical perspective as we grow in it. It can’t just be exports. I think that’ll be interesting to see it.
Denis Phares 22:58
Great. Well, very exciting time, exciting time in the industry. And kudos to you and Strativ to being a huge part of it.
Jamie Sheard 23:06
Thank you for inviting me onto the show and for all the good work that you’re doing. We value the partnership, so thank you very much.
Denis Phares 23:13
Cheers. Thanks for being on.
Jamie Sheard 23:15
Thank you.
Denis Phares 23:16
Thank you for listening to the Li-MITLESS ENERGY Podcast. Be sure to subscribe on any of your favorite podcast platforms.
[End Of Recording]
