Key points
- DeepGreen Metals appointed Erica Ocampo as Chief Sustainability Officer and Arthur Chen as Chief Accounting Officer, announced August 5, 2021
- Ocampo brings over a decade of sustainability strategy experience, most recently at Sims Limited, following earlier roles at Dow
- Chen brings nearly 20 years of accounting and controllership experience at publicly traded resource companies
- Hires precede DeepGreen’s planned merger with Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corporation (NYSE: SOAC) and expected Nasdaq listing as The Metals Company (TMC)
- Chief Sustainability Officer Erica Ocampo, who brings over a decade of experience in sustainability strategy, engineering and manufacturing processes, will integrate her knowledge of the interconnectivity of key global sustainability challenges into DeepGreen’s sustainability strategy
- Chief Accounting Officer Arthur Chen brings nearly 20 years of experience in leading the global accounting and controllership functions with publicly-traded resource companies, spanning development stage to multi-asset metal producing entities
- The key hires bring more than 30 years of collective experience to DeepGreen’s executive team in advance of the company’s merger with the Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corporation (NYSE: SOAC) and expected listing on NASDAQ under the ticker ‘TMC’.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — August 5, 2021 – DeepGreen Metals Inc., which is expected to merge with Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corporation (NYSE: SOAC) and be renamed ‘The Metals Company’, today announced that Erica Ocampo and Arthur Chen have joined the leadership team as Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and Chief Accounting Officer (CAO), respectively. Since the merger announcement in March, the company has been building the leadership team with key appointments for CFO and CTO, and strengthening governance with a bench of new board nominees. The new additions to the company’s leadership team bolster the company’s continued focus on generating and reporting on robust ESG and financial data as it pursues its ambition to become the world’s largest developer and producer of critical battery metals with lower ESG impact and at a low production cost.
Chief Sustainability Officer brings extensive experience in ESG reporting and compliance
Ms. Ocampo comes to The Metals Company from global metals and electronics recovery company, Sims Limited, where she led the development of a company-wide sustainability strategy— including materiality assessments, goals and KPIs development, reporting and development and implementation of data collection systems. Prior to her role at Sims, Ocampo spearheaded sustainability projects across various business units at Dow, including as Global Sustainability Strategy Manager for its Consumer Solutions business. As CSO, Ms. Ocampo will be responsible for ensuring that company strategy is grounded in sustainability principles, both in its macro approach—across the value chain and customer base—and in its micro approach of addressing ESG impacts in offshore and onshore operations. She will also develop partnerships with customers, sponsoring states and other key regional and global stakeholders to advance the company’s sustainability goals.
Chief Accounting Officer strengthens financial reporting bench ahead of public listing
Mr. Chen brings nearly 20 years of experience in leading the global accounting and controllership function at multiple publicly-traded resource companies, including Canadian and US dual-listed entities. He began his career at Ernst & Young and has deep expertise in IFRS and US GAAP reporting and experience managing Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. As The Metals Company’s Chief Accounting Officer, Mr. Chen will be responsible for oversight of internal and external reporting and compliance and will oversee all financial matters and internal controls for the company.
“Erica and Arthur bring deep sustainability and financial reporting capabilities to the leadership team as we pursue our ambition to supply the clean energy transition with battery metals at a lower production cost and smaller ESG footprint,” said Gerard Barron, Chairman and CEO of The Metals Company. “I am proud of the team we are building. This team has what it takes to disrupt how primary metal extraction is done today while paving the way for transitioning out of primary metal extraction altogether.”
About The Metals Company
In March, DeepGreen Metals Inc. announced that it had entered into a business combination agreement with Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corporation (SOAC) to accelerate project development, and is expected to list on NASDAQ as The Metals Company under the ticker ‘TMC’. The Metals Company is a Canadian explorer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules on a mission to build a carefully managed metal commons that will be used, recovered and reused—for generations to come. The company’s subsidiaries hold exploration rights to three polymetallic nodule contract areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean regulated by the International Seabed Authority and sponsored by the Republic of Nauru, the Republic of Kiribati and the Kingdom of Tonga. For more information, visit https://metals.co/.
About Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corporation
Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corporation (NYSE: SOAC) is a special purpose acquisition company with a dedicated ESG focus and deep operational and capital market capabilities in the energy and resource sectors. While investing in ESG covers a broad range of themes, the Company focused on evaluating suitable targets with existing environmental sustainability practices or that could benefit, both operationally and economically, from the founders’ and management team’s commitment and expertise in executing such practices. In March, SOAC announced that it would merge with DeepGreen Metals Inc. to form TMC the metals company Inc. For more information, visit greenspac.com.
