6K Appoints Mary Cronin as Vice President of Government Affairs

6K, producer of sustainable advanced materials for energy storage and additive manufacturing powders, has appointed Mary Cronin as Vice President of Government Affairs to its executive leadership team.

The new appointment is expected to support the company’s mission to drive the domestic production of advanced materials in additive manufacturing and energy storage, in parallel with the efforts of the company’s board member former Congressman Joe Kennedy III, and board advisor former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Dr. Joe Felter.

Cronin brings with herself deep expertise in US public policy, state and federal government relations as well as local, state, federal, non-profit and corporate outreach knowledge. She will help the company in driving change in sustainability, national security and supply chain.

Commenting on her appointment, Aaron Bent, CEO of 6K, said “issues like battery manufacturing in the US, of which there is near zero capability currently, and securing critical elements like titanium domestically, pose a national threat to the country. Our UniMelt® production platform can be a key driving force in solving these issues. Having Mary leading these initiatives for 6K with the highest levels of government will give us a strong voice in DC and uncover more strategic program opportunities.”

The company is expecting that Cronin’s ability to navigate and build relationships on Capital Hill, with the Defense Logistics Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and strategic defense primes will contribute and add to the growing number of DLA programs 6K has been awarded. Programs such as the recent $1M DLA phase II program to establish a domestic capability to recover and convert critical metals from defense scrap into premium additive manufacturing powder.

Upon her appointment, Cronin commented “6K’s ability to impact domestic production for batteries combined with the sustainability benefits and cost reduction potential is what attracted me to the organization. Committing $25M to a new Battery Center of Excellence that will have the systems and infrastructure to demonstrate US production capabilities at pilot scale is of high importance at the most senior levels of Government and 6K is well positioned to lead in this area.” 

For energy storage, the company recently announced single crystal and small particle NMC 811 capabilities and has demonstrated applications of its UniMelt plasma for LTO, NMC-333, NMC-532, NMC-622, NMC-811, higher nickel containing NMC, and silicon anodes including nano-structured foam and intermetallic composite powders.