ASHLEY ZUMWALT-FORBES, 29

PRESIDENT, BLACK MOUNTAIN METALS

Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes is big on batteries. The president of Black Mountain Metals—a division of Fort Worth, Texas-based energy producer Black Mountain—is on the hunt for ore like nickel, a key ingredient of the lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars like Teslas. In 2018 her unit plowed $75 million into mining operations in Western Australia. That same year, the Harvard M.B.A. ran a hostile takeover bid for Australian miner Poseidon Nickel, acquiring a 20% stake. Zumwalt-Forbes grew up near the oilfields of Choctaw, Oklahoma, majored in petroleum engineering at the University of Oklahoma and worked as a drilling engineer at ExxonMobil. As head of business development for Black Mountain, her analysis of the evolving battery landscape inspired the company’s jump into mining. “My number one hurdle was overcoming impostor syndrome,” says Zumwalt-Forbes (no relation to the magazine’s founding family). “I rarely see another woman in meetings, let alone one without a formal mining background, but I know I’ve earned my seat at the table.” —Jeremy Bogaisky, Elisabeth Brier, Chris Helman