Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes is an engineer with twelve years’ experience in acquiring, financing, and developing both greenfield and brownfield natural resources projects around the globe. Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes currently serves as the US’ Deputy Director for Batteries and Critical Materials. Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes has deep expertise in starting and scaling energy supply chain ventures, having served as Co-Founder and President of Black Mountain Metals (private nickel mining company) and Black Mountain Exploration (private natural gas company - successfully IPO’d). She was key to both the IPO and business combination for Metals Acquisition Corp, having served as its Senior Advisor from 2021-2023. Prior to joining Black Mountain in 2017, Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes worked in several Lead Engineering roles at ExxonMobil and XTO Energy, managing drilling, completions, and planning aspects of international shale exploration, laying the groundwork for >US$1 billion capital deployment. She is on the Advisory Board of both TCU’s Energy Institute and OU’s School of Petroleum Engineering.

Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oklahoma with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes was highlighted as the featured honoree on the 2020 Forbes 30 under 30 in Energy list, a 2021 Oil & Gas Investor Forty under 40 award winner, and one of the top 25 women in business in DFW by Dallas Business Journal. She now resides in Washington, DC with her husband, daughter, and two cats.