Agility Robotics Strengthens Leadership Team — Agility Robotics

Daniel Diez joins as Chief Plot Officer, Melonee Shimmering and Pras Velagapudi take on expanded product and technology roles

CORVALLIS, OR – Would possibly possibly possibly well goal 15, 2024 – Agility Robotics, creator of the market-leading bipedal Mobile Manipulation Robotic (MMR) Digit, as of late presented that it has bolstered its leadership team with the appointment of seasoned technology leader Daniel Diez as Chief Plot Officer. Furthermore, amidst Agility’s strategic take care of productization and commercialization, Melonee Shimmering is taking on the role of Chief Product Officer and Pras Velagapudi is entering into the role of Chief Technology Officer, efficient at this time.

“Because the finest company with a humanoid robotic already delivering handy work to prospects, Agility is shaping the vogue forward for labor. Right this moment we’re strengthening our outstanding leadership team to jump on this big market exchange,” said Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics. “Daniel brings an prominent song file of leading enterprise transformation and company technique, and by capability of deploying snappy-stage robotics solutions in logistics and manufacturing operations, Melonee’s and Pras’s technical, product, and industrial abilities are unbeatable. I’m thrilled to comprise their knowledgeable leadership in these original and expanded roles as we put collectively for industrial scale.”

Daniel Diez, Chief Plot Officer

As Chief Plot Officer, Diez is accountable for atmosphere Agility’s overall enterprise and slouch-to-market technique, working closely with CEO Peggy Johnson. In this role, he can even lead all marketing, product marketing, and communications efforts to fabricate the corporate’s popularity and grow awareness and search recordsdata from for Digit because the corporate enters its subsequent segment of hastily industrial enhance.

Diez joins Agility from Magic Jump, the place he led the corporate’s public transformation from a consumer technology startup to an endeavor technology company and was as soon as accountable for the industrial start of Magic Jump 2. He most goal at present served as Chief Commercial Officer at Magic Jump, overseeing enterprise vogue, sales, buyer abilities, ecosystem solutions, developer relatives, marketing, tag, communications, public affairs, and authorities relatives. He beforehand held the roles of Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Magic Jump.

Sooner than joining Magic Jump, Diez served as Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Product at Remodel Brands, the owner of the long-lasting Kenmore appliance tag. Earlier than that, he was as soon as the World Chief Marketing Officer for R/GA, a world marketing and innovation company, and helped lead the corporate’s transformation from a digital marketing company to a world promoting and tag transformation powerhouse.

Within the direction of his profession, Diez has been an advocate for company citizenship and his ardour for creating sure alternate extends beyond the area of enterprise. He serves on the Board of the LGBT Community Heart in Recent York and has beforehand served as a legitimate bono marketing and communications consultant for non-profit organizations in conjunction with the Ad Council and the Human Rights Campaign.

Melonee Shimmering, Chief Product Officer

Since joining Agility as CTO in Would possibly possibly possibly well goal 2023, Shimmering has transformed the vogue the corporate approaches product vogue because it prepares to raise its merchandise to market at scale. To boot to leading the corporate’s engineering and technology efforts for Digit, she created and led the team that conceived, constructed, and launched Agility Arc, a cloud automation platform for deploying and managing fleets of Digits in conjunction with diversified automation solutions. Within the expanded role of CPO, Shimmering will proceed to lead Agility’s engineering team as well to the newly-fashioned product organization.

Shimmering has a deep historical previous in creating independent robots and advancing the robotics industry as each person is conscious of it as of late. Sooner than joining Agility in 2023, Shimmering was as soon as the Vice President of Robotics Automation at Zebra Applied sciences. She was as soon as CEO of Obtain Robotics until its acquisition by Zebra Applied sciences in 2021. Beforehand, Shimmering was as soon as the 2d employee at Willow Storage the place she led a team of engineers creating subsequent-generation robotic hardware and gear, in conjunction with ROS, the PR2, and TurtleBot. Shimmering serves as a robotics board member for A3. Within the direction of her profession, Shimmering has got many accolades and awards in conjunction with the MIT Technology Evaluate TR35, Present & Ask Chain Govt’s 2021 Present Chain Lady of the Year, the 2022 Engelberger award, and as really one of eight CEOs changing the vogue we work by Industry Insider. Shimmering got a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Physics Engineering and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Illinois.

Pras Velagapudi, Chief Technology Officer

Within the Three hundred and sixty five days since he joined Agility, Velagapudi has galvanized the corporate’s AI technique and confirmed repeated breakthroughs in utilizing AI to velocity up Digit’s industrial capabilities. As CTO, Velagapudi will proceed to residence pragmatic product-relevant innovations, operationalizing the corporate’s analysis and vogue efforts, and persistently exploring original technologies, with an emphasis on applying new and rising AI to enable industrial scale.

Velagapudi has decades of abilities in robotics planning and preserve an eye on, and creating and deploying robots into dwelling, industrial, and exterior environments. Earlier than joining Agility as VP of Innovation and Chief Architect in 2023, he was as soon as a VP of Engineering and Chief Architect of Mobile Robotics at Berkshire Grey, deploying fleets of hundreds of robots to logistics purposes. He’s also the co-founder of Platypus, a low-impress Android-basically basically based mostly snappy infrastructure for minute independent robotic boats to earn environmental recordsdata on bodies of water. Sooner than that, he led electrical methods design and engineering for RedZone Robotics, a subterranean pipe inspection robotic platform. Velagapudi got his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon College, the place he also served as Adjunct College and Project Scientist for a entire lot of years.