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Turner Caldwell

Former Head of Battery Minerals & Metals Team @ Tesla

Turner Caldwell is the Senior Manager of Battery Minerals and Metals at Tesla.1 He plays a key role in Tesla's efforts to secure and process critical materials for electric vehicle batteries. Caldwell was involved in the groundbreaking of Tesla's $375 million lithium refining plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he stated that the facility would be "environmentally very neutral".1

Prior to his role at Tesla, Caldwell was a competitive fencer. He attended Stanford University, where he was part of the fencing team and achieved notable accomplishments, including:

  • Second-place finish at the NCAA Championships
  • NCAA Western Regional Tournament champion in foil
  • NCAA All-American honors3

Caldwell studied mechanical engineering at Stanford.3 He has also been involved in patent applications related to Tesla's technologies.2

In his current position at Tesla, Caldwell is working on innovative approaches to lithium processing and battery material sourcing. He has mentioned that Tesla's refining process is designed to be "feed flexible," potentially allowing for the use of recycled lithium sources in the future.1

Highlights

Jun 26 · linkedin

After over 9 years, I departed Tesla last month. When I started in early 2015, it was clear that working at Tesla would be a wild ride. From building the world’s first Gigafactory in the Nevada desert, to spending several years at the intersection of battery tech, manufacturing, and supply chain, and finally working towards a regional battery materials production hub, with development and pilot teams across the US and large chemical plant projects in Austin and Corpus Christi - there’s no other place where I could have had the opportunity to contribute to so much in such a short time. Tesla is unique - being willing to make big bets, regardless of how daunting the technical challenge, is how you achieve impact at scale.

To my team and colleagues - Tesla’s success is because of you. Your hard work, technical excellence, tenacity, and dedication to the mission have made you the most amazing group to work alongside and learn from. There is no stronger team to continue the challenging work that must be done to make the world a better place for future generations.

If there’s anything else I can say about my time at Tesla, it’s that it was all-consuming, so I’m looking forward to a few months with family and friends before deciding what to jump into next. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to catch up, talk shop, grab a beer - or all three!

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Turner Caldwell
Turner Caldwell, photo 1
Turner Caldwell, photo 2
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Location

San Francisco, California, United States