Shelly Whitlock

About Shelly Whitlock

With a background in marketing, engineering, and as a battery scientist, I specialize in graphite development from a holistic view. Rather than from a purely technical perspective, my perspective stems from the commercial lens and how products can be tested, scaled, and put to commercial use. Which is where Iridian comes in. Iridian was founded to help expedite graphite customers to commercialization through streamlining the graphite upgrading (micronization, spheroidization, pitch coating, analytical & electrochemical testing). With these capabilities Iridian offers not only expertise in upgrading graphite samples, but in batch qualification testing of the samples as well. It is Iridan’s mission to help graphite customers whether with natural, synthetic, or alternatively sourced graphite feedstocks to help iterate on their material to achieve commercially relevant performance to mitigate potential graphite critical material shortages. My interest and background in graphite comes from my experience as a scientist in the battery industry. I have about 5 years experience working in a battery lab on next generation technologies, building cells, making and testing various anode/cathode powders and formulations, and designing prototype manufacturing lines. Although batteries are my deep passion, through working with many companies in the pre-commercialization stage, I found a need for honest marketing that found the right balance of science and artistry that was compelling. Seeing either technical papers or press releases with “holy grail” in the title seemed like the only options. My passion for honest marketing and drive to see high quality data in the industry led to Iridian’s tagline “ seeing is believing”. After seeing many technologies in the pre-commericalization stage I had learned nothing is to be taken for granted- and “seeing” that high quality data is a key driver to sustained success. Marketing and communicating science is something that has long been a passion resulting in my running the marketing agency Crest (now formally known as OUTFIT) as Managing Director. At Crest Creative we worked in the Cleantech & Renewable Energy space to serve companies in finding their audience through visual storytelling. Technical expertise and accurately defining product market fit was a key component of this work. Through my experience, I have been able to develop a diverse skillset to help identify audiences, identify needed data, and assist in collecting and presenting the data to project stakeholders to overcome obstacles to commercialization.

Experience

1. Consultant

   Polaris Battery Labs, Llc

   May 2025 — Present

Education

• Oregon Institute of Technology

  Renewable Energy Engineering, Masters of Renewable Energy Engineering

  2013 — 2018

Skills

• Simulink
• Public Speaking
• Management
• Ltspice
• Leadership
• Microsoft Excel
• Renewable Energy
• Customer Service
• Chemistry
• Electrochemistry
• Program Management
• Technical Writing
• Microsoft Word
• Budget Management