Better Place founder Shai Agassi steps down from CEO post
Better Place founder Shai Agassi steps down from CEO post
Shai Agassi has guided Better Place's vision of swap-and-go battery stations for electric cars since it was founded five years ago, but now he's stepped down as the firm's CEO. Evan Thornley, who helmed the organization's Australian efforts, has taken up the mantle of global chief executive officer, while Agassi will continue his role as a board member. As the Wall Street Journal notes, the changing of the guard comes at a time when the company has been spending cash faster than it's generating revenue thanks to the construction of battery swap stations. Idan Ofer, Chairman of the Better Place Board of Directors sees this as "a natural point in the company's evolution to realign for its second chapter and for the challenges and opportunities ahead." Something tells us they wouldn't mind if future chapters are filled with more swappable batteries than Superchargers.
Show full PR text Better Place Australia CEO Evan Thornley Named Global Chief Executive Officer
Better Place Founder & CEO Shai Agassi Steps into Board Role
TEL AVIV – Better Place today announced the promotion of Evan Thornley, Chief Executive Officer of Better Place Australia, to CEO of the global company. Better Place Founder Shai Agassi will continue as a Board member and shareholder in the company he founded.
Over the past five years, Agassi has pioneered an innovative technology solution aimed at making electric cars more affordable and more convenient than gasoline cars. What started as an idea of "running a country without oil" in a white paper quickly evolved from vision t o reality in the company's first two markets, Israel and Denmark. Today the deployment of the charging and switching networks for electric cars in Israel and Denmark, coupled with a rapidly growing global customer base, have made Agassi's vision a reality.
"Under Shai's leadership, we've successfully achieved our goals in the first chapter of Better Place, and we owe Shai our gratitude for turning his powerful vision into a reality," said Idan Ofer, Chairman of the Better Place Board of Directors. "It is almost five years to the day since Shai launched Better Place and a natural point in the company's evolution to realign for its second chapter and for the challenges and opportunities ahead. Our board has long prepared to ensure that Better Place has a strong bench of talented executives in place to support the CEO and a clear succession plan to ensure a smooth leadership transition and we are fortunate to have such a strong leadership team within Better Pla ce."
"In his four years as CEO of Better Place in Australia, Evan has built an impressive track record, particularly around establishing a strong set of industry partners there. Evan brings the right combination of entrepreneurship and coalition and team building to take Better Place to the next level," Ofer continued.
Thornley will assume the global CEO role, effective immediately. Since joining Better Place in 2009, Thornley's vision for the future of sustainable transportation in Australia helped to shape the 2020 roadmap embraced by the government and industry. He was instrumental in the creation of EV Engineering Ltd., a collaborative venture between global automotive leaders, to develop and create switchable-battery electric car technology. An entrepreneur at heart, Thornley founded one of the first Australian technology companies to be listed on the NASDAQ.
"Four years ago, Shai asked me to join the Better Place missi on and bring it to Australia. It has been my pleasure to lead that effort along with my colleague CEOs in Israel, Denmark and now the Netherlands. Today, it is an honour for me to step up and lead this fantastic global team on a day-to-day basis," said Evan Thornley, CEO of Better Place. "We have the only fully integrated charge network platform in the world that's live and operating and serving satisfied customers. We start the second chapter with a tremendous strength of global investors and management team. Our relentless focus now is to grow and satisfy a global customer base and build powerful industry partnerships."
"Five years ago, I followed my passion to make the world a better place and founded a company to materialize that vision. Very few people are blessed to see such a grand vision become a proven reality within a relatively short time frame," said Agassi. "I am proud of the Better Place people and the team that I am leaving behind who will tak e this company to the next chapter."
