Gadolyn names Jack Lifton advisory board chair, adds Gareth Hatch

Gadolyn, a Kingston, Tennessee-based company has appointed rare-earths analyst Jack Lifton as chair of its advisory board and rare-earth magnet expert Gareth Hatch as an advisory board member.

The new appointments will help the company, a 2025 R&D 100 Award winner, in its quest to commercialize a U.S.-based process for making magnet and strategic alloys, which it frames as relevant to critical-minerals supply chains and defense-related materials.

Gadolyn’s central technology is its D-DIRECT process, which the company describes as a single-step route to producing rare-earth and strategic magnet alloys through co-reduction of multiple metal oxides. In its announcement, Gadolyn said the approach can cut energy intensity by about 95% compared with conventional methods and avoid harmful emissions. The company also said the method targets a key bottleneck in the strategic materials supply chain, the midstream alloying stage, by enabling domestic production that could reduce capital and operating costs and be scaled through modular deployment.

Lifton is known for his work on rare-earth elements and critical minerals and has advised governments and industry on materials supply chains, according to the company. He also serves as co-chair of the Critical Minerals Institute.

Hatch is a Royal Academy of Engineering visiting professor at the University of Birmingham and has held leadership roles at the Rare Earth Industry Association, including serving as interim CEO in 2025, according to REIA. He has advised on permanent-magnet technology, materials processing, and related supply-chain development.

Gadolyn is led by Chris Haase, who previously directed the U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute, now known as the Critical Materials Innovation Hub, a multi-institutional consortium led by Ames National Laboratory focused on critical-material supply chains.

In the announcement, Gadolyn said Lifton and Hatch will provide strategic and technical guidance as it scales production of alloys used in magnet systems including NdFeB and SmCo.