Seegrid Corporation Expands Management Team to Scale with Growth
Jack Antounian Joins as Vice President of Operations; Michael Clark as Director of Engineering; and Domenic Niro as Director of Sales
PITTSBURGH - June 3, 2008 - Seegrid Corporation (www.seegrid.com), the premier provider of industrial mobile robots for the material handling industry, today announced the addition of three new members to its management team: Jack Antounian, Michael Clark and Domenic Niro.
"We have thoughtfully selected the best and brightest in their respective areas of expertise to bring depth and breadth of experience to Seegrid's management team," said Scott Friedman, Seegrid co-founder and CEO. "As Seegrid moves from a technology-focused company to a fast-growing, market-driven operational company, with these highly talented individuals on board we are poised for success. The timing is right for our industrial mobile robots to automate material handling functions in distribution centers, warehouses and manufacturing facilities."
Jack Antounian has joined Seegrid as Vice President of Operations where he oversees sourcing, procurement, supply chain operations, logistics, quality, and manufacturing operations. Antounian is a visionary and strategic business leader with more than 20 years of demonstrated success in global manufacturing, quality and supply chain development within mature, high-growth and turnaround firms in the semiconductor, medical, telecommunications and industrial controls industries. Prior to Seegrid Antounian was Corporate Director of Global Supply Chain and Plant Manager of the Mexico operations at MKS Instruments, a global provider of instruments, subsystems and process control solutions that measure, control, power, monitor and analyze critical parameters of advanced manufacturing processes to improve process performance and productivity.
A native of Massachusetts, Antounian is a Lean Sigma and DFX expert and two-time recipient of the Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence. As a change agent, he has spent his career reengineering and transforming manufacturing companies to high-performing global competitors. He has extensive experience in developing and managing global supply chain, particularly in Asia and China. He has developed effective Lean, Six Sigma and DFX tools, trained more than 500 team members and led more than 10 plant-wide and 40 major Lean implementations within the US, China, Mexico, Singapore and Vietnam.
Antounian has a BSEE and a minor in Computer Engineering from Northeastern University, an MS in Business Administration from Boston University, and has completed the Harvard Business School Executive Education program.
Michael "Clark" has joined Seegrid as Director of Engineering where he manages the day-to-day engineering functions for the company. Previously Clark was the manager for several diverse teams at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for more than 20 years including simulations, math modeling and Artificial Intelligence software development. In 2001 he became the first Shuttle Data Center System Architect. He performed 50 Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster retrievals and did salvage operations using remotely operated robots for Space Shuttle Challenger. His career started as the electrical design lead for a NASA underwater robot and progressed to marine operations where he participated in the design and later operation of three ocean research vessels (Liberty, Freedom and Independence).
In 2003, Clark joined Carnegie Mellon University's "Red Team" to help develop an autonomous robot racing machine capable of driving itself 250 miles on desert roads. Clark led the Mapping and Planning teams that enabled the robot racer to win pole race position and travel further and faster than the competition. In 2007, Clark joined CMU's "Tartan Racing" team that won the $2 million DARPA Urban Challenge prize.
Clark has a BS in Ocean Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology and an MS in Technical Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as well as a MS in Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Domenic Niro joins Seegrid as Director of Sales where he oversees direct sales of Seegrid's industrial mobile robots to Fortune 500 companies with large material handling operations. Niro has an extensive background in material handling equipment and with forklift trucks in particular. Niro worked for a family-owned forklift business (Niro's Forklift Service) during and after his graduation from Youngstown State University with his last position as General Manager of the business. Niro was a territory manager for Beckwith Machinery Company (now PennWest Industrial Trucks) for 9 years and was one of the leading sales producers for the last five years of his tenure there. After Beckwith Machinery Company, Niro joined Toyota Material Handling, USA, as a national account manager where his efforts were focused on marketing to Fortune 100 companies interested in extending North American contracts to a global scale. Most recently Niro was a national account manager for Hyster Company with concentrated efforts on streamlining material handling procurements and offering value-added solutions to his customers.
About Seegrid Corporation
Seegrid (www.seegrid.com) brings a new class of affordable industrial mobile robots to the material handling industry that operate reliably and safely in dynamic warehouse, distribution and manufacturing environments. Seegrid's robots differ from today's AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) in that the company's IMR technology is the first to provide early-stage capabilities of autonomous robot behavior with Sense, Move, Analyze, Interact and Repeat capabilities. The result--AGV-like competence but with greater flexibility at a considerably lower cost. IMR-enabled robots provide WalkThroughThenWorkTM capabilities, providing an operator with the ability to simply and easily instruct the robot along a desired path, adding behaviors such as horns and stop stations, usually in minutes. Seegrid robots literally come straight off the truck; an operator quickly inputs the path and the robots are immediately productive.
MEDIA CONTACT: Lisa McCausland Geneva Street Marketing +1 303-888-2137 lisamccausland@earthlink.net
Company Information: Name: Seegrid Corporation Address: Ninety One 43rd Street City: Pittsburgh State: PA ZIP: 15201 Country: USA Phone: 412-621-4305 http://www.seegrid.com
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