Success through sustainability

Dennis Ibarra hadn’t anticipated beginning a new chapter of his career at the age of 64. And yet, that’s precisely what happened when he was approached by renewable energy storage solutions startup StB Giga Factory to lead its operations in the Philippines.

“They convinced me that I was too young to retire when my father is turning 90 and worked until he was 84, and the Founder and Chairman of StB Giga Factory is turning 85,” Ibarra says, laughing.

“I’m 20 years behind them, so they said it would be a good thing for me to keep busy – the last adventure.”

Born and raised in New York City to Philippine-Chinese parents, Ibarra spent much of his career working in eight countries across Europe, Asia and Mexico.

Given his multicultural background, global experience and his extensive background in renewables, Ibarra was an obvious choice for CEO at the pioneering company – the first Philippines-based lithium iron phosphate battery manufacturing factory for residential, industrial and utility-scale battery energy storage systems applications and electric vehicle batteries.

Scaling up

Now, over a year into his tenure at StB Giga Factory, Ibarra is truly proving his worth. He is looking to the future, preparing to take the business to the next level.

“We’re getting everything organized to be truly multinational,” he tells The CEO Magazine. “The pipeline is huge. But we have to ramp up slowly to make sure it’s about quality, quality, quality. I am already looking at how to bring in a second team to get started with our next factory.

“We don’t have to be the biggest, like Tesla. We can be boutique commercial, industrial, B2B and residential distribution. That’s just fine with us. We know how to follow the curve.”

Given that expansion is inevitable, StB Giga Factory already has its trademarks in action across the world, safeguarding them for protection by copyright, trademarks and intellectual property laws in 36 countries, including North America.

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While the majority of the globe is still processing and assessing what the United States’ new tariffs could mean for the international economy, Ibarra is quietly optimistic.

“We’re very competitive and very productive because we don’t have such high turnover,” he explains. “We’re highly educated – people are not just pressing a button, they can be multifunctional.

“Our productivity, our labor costs and favorable lease arrangements here in the Philippines, and of course, the tax incentives that every country has for pioneering industries – all these things are making us competitive and will be even more competitive when the tariffs come into effect.”

Recipe for success

While there will no doubt be fresh challenges along the way, Ibarra is adamant that by this stage in the game, StB Giga Factory is on a path with a relative guarantee of success.

“We now have a recipe on how to build our kind of giga factory,” he explains. “And with all due respect to the battery industry, which I’ve become familiar with over the past several years as a user, buyer and now a maker, it’s so much easier than semiconductors because of the form factors, the cleanliness requirements, the chemical requirements and the technical side.

“We are also now in a space where the compounded annual growth rate is close to 30 percent. The funding is available. People want to join because they can quickly participate on the economic side and break even very fast.”

Then, of course, there’s the environmental factor. A prerequisite for joining the ranks at StB Giga Factory is an intense dedication toward sustainability, without which there’s little point in applying for a position.

“In order to maintain our niche of commercial industrial competitiveness of the B2B segmentation of our markets, we have to have nimbleness, passion and purpose within our teams,” Ibarra insists.

“Of course, we all need to make money for our families, company and our community, but we have to have a purpose too. So every time I interview somebody, I tell them I don’t want them here just for a job. I want them to share that purpose of saving the world with sustainability.”

Nation-building goals

In addition to this alignment of values with staff, Ibarra is also particularly focused on the concepts of nation building, as well as being close to the customer and offering end-to-end solutions.

“We sell batteries – we are a commodity, but we always bring the entire solution to the customer,” he points out. “So we include the developer who has the capex, the distribution utility that will off-take the excess energy and we even project finance from the banks if you want to purchase it outright.”

Along every stage of the supply chain, Ibarra has ensured that StB Giga Factory is not only partnering with the best and brightest, but also those whose values match their own, such as crating, rigging, freight, warehouse and distribution company AAI Worldwide Logistics, which is based out of Manila.

These kinds of local suppliers are essential to the everyday functioning of the company, and by utilizing the Philippine community, they contribute positively to one of Ibarra’s ultimate goals of nation building through businesses.

Although Ibarra’s retirement may still be a distant promise, he couldn’t be prouder of the legacy he’s now crafting alongside StB Giga Factory to make the future of energy cleaner, greener, safer and more accessible for everyone.

“Our mission is to save the world by accelerating the energy transition to renewable energy usage, even when renewable energy is not available,” he enthuses.

“When the sun’s not shining, the wind’s not blowing, the grids are down because of poor transmission or because they’re overburdened, you can still use that renewable energy that has been stored; you can still have power.

“The opportunity is there, but if we want to be very successful, we need to remember that people are what drives the process. So if we work in a focused, passionate and well-executed way, the business results will deliver.”