Kei will serve as Audit Committee Chair, a key appointment as the company prepares to enter the U.S. public markets
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- General Fusion Inc. (“General Fusion” or the “Company”), a leader in the global race to commercialize fusion energy, today announced that Wendy Kei, Board Chair of Ontario Power Generation, has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective April 13, 2026. In addition to her role as a director, Kei will serve as Chair of the Audit Committee as the Company prepares to go public through its previously announced business combination (the transactions contemplated by the business combination, collectively, the “Proposed Business Combination”) with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ: SVAC) (“SVAC”).
Kei brings more than three decades of distinguished public company financial and governance experience across a wide range of industries to her role as Audit Committee Chair. Kei currently serves as Board Chair of Ontario Power Generation, Chair of the Audit Committee for Centerra Gold Inc., and is a Board member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD).
“I am thrilled to join the General Fusion Board of Directors at such an exciting moment in the company’s trajectory toward entering the public markets,” said Wendy Kei. “I look forward to working with the Board and leadership team as we guide the company through this next phase as a public enterprise developing a technology with the potential to deliver transformational clean energy.”
In connection with the transition, General Fusion announced that Grant Gardiner will step down as a director as part of his transition into retirement from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).
“AECL drives Canadian nuclear innovation and is pleased to have played a role in supporting General Fusion in its mission to deliver commercial fusion energy,” said Grant Gardiner, Executive Vice-President, Strategy and Development, at AECL. “As I step back from AECL and wind down my tenure at General Fusion, I am really pleased with the progress we have made together with General Fusion and welcome Ms. Kei to contribute to guiding the next stage of the company’s development.”
“On behalf of the General Fusion Board of Directors, I would like to welcome Wendy to the Board. We are grateful to add her extensive financial expertise as the company prepares to go public,” said Klaas de Boer, Chair, General Fusion Board of Directors. “I would also like to extend our thanks to Grant for his invaluable contributions to the Board. His departure reflects the evolution of his relationship with AECL, and we are grateful for his insights and his commitment to advancing the company.”
Klaas added, “General Fusion is deeply entrenched in the Canadian innovation ecosystem, and it has been a privilege to have Grant from AECL, an organization that advances Canadian nuclear innovation, and now Wendy, Chair of one of the country’s leading energy companies, providing strategic guidance on the company’s path to commercialization.”
About Wendy Kei
Ms. Wendy Kei currently serves as Board Chair for Ontario Power Generation Inc., Chair of the Audit Committee for Centerra Gold Inc., and a Board member with the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD). Wendy is a Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant (FCPA, FCA), a Fellow from the Institute of Corporate Directors (F.ICD), holds an ESG Designation (GCB.D) from Competent Boards, and earned a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.
In 2025, Wendy was named the BMO Celebrating Women on Boards Lifetime Achievement Honouree. She was also the recipient of the Women Corporate Directors Visionary Award for Strategic Leadership in 2024, was recognized as a BMO Celebrating Women on Boards Honouree in 2022, was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2020, and was selected as a Diversity 50 Candidate by the Canadian Board Diversity Council in 2016.
Quick Facts:
General Fusion’s Magnetized Target Fusion (“MTF”) is designed to solve significant barriers to commercializing fusion energy at a time when electricity demand is surging, and nations around the world are racing to commercialize fusion power.
- As a technology, MTF aims to achieve fusion in a practical way, avoiding superconducting magnets and high-powered lasers, while enabling the use of existing materials for durable machines that would produce cost-effective energy.
- In early 2025, General Fusion announced that it had designed, built, and begun operating its world-first Lawson Machine 26 (“LM26”) fusion demonstration machine in under two years. LM26 is the first MTF demonstration machine to be built at a commercially relevant scale. It mechanically compresses plasma with a lithium liner at 50% commercial-scale diameter.
- LM26 aims to achieve key fusion technical milestones: plasma heating to 1 keV (10 million degrees Celsius), then 10 keV (100 million degrees Celsius), and ultimately the Lawson criterion, the combination of fusion parameters that can produce net fusion energy in the plasma.
About General Fusion
General Fusion is pursuing a fast and practical approach to commercial fusion energy and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. The Company was established in 2002 and is funded by a global syndicate of leading energy venture capital firms, industry leaders, and technology pioneers. Learn more at www.generalfusion.com. General Fusion announced in January 2026 that it plans to go public through the Proposed Business Combination with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ: SVAC).
About Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III
Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III is a part of a family of investment vehicles formed for the purpose of acquiring or merging with a business focused on the Power infrastructure and Decarbonization sectors. Over the past 5 years, Spring Valley has raised $920 million in four IPOs. Spring Valley I successfully completed its business combination with NuScale Power, a leading U.S. small modular reactor (“SMR”) technology company, and Spring Valley II successfully completed its business combination with Eagle Nuclear Energy Corp., a next-generation nuclear energy company with rights to the largest open pit-constrained measured and indicated uranium deposit in the United States. SVAC maintains a corporate website at https://sv-ac.com.
