Steve Cotton

Steve Cotton is a 25-year battery industry executive with deep experience across energy storage, battery management, and recycling for both lead and lithium chemistries. A Bay Area native, Steve founded IntelliBatt in 2000, led it through a private equity exit in 2012, and later invested in and joined Aqua Metals in 2015. He moved both Aqua Metals and his family to the Tahoe-Reno region in 2018, became CEO in 2019, and has since led the company’s transition into sustainable lithium battery recycling and critical minerals recovery.