Our Team

Founded in 2015 for the Amazon Picking Challenge, PickNik’s team now has over 341 years of combined experience, 18 masters in the field of robotics and automation, bringing together deep academic background of robotic theory and robotics software development experience.

Dave Coleman, PhD

CEO / Roboticist

PhD Computer Science at CU Boulder focusing on motion planning and Mechanical Engineering B.S. at Georgia Tech. Dave has 13 years experience working in the field of robotics automation and is a leader in the open source MoveIt and ROS communities. His insights into robot-agnostic platforms for different morphologies, theoretical approaches, and different end-user requirements give him a well-rounded understanding for powerful robotic software. He has worked and consulted for all types of robotics companies including Google Robotics, Open Robotics, and Willow Garage.

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Nathan Brooks, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

PhD and M.S. Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, B.S. Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at University of Tulsa. Nathan's graduate research focused on developing team planning techniques and interaction strategies improving operator supervision of large robot teams. Through this research, he has extensive experience with simulation platforms and field deployment logistics for unmanned vehicles on land, sea, and air.

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Jonathan Fries

Director of Operations

B.S in Computer Science from the University of Iowa. Jonathan has 25 years of experience in software development, working in both consulting and product settings. He’s spent the last 15 years especially focused on delivering outsourced software solutions for customers and developing professional organizations that deliver quality software and excellent customer experiences. Jonathan believes that strong communication and excellent technical capability form the backbone of developing quality solutions.

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Sean Kolk

Director of Business Development

B.S. International Affairs in Counter Terrorism Theory from Georgia Tech. Trained as a design engineer who's built electro-mechanical tools, integrated digital systems, and lead product market strategy in human-centered services. He's worked in biotech labs, on the shop floor, and coordinated disaster relief efforts in the developing world. When not putting in creative energy he leads sailing, paragliding, and mountaineering expeditions.

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Lynn Regnier, CPA

Director of Finance

CPA licensed in Colorado with an M.S. in accounting from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Over her career Lynn has worked for small and very large organizations in both business and scientific roles. Lynn brings six years of accounting experience from a mix of public accounting and early stage startups. Lynn's passion is in helping businesses grow by providing reliable financial information to help make informed decisions.

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Shane Allen

Director of Marketing

B.A. in Industrial Design from Karelia University AS. Built, led, branded, marketed, and raised large funding for multiple technology companies internationally as well as won multiple awards for innovation and pitching internationally. An evangelist for the future of robotics and a firm believer in owning and honing a unique category within it.

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Ian Alexander

Account Executive

B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Virginia. At UVA Ian studied the history and socioeconomic evolution of the European Union and its formation as a social experiment. He also spent a year in the Jesse Beams physics lab studying high energy physics related to NMR/MRI technology. Ian has spent the last 8 years leading sales efforts at F500 companies and managing new business growth at several startups. Ian’s passionate about working with diverse teams of technical experts, entrepreneurs, and sales professionals in a high-growth company focused on delivering cutting-edge tech to the marketplace. He also spent 3 years in the US Coast Guard at a search & rescue station on the coast of California.

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Erin Conway

Proposal Writer and Manager

A graduate of the University of Florida, Erin has over 20 years of proposal management experience. Her career as a procurement professional began in an organic manner, working first as a writer and coordinator, then moving into proposal management and capture management. Building sustainable, long-term business relationships and tailored solutions for companies is Erin’s focus. A gifted writer, Erin crafts compelling, compliant business proposals that improve win-rates and build honest business relationships aligned with our values and a commitment to excellence.

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Kyle Kirves, PMP

Senior Project Manager

M.A. in English from the University of Dayton; PMP, ACP from PMI.org. Kyle is a technology professional and project / account manager with over 25 years managing and delivering software, hardware, and telecommunications projects and products. Prior to PickNik, Kyle worked in project delivery for Hewlett-Packard, the University of Colorado, and Ball Corporation, among others. For the last ten years, he has focused on software built with open and frequent customer+user communication, creating confidence in product value well before it ships.

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Henning Kayser, MS

MoveIt Chief Architect

M.S. Computer Science at University of Hamburg with focus on motion planning and machine learning, B.S. Computer Science with focus on distributed systems. Broad experience with autonomous robots and scenarios with unstable dynamics like liquid pouring or pushing of objects. Expertise in motion planning, trajectory optimization, constrained and Cartesian path planning as well as 3D-perception and image processing. Winning team participant in the IROS 2018 Mobile Manipulation Hackathon.

