Altairnano CEO Agrees to Resign

Altair NanoAltair Nanotechnologies, maker of nano-sized materials used in energy storage applications, said late Friday that Alan Gotcher has agreed to step down as Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Terry Copeland, formerly VP of operations, has been named interim CEO while the board hunts for a replacement. According to Cleantech Media, the board had “determined that the level of progress made at this point in the development timeline of the company did not keep pace with the expectations that were set.”

This comes as a definite surprise. We spoke with Gotcher just last month after Altairnano had inked a $2.5 million agreement with the Navy to develop some seaworthy battery backup systems on the megawatt scale. At the time, Gotcher told us: “We think the battery business is our big forward driver. 80 percent of our growth will be from batteries –- we do expect our revenues to grow year over year for the foreseeable future.”

Gotcher had good reason to be optimistic. The freshly inked deal with the Navy followed December’s shipment of a 2-megawatt battery to AES to test utility-scale battery backup, something of great interest to wind and solar power plant managers. As well, Altairnano (ALTI) last year took a 16.6 percent stake in Phoenix Motors; it has a three-year exclusive deal with the electric automaker to outfit its vehicles with Altairnano’s NanoSafe batteries.

Altairnano tells us that Gotcher has been with the company since 2004 but wouldn’t comment on his departure.

ThinkEquity Partners in a report today describes Gotcher’s sudden departure as “perplexing.” And it called the company’s shares “a real deal at bargain-basement prices.” At last check, shares of Altairnano were changing hands for $2.95, marginally higher than their 52-week low of $2.80 from last August and well off a high of $5.45, reached back in October.

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