Brad Reed, VP of Corporate Development at Microporous (the U.S. leader in lithium-ion battery separator technology) shares his career journey, the story of building multiple battery-focused businesses, and how Microporous secured a $100 million Department of Energy grant to expand domestic manufacturing.
Highlights include:
Key takeaways from founding and growing battery material ventures
Microporous today: Scaling up as the leading U.S. separator company, backed by DOE funding
Plans for a $1.4 billion separator plant in Virginia—creating ~2,000 jobs—to support EV and energy storage supply chains
Material innovation: How advanced separators improve safety, performance, and efficiency in lithium-ion cells
What federal support and domestic scale mean for U.S. battery manufacturing resilience
Whether you're interested in battery materials, manufacturing scale-up, or government-supported innovation, this episode delivers key insights into building critical infrastructure for energy storage technologies.
If you wish to talk about any details on today's show, please contact -
brad.reed@microporous.net
