Standard Lithium adds energy veteran with 300,000 options

Standard Lithium appointed Ralph Alexander as an independent director effective Oct. 13 and will grant him 300,000 incentive stock options, the company said in an Oct. 13 press release.

The board addition brings experience from BP's $20 billion Innovene business to a company that describes itself as near-commercial; Alexander's 300,000 options vest immediately, compared with a 60-month exercise window.

“We are pleased to welcome Ralph to the Board,” Bob Cross, Standard Lithium's independent chairman, said. “Ralph brings more than four decades of leadership across the global energy, chemicals, power and infrastructure sectors. His extensive operating, investment and public company governance experience will add valuable perspective as Standard Lithium advances its portfolio of large-scale projects.”

David Park, Standard Lithium's chief executive officer and a director, said Alexander's background fits the company's next phase. “His deep experience in strategy, capital allocation, scale-up and commercial operations will be highly relevant as we move our projects toward construction and production,” Park said.

Alexander was chief executive officer of Talen Energy Corporation from 2016 to 2021 and later served as chairman through 2023, according to Standard Lithium. Before that, he was a managing director and partner at Riverstone Holdings LLC from 2007 to 2016 and spent nearly 25 years at BP plc.

At BP, Alexander led Innovene, the oil company's $20 billion olefins and derivatives subsidiary, from 2004 to 2006. He also ran BP's gas, power and renewables and solar segment from 2001 to 2004 and served on BP's group executive committee.

Alexander currently serves as an independent director of NET Power Inc. and as a director of SHINE Technologies, Standard Lithium said. He is also co-founder and executive chairman of GridFree.AI, a private modular off-grid data-center platform integrating power, cooling and compute.

Standard Lithium, which trades on the TSX Venture Exchange and NYSE American under SLI, says it is focused on lithium-brine properties in the U.S. Direct lithium extraction, the process the company says it intends to use, is designed to separate lithium from brine before purification.

The company's flagship projects are in the Smackover Formation across Arkansas and Texas, giving the portfolio a two-state U.S. footprint. Standard Lithium said it is advancing the South West Arkansas project with Equinor and a lithium-brine position in East Texas that includes the Franklin project.

The company did not provide a prior director grant for comparison, market reaction, a share-count dilution figure or a production-capacity target in the release. It said the exercise price for Alexander's options will equal the U.S. dollar closing price of Standard Lithium shares on the NYSE American on the grant date.

Source: company press release, Standard Lithium via GlobeNewswire, Oct. 13, 2026.