William (“Bill”) Santana Li has served as our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) since April 2013. Mr. Li is an American entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience from working in the global automotive sector and founding and leading a number of startups. From 1990 to 1999, Mr. Li held multiple business and technical positions at Ford Motor Company across four continents.
His positions at Ford ranged from component, systems, and vehicle engineering with the Visteon, Mazda, and Lincoln brands; to business and product strategy on the United States youth market, India, and the emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and South America; as well as the financial turnaround of Ford of Europe. In addition, he was on the “Amazon” team, which established an all-new modular plant in Brazil. Subsequently, he served as Director of Mergers & Acquisitions.
After internally securing $250 million in financing, Mr. Li founded and served as COO of GreenLeaf LLC, a Ford Motor Company subsidiary that became the world’s second largest automotive recycler. Under his leadership, GreenLeaf grew to more than 600 employees, 20 locations worldwide, and annual sales of approximately $150 million. At the age of 28, Bill was the youngest senior executive at Ford Motor Company worldwide.
After successfully establishing GreenLeaf, Mr. Li was recruited by SoftBank Venture Capital to establish and serve as the President and CEO of the Model E Corporation, a newly established automobile manufacturer that focused on the “Subscribe and Drive” model in California. Mr. Li also founded Carbon Motors Corporation in 2003, and as its Chairman and CEO until February 2013, focused it on developing the world’s first purpose-built law enforcement patrol vehicle.
Mr. Li earned a BSEE from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the University of Detroit Mercy.
Linda Keene Solomon currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Wellspring Solutions, Inc., a position she has held since 2016. Prior to Wellspring Solutions, she served at global accounting and consulting firm Deloitte LLP from 1990 to 2016 where she built their Federal Government Services practice. Ms. Solomon led Deloitte’s homeland security consulting practice from 2004 until 2014 and currently advises national security and law enforcement companies who serve federal, state, and local government agencies. In addition, she has served as Executive Officer and Director on the Homeland Security and Defense Business Council. Ms. Solomon earned a BA in Computer Mathematics, a minor in French, and an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.
Patty Watkins has been a Managing Partner of M.O.R.E. SALES Advisors, a sales and marketing advisory firm providing services to to technology firms since 2019. In 2019, she served as the Vice President of Sales for the Americas and Europe, and for Conversation AI, SaaS, Software and Services for Avaamo, Inc. From 2017 to 2019, she served as Vice President of Sales for Genesys, Inc., a provider of cloud and on-premise customer engagement solutions, and from 2015 to 2106, she served as Global Vice President of Sales for Internap Holding LLC, a global provider of infrastructure solutions. She possesses over 20 years of experience in senior executive roles in the global technology sector, including at HP, AT&T and Teradata, with a background that expands hardware, software, SaaS, Cloud, customer experience, data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Ms. Watkins holds a BBA from the University of Texas, in Austin (with honors), and a MBA from Santa Clara University where she was a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the International Business Honor Society.
Trish Howell has approximately thirty years’ experience leading operations functions in multiple industries. She joined Element Science as Chief Operating Officer in October 2022. Ms. Howell also serves as the Independent Director and Audit Committee Chair of CVR Medical, where she was appointed in March 2020. From February 2021 until October 2022, Ms. Howell held roles as Vice President of Manufacturing and Vice President of Operations at Avail Medsystems, Inc. From December 2019 to February 2021, Ms. Howell was Vice President of Operations at Stryker Corporation (formerly ZipLine Medical, where she held the same role from 2016-2019). From 2013-2016, Ms. Howell served as Vice President of Operations at Pulmonx Corporation where she led manufacturing, quality, and supply chain. Ms. Howell holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA in Finance from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She is also a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors.
