Page 22: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2011)

22 MTR March 2011

What do you count as the defining accomplishment(s) of your career?

Bently, VideoRay The defining accomplishment of my career was building the executive ranks of

VideoRay. For example, we have the smartest R&D guy in the ROV busi- ness, the best software guy, and the best marketing guy. Pretty good for a company barely 10 years old with less than $10m in revenue.

Heinz, iRobot I’m an “odd duck” when you compare me to others in the robotics business. I joined iRobot after a 32 year career in the Marine

Corps, where I achieved the rank of

Major General and ran the Defense

Department’s largest acquisition pro- gram in history. So, I would say that is my defining accomplishment … so far. Moving forward, I am incredibly excited about my leadership position at iRobot. I have a master’s degree is in computer science and have always had an affinity for artificial intelli- gence and autonomous behavior.

The importance of monitoring and understanding changes in ocean properties will increase exponentially in the next few years. The ocean is key to understanding climate change and impacts to ecological systems that provide us with oxygen, water

Advances, Challenges & Oppotunities

Robotic Vehicle Technology

Marine Technology Reporter presents via this virtual “roundtable” insights on the rapidly evolving business of subsea robotic vehicles. — by Greg Trauthwein, Editor

The Respondents

Bob Anderson

President & Co-Founder

OceanServer

Scott Bentley

President

VideoRay LLC

Bill Charbonneau

Product and Sales Manager

Deep Ocean Engineering

Dave Grant

Managing Director

Saab Seaeye

David Heinz

VP, Maritime Systems iRobot Corporation

David P. Kelly

President & CEO

Bluefin Robotics

Justin E. Manley

Senior Director Scientific and

Commercial Business

Liquid Robotics, Inc.

Donald Rodocker

President

SeaBotix Inc.

OceanServer AUVs