While the company has always had a north American base of operations its board had been heavily influenced with Queensland appointments.

But that changed recently when former Queensland bureaucrat Tony Bellas moved aside for American Robert Natter and major investor Trevor St Baker resigned from the board earlier this year. Bellas remains on the board.

Two years ago, Philip St Baker resigned as managing director and management of the company shifted to the North American-based Chris Burns.

The battery materials company has appointed former General Motors chairman and chief executive Dan Akerson along with Dow’s chief financial officer Ron Edmonds.

“A major reason I was asked to become chairman is because of our recent listing in the US and because all of our employees and operations are in North America,” Natter told Wednesday’s AGM.

“As well, our target market is North America where demand for battery materials continues to grow much faster than any domestic supply.”

But Natter said the company’s share price had “gyrated” along with the rest of the market. So far this year it is down 70 per cent but rallied in the past week after the announcement of US Government funding of $US150 million ($A240 million).

“As a board and management team we cannot control the share price,” Natter said.

“What we can control are the decisions we make to ensure we have a sound strategy and that management is executing that strategy to deliver on long term goals.”