Chief Executive Officer, Executive Directors, Co-founder

Alexander Girau is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in battery materials, chemical engineering, and technology commercialization. He is currently the CEO and Co-Founder of Group1, where he leads operations, fundraising, and business development, with significant contributions to Intellectual property strategy, material development, and cell development.

Before founding Group1, Alexander founded Advano, an advanced material company specializing in nano silicon-based anode materials to enhance the energy density of lithium-ion batteries for consumer electronics, mobility, and stationary storage. The core technology of Advano stemmed from his Ph.D. research at Tulane University, using silicon nanoparticles as non-viral transfection agents for gene therapy. He spun out and pivoted the material technology into the battery field. Alexander grew the team from 1 to over 40 people, closed over $21M in funding, expanded its footprint from a small 2000sqft lab to a 40,000sqft facility, and built an IP portfolio of over 30+ patents.

As a named inventor on 17 granted patents across battery materials, processes, and cell design, Alexander has an established reputation as an innovator and thought leader. He was a Visiting Scientist at Tulane University, where he spearheaded collaborations surrounding battery materials and processing technology. He is currently an Energy Transition Fellow at the Energy Institute, UT-Austin.

In addition to his work in the battery materials industry, Alexander has provided his expertise as a chemical process engineer to Fortune 50 companies such as Shell Chemical, Exxon, and Valero in the oil and gas sector. In this capacity, he supported the engineering efforts of over $2B in upstream and downstream assets.

Alexander matriculated as a Ph.D. candidate at Tulane University and took a leave of absence to commercialize his graduate research. He holds an M.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Tulane University and a B.S. (Honors) in Chemistry and Math/Computational Science from Loyola University of New Orleans. He is also an alumnus of the renowned Silicon Valley startup accelerator YCombinator (S17).

Executive Chairman, Chief Science Officer, Co-Founder

Yakov Kutsovsky is a globally recognized expert in materials development, having taken materials from gram-scale to thousands of ton-scale across multiple sites. At Group1 he leads the company’s efforts in material development, manufacturing/process development, intellectual property management, and corporate governance.

Yakov is also Founder of MateriaX, an advisory firm that provides guidance to material companies on topics such as material R&D, scale-up, application of Material Informatics, and commercialization strategy. Prior to founding Group1, Yakov spent 15 years at Cabot Corporation, a global specialty chemicals and materials company, where he served as CTO and Chief Scientific Officer. During his tenure, he advanced Cabot’s technology platforms, including elastomeric composites, inkjet colorants, graphenes, carbon nanostructures, and materials for next-generation tires, adhesives, and batteries. Yakov also spearheaded the development of multiple products and manufacturing innovations, commercializing new materials across established and emerging businesses.

In addition, Yakov is an Expert-in-Residence at Harvard University, where he supports faculty in assessing technology fit for different markets and evaluating and addressing open technical and business issues for the best path to market. He has published more than 20 papers and has been granted 17 patents covering a broad range of technical areas. Yakov is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Material Research Society, and American Chemical Society, and has served on the advisory boards of the Department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, the Nanomanufacturing Center at UMass Lowell, and the Department of Chemistry at MIT.

Yakov earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and an M.S. in Chemical Physics from Novosibirsk State University in Russia

Chief Product Officer, Co-Founder

Leigang Xue is the Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Group1 where he is responsible for cell design/development and application design/development with significant contributions to material development and technical operations. With over 10+ years of experience in batteries, he is credited with inventing the 4V Potassium Prussian White (K2MnFe(CN)6) cathode and the dendrite-free room-temperature liquid Na-K anode technology, both of which have made sustainable, safe, and fast-charging K-ion batteries possible. He has authored over 70 journal papers (with +5800 citations, h-index of 39) and holds 12 granted battery material patents.

Prior to co-founding Group1, Leigang served as the Principal Battery Scientist at Nanotech Energy, where he led cylindrical/pouch cell design, assembly, and test for the desired safety, voltage, capacity, resistance, cycling life, rate capability, etc. His work resulted in a product that made a $64M funding raise. At Advano, he was a Senior Scientist, where he led the development of initial material platform technology (SiC nanofiber reinforced nanoSi composites) solely owned by Advano, resulting in 10+ patents. This product helped Advano finish an $18.5M VC fundraise.

Leigang has valuable postdoctoral experience working with renowned scientists such as Dr. John B. Goodenough (inventor of LiCoO2 and LiFePO4, 2019 Nobel Laureate) and Dr. C. Austen Angell (inventor of LiBOB). He obtained his PhD in Electrochemistry from Fudan University, where his thesis focused on the energy storage behavior of Sn-based anode for Li-ion batteries