top of page
NA Critical Materials Summit _ LOGO (1).png

Bradley Harker

President & Founder

AxiaPonte Advisory

​

AxiaPonte Advisory

Brad Harker served for 26 years as a United States Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Commercial Service. Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2000, Brad spent his career as a commercial diplomat embedded in U.S. embassies across four continents. In 2026, he founded AxiaPonte Advisory to do for private clients what he spent a generation doing for the U.S. government: open markets, connect the right people, and make things move at the intersection of commerce and government.

His postings, Athens, Nashville, Osaka, Belgrade, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Toronto, built credibility and relationships at the senior levels of government and industry that no outside advisor can acquire. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Greek.

Sessions & Presentations

Panel

From Federal Support to FID: Bringing a U.S. Lithium Project to Life

Many lithium discussions focus on breakthrough technology or future market demand. Both matter, but neither guarantees that a project will ever be built. Between a successful pilot and an operating facility lies the giant, messy middle of project development: securing permits, negotiating bankable offtake, satisfying government and third-party financing requirements, completing detailed engineering, managing commodity-price exposure and developing a credible execution plan. This 30-minute moderated discussion will use Lilac Solutions’ Great Salt Lake lithium project to explore how a strategically important project pushes through those barriers and advances toward final investment decision, construction and commercial production.

View More
bottom of page