Kent O’Hara, Former President of Nissan Energy 4R, Joins Samsar Resources Board
Automotive circularity expert will bolster expansion of Texas-based remanufacturing business. Collaboration between a
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Automotive circularity expert will bolster expansion of Texas-based remanufacturing business.
SUGARLAND, TX, UNITED STATES, August 31, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Samsar Resources proudly announces that Mr. Kent O’Hara, former President of Nissan Energy 4R, has joined the company’s Board of Directors. Mr. O’Hara brings decades of experience scaling innovative operations in energy, automotive and circularity and will bring invaluable insight as Samsar grows its re-manufacturing operations turning former electric vehicle batteries into new forms of energy storage.
O’Hara became President of Nissan Energy to focus on reuse and repurpose activities for EV batteries and vehicle-to-grid use cases for electric vehicles, in 2022. He led the Nissan team joining the ChareScape consortium of automotive OEMs. Prior to the Nissan Energy role, Kent served as the Global Head of Aftersales for the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. Before joining Nissan he previously worked at Honda and Ford.
“When I first met the Samsar team while working at Nissan, I knew right away that they would make a crucial contribution in maximizing the lifetime of our batteries,” commented O’Hara. “My strong personal belief is that we need to optimize the lifetime of these incredible energy products, on environmental, societal, and business levels, and Samsar has the right strategy to fulfill that at scale.”
Samsar Resources remanufactures battery packs from Nissan Leaf sedans at its factory outside of Houston, Texas. Samsar’s cost-conscious approach captures 90% of the value of each pack by downsizing to modules and performing cell-level quality control. Nissan Leaf batteries are the perfect fit for this model thanks to their air-cooled pack architecture and well-understood lifetime performance.
“Our automotive value chain has been foundational to our commercial growth,” commented Samsar CEO Guillermo Garcia. “Kent’s membership on our Board of Directors helps cement that relationship and is an incredible vote of confidence in our circular business model.”
Inspired by the concept of samsara, the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, Samsar designs batteries for a circular economy. Batteries designed to last and designed to be easy to service and repair. Champions of the concept of Design for Remanufacturing (DfRem), Samsar has demonstrated that remanufacturing lithium batteries like the Nissan Leaf can be a profitable alternative to recycling or the landfill, while building a more robust US lithium battery supply chain and conserving precious rare earth minerals.
O’Hara continued, “Any collaboration between a startup and legacy enterprise must stand on strong strategic alignment. Samsar and Nissan have that alignment, which I’ve personally witnessed as Samsar went from prototype to product with astonishing speed. I look forward to helping this ambitious team maintain sustained progress and scale a world-leading organization.”
About Samsar
Samsar Resources, based in Sugar Land, Texas, remanufactures used electric vehicle batteries into other forms of value-added energy storage. Inspired by the ancient concept of samsara, Samsar Resources supports the development of a global circular economy by maximizing the value of energy storage assets. Learn more at www.samsar.us.
About Kent O’Hara
Kent O’Hara serves on Samsar’s board of directors. Kent offers deep expertise serving multinational companies in senior C-suite roles at Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi, Ford, Honda or as a Partner at Carlisle & Co. consulting at FCA, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda and CAT, PACCAR, Freightliner, and Navistar. Most recently, Kent served as the SVP and President for Nissan Energy and 4R Business Unit in Franklin, Tennessee in April 2025, where he spearheaded a new line of business reusing, reselling, refabricating and recycling electric vehicle batteries. Kent earned his Bachelor Science in Economics from Wheaton College and an MBA in Finance and Operations Management from the University of Cincinnati’s Graduate School of Business Administration.
Andrew A Jay
Samsar Resources
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