Dylan Hixon - Member, Board of Directors - Energy Vault Holdings, Inc.
Hixon brings extensive Board of Directors and industry experience as a longtime investor focused on transformative technologies
Hixon to replace Bill Gross as an independent Director, with Gross transitioning to an advisory role focused on applications of gravity energy storage technology to high growth data center segments
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., April 09, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Energy Vault Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NRGV) ("Energy Vault" or the "Company"), a leader in sustainable grid-scale energy storage solutions, announced today the appointment of Dylan Hixon to the Company’s Board of Directors effective March 31, 2025. He replaces Energy Vault’s co-founder, Bill Gross, who will resign from the Board and transition to the role of Advisor.
Hixon, an early investor in Energy Vault, currently serves as President of Arden Road Investments, a New York City based family office where he directly manages a deep tech venture capital fund, with private investments including SpaceX, Impulse Space, Niantic, Digilens, Prorata.ai, and ShotSpotter. Hixon has previously worked as a mechanical engineer in various industries, and has authored several technical papers and holds four U.S. patents. Hixon is a Trustee of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, a member of the advisory boards of the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science and Yale School of the Environment, and the Board of the Regional Plan Association (RPA) of New York, the oldest independent regional planning organization in the US. Hixon holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Yale University and a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Caltech.
"Throughout my career, I have been drawn to innovative technology solutions, which is why I couldn’t be more excited to have the opportunity to join Energy Vault’s Board of Directors," said Dylan Hixon. "The creative spirit at Energy Vault is clearly demonstrated by the company’s diverse technology portfolio and projects that have been deployed or are under development. I am equally impressed by the company’s unique customer-centric approach and commitment to solving customer challenges with customized energy storage solutions. The company’s growth in the few short years since its founding has been highly encouraging, and I look forward to working alongside Energy Vault’s impressive leadership team and my fellow Board members for many years to come."
"Given his excellent track record of advancing technologies designed to solve the world’s biggest problems, Energy Vault is very fortunate to welcome Dylan to the Board," said Robert Piconi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Vault. "This is an incredibly exciting time for Energy Vault, as we continue to advance growth opportunities in energy asset management while expanding our energy storage footprint around the world. Dylan’s leadership experience will play an important role in our ongoing strategic and technology development of Energy Vault, and on behalf of the Board of Directors of Energy Vault, we look forward to his contributions to the evolution of the company." Piconi continued: "On a personal level, I want to express my deepest appreciation and admiration to Bill Gross, whose vision, leadership, innovation and coaching over the last 8 years formed the foundational elements of Energy Vault that continue to inspire our people today."
Bill Gross, who has served on the Energy Vault Board of Directors since he co-founded the Company in 2017, will transition to the role of Advisor, in which he will be focused on providing his expertise to accelerate the continued development and deployment of the Company’s gravity energy storage technologies as well as those designed to address the needs of the energy storage growth associated with the data center market segment.
"Working with the Energy Vault team from the days of its founding to its position today as a leader in the global energy storage sector, has been one of the great joys of my professional career," said Bill Gross, Chairman and Founder, Idealab. "The company’s evolution from a gravity energy storage technology innovator to the only company in the world offering solutions for short, long and ultra-long duration energy storage needs has been nothing short of extraordinary, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for the company. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to continue my relationship with Rob and the Energy Vault team in my new role as Advisor, and I am equally excited by the selection of Dylan Hixon to serve as my replacement on the Board of Directors, as his deep experience working with market-leading innovative companies will be highly valuable in advancing Energy Vault’s mission."
"Bill’s contributions to Energy Vault have been invaluable," said Piconi. "From our early days as an Idealab portfolio company to the present, the entire team has been extremely fortunate to benefit from his visionary leadership, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Bill has been instrumental in Energy Vault’s growth to date, and on behalf of the Board, the entire Energy Vault team, and myself, I would like to thank him for his longstanding commitment to Energy Vault. Looking to the future, I’m excited at the prospect of continuing to work with Bill in his new advisory role."
The company that Gross co-founded and the board of which Hixon will join has experienced noteworthy momentum of late. On the long duration gravity energy storage front, which is Energy Vault’s foundational technology, the Company announced a partnership with leading architecture and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 2024 for the development of the next generation of fixed frames and deployable structures for all new Energy Vault gravity energy storage systems (GESS). Energy Vault’s shorter duration battery energy storage system (BESS) technology has also enjoyed considerable global growth, including significant progress in the Australian market. Of particular note, the Company recently announced that the Stoney Creek BESS, being developed in partnership with Enervest, had been awarded a 14-year Long-Term Energy Service Agreement (LTESA) by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) Services. In recent months, the company has also announced BESS supply agreements with ACEN Australia and the Victorian government-owned State Electricity Commission (SEC). Importantly, in Calistoga, California the Company is working toward completion of the Calistoga Resiliency Center, which will be the largest green hydrogen long-duration energy storage system in the U.S.
About Energy Vault
Energy Vault® develops, deploys and operates utility-scale energy storage solutions designed to transform the world's approach to sustainable energy storage. The Company's comprehensive offerings include proprietary battery, gravity and green hydrogen energy storage technologies supporting a variety of customer use cases delivering safe and reliable energy system dispatching and optimization. Each storage solution is supported by the Company’s technology-agnostic energy management system software and integration platform. Unique to the industry, Energy Vault’s innovative technology portfolio delivers customized short, long and multi-day/ultra-long duration energy storage solutions to help utilities, independent power producers, and large industrial energy users significantly reduce levelized energy costs while maintaining power reliability. Please visit www.energyvault.com for more information.
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