Mrs Helen Waters

With the roll out of electric vehicles (EV) set to soar over the coming decade, it is incredibly important that the UK safeguards the lithium, cobalt, nickel and other valuable materials used to build these vehicles. Helen Waters, Head of EV Battery Recycling at EMR is leading the way in developing products and services ready for growth.

Helen’s responsibilities include; ensuring the right technology is developed to sustainably and safely recycle the batteries; and the development of a strategy to scale up a supply chain for recycled EV batteries as the different types of end-of-life EVs arriving at EMR facilities begin to increase.

Helen’s career began working in supply chain insurance and management before moving to Copart UK, an online automotive salvage company, where she worked in a range of roles, developing an understanding of its supply chain and how the business could protect the value of the vehicles and parts it would buy in. She then moved into their operations department, taking that knowledge to set up franchises of the business in other countries including Spain, Finland and Germany.

Helen’s experience allowed her to gain an early insight into what a future market for end-of-life EV batteries will look like and what opportunities exist for EMR. It is also gave her a better understanding of the challenges that lie ahead.

If scaling up a vital new supply chain isn’t challenging enough, Helen is also recently achieved 1st class honours degree in psychology and sociology at Anglia Ruskin University.