Stillwater-based USA Rare Earth announced this week an expansion of its leadership team following what the company called a “Landmark Agreement” with the U.S. government.
Three senior executives were appointed including Valerie Ford Jacob as Chief Legal Officer, Gregory Bowman as Chief Global Policy Officer and Head of External Relations, and J.B.
Lowe as Vice President, Head of Investor Relations.
US Rare Earth, in making the announcement said the three will deepen engagement with policymakers, investors, and other stakeholders and support the Company’s efforts as it builds a global champion in critical minerals and technology.
The three appointments followed USA Rare Earth’s recent Letter of Intent with the U.S. government and associated $1.5 billion PIPE transaction which are expected to accelerate the Company’s strategy by enabling access to more than $3 billion in public and private capital. This funding will support USAR as it develops the leading global, non-China rare earth value chain, from mine to magnet and beyond.
Under the Company’s proposed collaboration with the U.S. government, the Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Program would provide up to $1.6 billion in long-term, milestone-based funding to support expansion of USAR’s mine-to-magnet
platform. In parallel, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory has signed a Letter of Intent to work with USAR on advancing heavy rare earth separation technologies. These government collaborations are structured
to align capital deployment with the phased addition of domestic production capacity.
As Chief Legal Officer, Valerie Ford Jacob ill oversee all legal, regulatory, compliance, and corporate policy matters. She joins the Company from Freshfields US LLP, where she served as partner and co-head of both the Financial Institutions Group and Global Capital Markets over a period of 10 years. Previously, she was Chairperson and Senior Partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP.
In his capacity as Chief Global Policy Officer and Head of External Relations, Gregory Bowman will lead public policy, corporate affairs, government relations, and strategic communications. Most recently, he served in senior leadership roles at Siemens Government Technologies, including Chief Corporate Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President, National Security Solutions. Before Siemens, Bowman spent more than 25 years in senior
leadership and legal roles in the U.S. Army.
J.B. Lowe is the new Vice President and Head of Investor Relations and will serve as a primary liaison between USAR’s leadership, analysts, and global shareholders. Most recently, he served as Head of Investor Relations at SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. Prior to that, he was an equity research analyst at Citi, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and TD Cowen, covering the oil and gas and cleantech sectors.
“As USA Rare Earth enters its next phase of growth, Valerie, Greg, and J.B. bring critical expertise to our leadership team,” said Barbara Humpton, Chief Executive Officer of USA Rare Earth. “Valerie is a recognized leader in capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance. Greg strengthens our ability to engage at the highest levels of government when domestic industrial capacity is a national priority. And J.B.’s extensive capital markets experience will help us more
effectively communicate our progress as we build the leading global mine-to-magnet platform.”