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Tyler Weaver

Senior Software Engineer

B.S. Comp Engineering from DeVry Univ. Tyler has a talent for C++ and Python programming, having created many different software applications over the past decade. In 2013 he supported Special Operations in Afghanistan, and at DeVry Tyler built a stereo vision sensor for a robot competing in the CO Robotics Challenge. He has since developed software defined radio libraries for wireless communication and sensing applications. In that position, Tyler worked on a large legacy codebase adding new signal types and improving the accelerated math library.

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Griswald Brooks, MS

Senior Robotics Engineer

M.S. Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Controls and Robotics from NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering. Inspired from a young age by the advances in robotics at MIT Leg Lab, Griswald pursued the field following service in the US Navy. Development of ROS and the PR2 at Willow Garage drew him to the Bay Area, where he was a key contributor to autonomous docking, navigation, and perception at companies such as Fetch, Neato, and Bossa Nova Robotics. Having designed and developed automated on-robot testing systems, he is experienced in delivering robust, production quality robot software.

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Marq Rasmussen, MS

Senior Robotics Engineer

M.S. Mechanical Engineering from University of Utah with focus on robotics and motion planning, B.S. Mechanical Engineering with focus on control theory, system modeling and a minor in Computer Science. Wide ranging experience working with robotics from human controlled exoskeletons and custom snake robots to industrial grade robot workcells and autonomous forklifts. Marq has 13+ years working with robotics systems from concept to prototype to production for companies including Intel, Nike, Amazon and DARPA. Marq's recent work has focused on a MoveIt! based high speed pick and place application and leading an AI based vision team in developing a fully autonomous ecommerce order fulfillment system.

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Alex Moriarty

Senior Robotics Engineer

Alex was introduced to Robotics in 2011 at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences where he worked on EU funded research projects and helped organize robotics competitions, such as RoboCup, RoCKIn and European Robotics League. Alex spent many years on the B-IT-Bots robotics team where he participated in RoboCup World Championships in both RoboCup @work and RoboCup @Home leagues. For the past years Alex has worked in industry with TBA Group, Fetch Robotics, Boston Dynamics and Intrinsic. Alex continues to volunteer as much as possible on RoboCup Committees and is interested in making robotics competitions more accessible for new teams. Outside of work Alex enjoys spending time outdoors with his young family.

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Davide Faconti

Staff Robotics Engineer

B.S. Electrical engineering Politecnico di Torino. Davide has worked as a Robotics Engineer, Project Manager, and Developer more than a decade.

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Giovanni Remigi, MS

Senior Software Engineer

M.S. in Computer Science at University of Padua. Giovanni has worked as a Developer, Analyst and Solution Consultant in several fields for more than 20 years. His favorite languages are Modern C++/Qt and Java. He loves math and computer graphics. Giovanni is a professional photographer, specializing in 3D lenticular photography.

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Kyle Cesare

Senior Robotics Engineer

B.S. Computer Science from Oregon State University with a focus on robotics. Kyle has worked on legged robots for 7+ years on a variety of quadruped and humanoid projects, previously at Walt Disney Imagineering R&D. He specializes in hardware integration, low-level actuator control, motion planning, dynamic simulation, and 2D/3D data visualization.

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Jere Liukkonen, MS

Senior Robotics Engineer

M.S. Automation and Control Systems Engineering from Aalto University with a focus on mechatronics. Jere is a C++ enthusiast with background in computer vision and image processing. Before becoming a full-time roboticist, he worked with challenging computer vision problems with the most recent being analyzing medical images using deep neural networks.

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Erik Holum, MS

Senior Robotics Engineer

M.S. Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland focusing on space systems and robotics, M.S.c Mathematics from the University of Oxford, B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Wesleyan University. Erik has more than a decade of experience building software systems for a wide variety of applications. Most recently developing control software for a robotic satellite servicing mission at NASA. A Colorado native turned Boston transplant, he spends most of his free time hiking, snowboarding, and playing with his dog.

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Sebastian Castro, MS

Senior Robotics Engineer

BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University. Sebastian has over 10 years of experience straddling the line between robotics engineering and education. He has been the technical lead and educator for MathWorks' sponsorship of the RoboCup competitions, developed a home service robotics software framework at MIT CSAIL while providing ROS expertise to various projects, and developed behaviors and supported field tests for autonomous truck unloading with the Boston Dynamics Stretch robot. Sebastian runs a personal blog where he shares his expertise in task and motion planning, autonomous behavior, systems, and software development with the goal of making knowledge accessible to all.

