Simon David Moores is a British businessman and entrepreneur, specializing in the critical minerals, lithium ion battery and electric vehicle (EV) industry.
He is Founder and CEO of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a London-based, IOSCO-assured Price Reporting Agency (PRA) and specialist market intelligence provider for the technologies and supply chains central to the energy transition.
Early Life
Moores was born on 19 November 1983 in Dudley, West Midlands, a town 10 miles west of Birmingham, UK.
At pre-school age, his family relocated to Grove, Oxfordshire, a village located 16 miles south of Oxford, UK and later relocated to nearby Harwell Village.
Between the ages 12 and 21, his part time jobs included a regular paper round for many years in the local village, McDonalds and working in the warehouse fulfilment at Research Machines (RM Plc) on Milton Park.
The latter work at RM helped fund his university degree.
From 1995 to 2002, his secondary school and sixth form college was King Alfred School (now King Alfred’s Academy) in a nearby town of Wantage.
He studied an eclectic mix of Geography, Physics, English Literature, and Computing at A-Level.
Having felt most comfortable with Geography as a subject matter, he joined the University of Birmingham to study Geology with Geography BSc between 2003 and 2006.
This paved the way for his role in the world of critical minerals.
Career
Moores began his career in 2006 at Industrial Minerals. He was named Assistant Editor and three years later he became Deputy Editor, where he worked with non-metallic mineral industries. During his time as Deputy Editor, he was responsible for creating the lithium industry’s first ever annual conference, and he also broke the news that China had blocked rare earth exports to Japan in 2010.[1][2][3]
In 2014, Moores established Benchmark Mineral Intelligence - also known as Benchmark - in the aim of setting a new standard of price reporting built upon a robust, independent way of collecting market sensitive information, on the principle that accurate market prices and intelligence are a cornerstone of the energy transition.[4][5]
Moores founded Benchmark with no prior investment and, almost a decade later, announced that the business accepted its first investment from private equity fund Spectrum Equity in 2023.[6]
As a leading authority figure in the lithium ion battery and EV industries, Simon Moores advises the highest levels of world governance on the transition towards clean energy.
He testified to the US Senate three times, in 2017,[7] 2019 [8][9]and 2020,[10] where he highlighted the importance of critical mineral supply chains in the energy storage revolution. Moores later testified in front of the Canadian House of Commons in 2021.[11]
Also in 2021, Moores was appointed to the UK Government’s first ever Expert Committee for Critical Minerals.[12] He now sits on government committees in the US and UK.
Moores was invited to present at the 2021 G7 Summit in the UK[13] on building a UK lithium ion economy.
He has further testified to the UK House of Commons in 2023 on the hearing: Batteries for electric vehicle manufacturing inquiry held by the Business and Trade Committee.[15]
Moores himself and Benchmark data is widely quoted in global media publications including China Daily, Financial Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Times, Bloomberg, BBC News, Thomson Reuters, The Economist, and more.
In 2017, Moores received an honourable mention in Mining Journal’s annual ranking of the most influential people in mining.[20]
It was under Elon Musk of Tesla’s entry that Benchmark’s Moores was mentioned:[21] “Almost as important as Musk in this space are market commentators, Simon Moores of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, expertly bridging the knowledge gap between miners and the EV supply chain.”
In 2024, Moores and Benchmark were awarded in the category of Best Performing Company by Megabuyte,[22] which monitors UK technology companies.
Moores said of the award: “Awards are not something we would ever consider at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence…That’s why this one was a bit special and out of the blue for us.”
Also in 2024, Benchmark became a recipient of the King's Awards for Enterprise under the category of International Trade[23] from King Charles III and on the recommendation of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Simon Moores will be presented with the award by His Majesty The King’s personal representative, the Lord-Lieutenant, on behalf of the company at Windsor Castle, UK on 9 July 2024.
On the award, Moores described it as "a moment of huge significance…We were founded with no investment in 2014 to become the most valuable business in the world for what we do[24].”
Moores Racing
Established in 2023, Moores Racing is a professional investing firm into British and Irish horse racing. It has a long term goal of building a portfolio of investments across the British and Irish horse racing ecosystem.
It has notable partnerships with trainer Kevin Phillipart de Foy’s KPF Racing[25] in Newmarket and Brownsbarn Thoroughbreds.
Moores Racing’s horses include Bigger Than Giga, So Darn Hot and Perfect Dark.
In June 2024, Moores Racing welcomed its sixth horse after acquiring General Assembly at the Goffs London Sale at Kensington Palace. The Racing Post declared that “Moores Racing is Making Waves”.[26]
Publications
"The Global Battery Arms Race: Lithium in battery gigafactories and their supply chain[27]". OEIS: The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, University of Oxford, February, 2021.
