Gerard Barron

Gerard Barron is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of The Metals Company, a role he has held since 2017. A seasoned entrepreneur, he launched his first venture while still in university in Australia and has since built multiple global companies across battery manufacturing, media, technology, and future-focused resource development. Guided by first-principles thinking, Gerard believes resource extraction should occur where it has the least impact on people and nature.

This philosophy drives The Metals Company's work in the abyssal zone of the Pacific Ocean--more than 1,000 miles southwest of San Diego and 4,000 meters below sea level--where there are no Indigenous communities, and biomass is measured in mere grams per square meter. The company's resource consists of polymetallic nodules that rest unattached on the seafloor. Its projects have been ranked as the world's largest undeveloped nickel deposit, with more than 1.6 billion tonnes of polymetallic nodules in situ on the seafloor and containing high grades of nickel, copper, cobalt, and manganese.