Leadership

Over the past 15 years, Black-I Robotics’ team has developed unmanned ground vehicles and other robots for the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and a dozen universities, including work involving biologic and chemical agents. It has rolled out telehealth and tele-pharmacy related automation products in the U.S. and globally, and established service and support teams for technical implementation over a wide geographic area.

Brian Hart, Brian Hart, Founder, CEO and COB of Black-I Robotics, Inc, is one of the country’s foremost robotics experts. He originally developed robots for the Defense Department and other government agencies, and was involved with a dozen universities on a range of high tech projects. Prior to founding Black-I and a few years with the government, Brian was CEO of an automated drug distribution company that was acquired by AmerisourceBergen, He has been Assistant Treasurer of Boston University managing a portion of its private equity portfolio, and CFO of a regional wireless company in the Southwest. He has a BA and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. Brian is a member of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Robotics Engineering Advisory Board, director of the Simon W. Robinson Masonic Angel Charitable Fund for Children, and a Family Advisory Board Member, Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund.

Paul Pescatore, CFO of Black-I Robotics for over a decade, was a senior executive vice president for finance and operations with a biotech company. He has held senior positions in technology, healthcare, medical equipment manufacturing and software firms. He is a graduate of Boston College and served with the U. S. Army in Europe.

David Askey is the co-founder and CEO of Ascend Robotics. David and his team tailored Ascend’s world-class parts handling robot systems to the needs of Black-I’s customer base within the warehouse and manufacturing industries. The system retrieves components, provides production line supply, and automates kitting. Ascend’s AI and robotics technologies also have been deployed in the construction space, including robot control and perception for autonomous painting of buildings and infrastructure structures. David, who has extensive experience in AI, perception, and robotics, has held senior positions managing engineering teams, leading technology strategy, and directing R&D at technology and imaging companies both in the U.S. and Europe. David has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Amy Yin, Co-founder, VP of Engineering, Ascend Robotics, led the effort to develop the core coordinated system control and the task centered UI for the Black-I Fullscope mobile arm. The system is designed specifically for Facilities Managers, with focus on ease of operation, autonomy, and ready integration with WMS and MES systems. Amy also leads development of the breakthrough Management Dashboard for Black-I’s robots. Previously, Amy led teams at Charles River Development, delivering multiple products (Enterprise Data Management, Data Integrations) from conception through multiple releases for Wall Street customers, and an early-stage distributed cloud storage startup. Earlier, Amy managed award-winning technology development and AI applications for a leading machine vision company. She holds an MS and Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering with focus on Human-Machine Systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sean Sullivan, marketing consultant and investor, began his career as a journalist on daily newspapers on the East and West Coasts, including The Wall Street Journal. Sean spent 10 years with IBM in California and New York before serving as Vice President of Marketing for several computer hardware and software companies. He went on to found a variety of companies, including an airline, a medical device company and an advertising agency, the latter two of which were acquired by larger firms. Mr. Sullivan also served with the Peace Corps in Africa for five years. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and earned an M.S. from Fairfield University. He has been involved with Black-I Robotics since 2008.