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Tahnee Bodansky

People & Talent Manager

Tahnee has over 20 years experience in business operations over a variety of industries including architecture and advertising. She was the Administrative Manager to the Design Team for the 2010 Olympic Village in Vancouver, Canada, a project that included coordinating over a dozen offices working to design and build 24 buildings in four years. Her passion is to see an efficient and effective organization while ensuring client satisfaction.

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Abishalini Sivaraman, MS

Robotics Engineer

M.S. Computer Engineering and B.S. Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M University (concentration in AI, ML and VR application development). Abi got into robotics primarily through extra curricular activities. A tinkerer by nature, she learned mechanical and electrical CAD software, machining, 3D printing, soldering, ROS and computer vision techniques while working on building an AUV and automating a Ford Focus.

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Joe Schornak, MS

Robotics Engineer

M.S. Robotics Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and B.S. Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology with minors in Computer Science and Robotics. Joe's work has focused on perception-driven robotics applications in ROS2, especially with systems that move on and around previously-unseen surfaces. His graduate research explored guiding surgical robots using MRI data and other real-time volumetric imaging techniques.

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Cassidy Elliott, MS

Technical Project Manager

M.S. Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas, B.S. Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alabama. Cassidy’s graduate research focused on increasing the automation of remote contact tasks using affordance templates with compliance. Cassidy brings extensive experience coordinating with oil and natural gas companies for the use of robotics by novice users in hazardous environments.

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Denis Stogl, PhD

Robotics Scientist

PhD in Engineering (Department of Informatics) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology focusing on physical human-robot interaction and developing RoboTrainer - mobile robot for strength and coordination training. M.S. and B.S. in Electrical and Control Engineering at University of Zagreb, Croatia. Denis has more than a decade of experience with ROS in different fields. He is a real "T"-Engineer with an excellent understanding of mechanics, electronics, and software to integrate and run robots under ROS. He designed controllers for various industrial and mobile-robot applications.

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Jennifer Cannon

Executive Assistant

Jenn has over 10 years of well-rounded experience as an executive assistant and office manager. Over her career, she has worked in healthcare, construction, finance, and technology. Jenn has worked in small start-ups, big corporations, and everything in between. Jenn’s passion is to make sure all the p’s and q’s of projects, processes, and people are sorted out and handled efficiently.

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Jochen Sprickerhof

Robotics Engineer

Diploma in Applied System Science from Osnabrück University (Germany), with over 20 years of experience in open source and robotic software development and maintenance. Jochen has worked on everything from kernel and hardware drivers, to operating systems and middleware, up to web development with a focus on robotic perception, mapping and ROS, both in academia and industry.

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Anthony Baker

Software Engineer

B.S. Computer Engineering from the University of South Florida. Anthony is a trained C++ and Python programmer who has spent the majority of his professional career developing Qt Applications. He developed an interest in robotics during his years of school and picked it up as a hobby, eventually turning it into his profession.

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Stephanie Eng, MASc

Controls Engineer

M.A.Sc. Mechanical Engineering and B.Eng. Biomedical & Mechanical Engineering from Carleton University with a focus on dynamics and bipedal locomotion. Stephanie’s experience includes engineering robots for reactor inspection in nuclear power facilities and developing dynamic simulation tools for robotic manipulators destined for space. Stephanie has also collaborated on projects in healthcare technology and worked on SLAM, ROS, and 3D printing projects.

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Ezra Brooks

Full Stack Web Developer

Ezra has over five years of experience in software engineering, and has always had a passion for building user interfaces. He’s spent most of his career supporting spaceflight, which led him back to his love of robotics he’d discovered while competing in FIRST in high school. Ezra enjoys the variety of working across all levels of the stack, all the way from web applications and cloud architecture to serial communication or raw packets over a socket.

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Chris Thrasher

Software Engineer

Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Auburn University. Chris is a robotic software engineer with 6 years of experience in ground vehicle robotics from small inspection robots to 10-ton trucks. His engineering interests include control theory and high quality C++ code. In his free time he likes to work with 2D graphics and go skiing.

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Sebastian Jahr, MS

Robotics Engineer

M.S. Mechatronics and Information Technology with specialization in robotics and B.S. Mechatronics and Information Technology at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Sebastian is experienced with using C++ and ROS2 to realize various robotic applications. His previous work includes the development of MoveIt2's hybrid planning feature. He is passionate about robotics and manipulation and eager to deepen his knowledge in motion planning and control.

