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The chief executive officer and managing partner of Scale Facilitation is literally making international power moves, with the company planning to open one of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest lithium-ion battery producing factories at Avalon and partnering with US organisations that are developing artificial intelligence technologies, microchips and magnetic superconductors.<\/p>\n
With several other notable US and Australian defence force figures attending the opening of his new headquarters, including former ADF chief Angus Houston, Mr Collard acknowledged many of the technologies the company was involved in had strong military applications.<\/p>\n
Recharge Industries scale officer David Hay spent years with the Australian Defence Force including serving under former defence chief Peter Cosgrove, one of many military veterans who work for – and with – his various business ventures.<\/p>\n
“We are trying to do something big, and long term,” Mr Collard said.<\/p>\n
The Avalon battery facility has strong bipartisan backing in Australian and the US, as it is seen as way of weaning the west off a reliance on the 80 per cent of lithium-ion batteries that are produced by China.<\/p>\n
“This isn’t a short-term thing, trying to get a grant or get a project off the ground and leave,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Collard said having the backing of both sides of politics at home and abroad was crucial.<\/p>\n
“Most likely there’s a future prime minister in one of those two (Marles and Dutton), so for us that’s really long term,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GEELONG’S David Collard received high praise from Australia’s two main political parties when they joined him for the opening of his new US headquarters for Scale Facilitation on the 82nd floor of the One World Trade Centre in New York City earlier this month. Standing beside Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles, and […]<\/p>\n