Built for Excellence.
Versa’s core team consists of domain experts across the battery industry, from commercialization to fundamental breakthrough R&D.
Carson Rast
Carson Rast founded Versa Materials Technology to bring industrial-scale cathode manufacturing back to the United States. A chemical engineer by training, he began his career at ExxonMobil as a process engineer in polymer production, where he led reactor-transition improvements that cut off-spec losses by 75%. He then joined Tesla, working on the design and construction of the company's lithium refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas — from concept through operation — and serving on the commissioning team for Tesla's first in-house cathode plant, where he built the plant's OEE and real-time process-monitoring framework. At Versa, Carson leads strategy, commercial development, and fundraising, and scale-up design. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University. Carson is also a fiddle player and performs across Central Texas with numerous country acts.
Founder, CEO
Dr. Thomas Kodenkandath
Dr. Thomas Kodenkandath leads process science and Versa’s lithium- and manganese-rich (LMR) cathode development program. Over three decades, he has helped translate advanced materials from laboratory concepts into manufacturable products across superconductors, thin-film solar, and lithium-ion batteries. Before Versa, he held senior cathode R&D roles at Redwood Materials and Sila Nanotechnologies. At Hazen Research, he founded the Advanced Materials division, served as a Department of Energy Principal Investigator, and commissioned a pilot-scale continuous spray-pyrolysis reactor for cathode production. Earlier, he worked at American Superconductor, Imperial College London, and Ascent Solar, where he helped develop flexible solar cells recognized among TIME’s Best Inventions of 2011. Thomas holds a Ph.D. from IIT Madras and is a named inventor on 15+ patents and author of 75+ publications. He is also an award-winning editorial cartoonist published as “Thommy.”
Chief Science Officer
Zezhou Guo, Ph.D., is a Senior Materials Engineer at Versa Materials Technology. He develops advanced battery materials and builds data tools that help researchers plan experiments and evaluate results. His work connects battery chemistry with practical materials development and scale-up. Before joining Versa, Zezhou earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin under Professor Arumugam Manthiram. He has more than eight years of experience in battery research and has authored or co-authored 13 peer-reviewed papers.
Senior Materials EngineerDr. Zezhou Guo
Senior Advisor / Fractional CBODavid Raymes
David Raymes is a four-time founder with three exits and more than 35 years of C-level operating experience. As Vice President of Kleinfelder's New England region, he held P&L responsibility for a 250-person organization, led a go-to-market effort that closed $200M in new business, and directed the acquisition and integration of a water/wastewater engineering firm. He co-founded GeoTek, later acquired by Layne Christensen. David advises Versa on commercial strategy, capital formation, and growth.