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Henry Moore, MS

Robotics Engineer

M.S. Aerospace Engineering with a focus in autonomous systems and B.S. in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Mandarin, all at the University of Colorado Boulder. Henry enjoys programming in both C++ and Julia, tinkering with simulated robotics applications during his free time, and learning about new developments in motion planning, controls, and robotics as a whole. Outside of robotics, Henry also plays the Irish sport of hurling as a midfielder and enjoys playing and spectating chess.

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Bilal Gill, MS

Robotics Engineer

M.S. Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Controls and Dynamic Systems from NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering. Bilal's interest in robotics started in high school where he took part in FIRST Robotics. In college, his interest bloomed when he joined the robotics club and participated in the Trinity College International Firefighting Home Robot Contest. Before pursuing robotics full-time, he spent much of his career working on simulations for dynamic systems, ranging from motors to aircraft.

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Michael Wrock, PhD

Robotics Scientist

PhD, MASc, and BEng from Ontario Tech University. Michael has spent over 15 years contributing to the autonomous robot and mobile-manipulator system's body of knowledge through academic publications and industrial applications. He has specialized in localization, trajectory generation, perception, and human-machine interaction and is always happy to share his knowledge using over 10 years of experience as an educator. With an emphasis on software development, Michael has designed, built, and collaborated on many robotic systems ranging from proof-of-concept prototypes to field-deployed robotic solutions. When he's not pursuing his passion for robotics, he can be found scuba diving, rock climbing, or trekking through the forest.

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Noah Wardlow

Full Stack Web Developer

Noah has over 5 years experience designing and building intuitive user interfaces for web and mobile applications. As a front-end developer, Noah specializes in Javascript and building apps with component based architecture. He takes a strong interest in web-based 3D visualization and real-time data streaming applications. Outside of web and mobile application development, Noah tinkers as a hobby roboticist and has had one open source project featured on various maker blogs and websites. When away from the computer, he enjoys long hikes and runs with his two dogs.

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Sushan Tripathee

Deployment Engineer

B.S. Mechanical Engineering from University of Colorado in Denver. Sushan has 6 years of CAD and manufacturing experience and over 4 years in Software QA. Sushan loves breaking things and working on anything that goes fast. In his free time, Sushan flies and races drones as a sponsored FPV pilot under the tag "BRDSRTRL".

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Nashley Banister

Executive Assistant

Nashley has a varied background ranging from the performing arts, wellness, nutrition and event planning. Nashley has a Masters of chemistry from Texas Woman's University and is passionate about supporting innovative and meaningful work. Creativity, strategic thinking and hard work are a few of the attributes that she is most proud of. She lived in Chicago, IL working in concert dance in both a technical and performance role and has most recently moved from Houston, TX where she worked with a Nutrition company. She looks forward to what Boulder has to offer and supporting the team with PickNik.

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Chance Cardona

Software Engineer

B.S. Engineering Physics from Colorado School of Mines, with a specialization in Robotics and Intelligent Systems. Chance has worked on a wide range of robotics and industrial control applications utilizing C++, Python, and Rust. Chance is passionate about space exploration and hopes to utilize robotics and AI to improve lives. He has expertise in autonomous robotics, digital signal processing, distributed systems, and applied physics.

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Ashton Larkin

Software Engineer

BS, Computer Science - Brigham Young University. Ashton has been around robotics for over six years and has a computer science background. He has participated in robotics research, contributed to open source robotics software, and has also worked on commercialized robotics products. He enjoys working at the intersection of software engineering and robotics with the goal of creating robotic systems that are safe, reliable, and scalable. Outside of work, Ashton enjoys music and spending time outdoors.

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Esteban Martinena Guerrero

DevOps Engineer

B.S. Computer Engineering from the University of Extremadura. Esteban is a seasoned software engineer with a strong passion for robotics. He has worked in this field since 2010 and has contributed to many Open Source projects. With deep expertise in C++, Python, and QT, Esteban is currently interested in applying his knowledge to DevOps and tools development for automation and robotic deployments.

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Peter Mitrano

PhD Intern

Ph.D. Candidate in Robotics from the University of Michigan. Peter’s interest is in robotic manipulation, and his PhD research focuses on data-efficient learning for manipulation of deformable objects, like rope and cloth. He has worked in 4 research labs and interned at 3 different companies during his undergraduate and graduate studies. Peter is also committed to DEI, mentorship, and ethical use of AI.

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Advisors

Aaron Edsinger

Advisory Board

Aaron is CEO and Cofounder at Hello Robot Inc. He has a passion for building robots and robot companies. He has founded four companies focused on commercializing human collaborative robots. Two of these companies, Meka Robotics and Redwood Robotics, were acquired by Google in 2013.
As Robotics Director at Google, Aaron led the business, product, and technical development of two of Google’s central investments in robotics.
Aaron received his Ph.D. from MIT CSAIL in 2007.

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Nick Lane-Smith

Advisory Board

Nick is an entrepreneur, product leader, and engineer. He has deep technical expertise in machine learning, data, and security. As Head of Product at Invitae, he launched a novel pharma data product line helping to reduce the costs of drug development. At Apple, he designed and built the security model for iOS that protects billions of devices.

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Jim Stevenson

Advisory Board

Jim is a highly experienced, proven, inspirational, and battle-hardened leader focussing on business growth and value creation. He has 20 years of experience in leadership, strategy, product, marketing, and technology globally across media, retail, CPG, spirits, finance, healthcare, and marketing services. His experience includes board and c-suite experience driving strategy and transformation, creating and leading fund-raising strategies.

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Brian Gerkey, PhD

Technical Advisor

Brian is CEO of Open Robotics, where they develop and drive adoption of open source software in robotics. Before Open Robotics, he was Director of Open Source Development at Willow Garage, where they focus primarily on ROS. Before Willow, he was a computer scientist in the SRI Artificial Intelligence Center. Before that, he was a post-doctoral scholar in Sebastian Thrun‘s group in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab. And before that, he did his PhD with Maja Matarić in the USC Interaction Lab.

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Jeff Rose

Technical Advisor

Jeff is a Partner of Origin Rose, a strategic consulting company. Over the last 3 years, he also led ThinkTopic, a Boulder based AI company, as Co-founder and CEO. ThinkTopic has worked with a wide range of organizations, from the Asian Development Bank to Conde Nast and Digital Globe. Before starting ThinkTopic, Jeff was one of the first research engineers at (Google) DeepMind, where he collaborated with neuroscientists to develop novel machine learning algorithms.

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Robin Athey

Leadership Coach

Robin guides leaders and teams to thrive in complexity and change. She brings 35+ years’ experience across 27 countries as an executive coach, facilitator, thought leader at Deloitte, VP Cole-Haan, consultant Kurt Salmon. Clients include startup founders, Techstars, and leaders at ABB, Microsoft, HP, IBM, Google, MIT, Delta Airlines, Eli Lilly, Fujitsu, Banco Santander, Change Healthcare, Girls Scouts USA. Taught core leadership course for Simmons MBA, Fellow at Harvard University Learning Innovations Laboratory (LILA).

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Peter Svenneby

Business Development Coach

Peter is a strategist, consultant, speaker, coach, trainer and practitioner in the domain of organic sales growth. His life's purpose is to help companies and individuals realize their potential. Educated as an engineer and experienced as a software developer, Peter has spent the past 25 years on a quest to master all things SALES - encompassing people, process and technology. He gets his energy from launching great ideas, products and companies with repeatable revenue machines that uniquely fit them. His approach is systematic, hands-on and pragmatic.

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Gerry Caron

Product Strategy Coach

Gerry is Principal at Caron Product Management Consulting, where he works with founders and other senior executives of small to medium-sized tech firms to craft strategies that strengthen product outcomes, processes, and organizations. He has held executive product leadership roles in several multinational tech organizations, ranging from leading public robotics companies iRobot and Universal Robots, to consumer brand leaders Bose, OtterBox, and iZotope, to startups FORT Robotics and Active Control Experts, among others. Gerry earned an MS at MIT, where he studied under master’s thesis supervisor Dr.Amar Bose, founder of Bose Corporation. He also has an MBA from Babson College's Olin Graduate School of Business and a BSME from UMass, Amherst. He is an Edison Engineering graduate and survivor of General Electric's elite Advanced Course in Engineering. He has been awarded 10 US patents over his four-decade career, with his concepts generating billions of dollars in the marketplace. Products under his purview have earned numerous industry distinctions including an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and several Red Dot, NAMM Tech, Best of What's New and other industry honors. He also is an international panelist/presenter on Product Management and Innovation.

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Mission
Statement

Enable robotics companies through robust platforms for manipulation applications in real world environments.