Mick founded Kiva Systems in January 2003 after spending thirteen years in high tech product development, manufacturing, operations and marketing. Prior to Kiva, Mick worked on a business process team at Webvan designing a next generation distribution strategy for grocery home delivery, during which he experienced first-hand the high cost of order fulfillment and the inflexibility of existing technologies. Prior to joining Webvan, Mick spent three years in product marketing at Apple Computer as a Product Manager where he helped move many new technologies into the standard desktop platform including FireWire, DVD, Fast Ethernet, and 3D graphics acceleration. He began his career at Motorola, where he spent seven years working as both a Mechanical and a Manufacturing Engineer. Mick holds five United States technology patents. He earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

A seasoned veteran with 22 years of experience in the product development world, Benge leads the Kiva Hardware and Software engineering teams. He is responsible for the overall systems architecture and the product development processes. Benge came to Kiva after 13 years at Deka Research and Development, where he contributed to the design, architecture, and leadership of a number of products, including the iBOT (tm) mobiliy device, the Segway Human Transporter, and an upper limb prosthetic for DARPA. Prior to DEKA, Benge spent 7 years in the defense industry designing infrared imaging systems. Prior to his role as Kiva's VP of Product Development, he led hardware development of the Kiva's CaseFetch system, as well as the field deployment a 500 robot customer facility. Benge has Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds 27 patents related to balancing technology.

A veteran Software Engineer with more than a decade of experience, Michael manages the engineering and development of the production software applications that drive Kiva's systems. Prior to joining Kiva, Michael spent nine years at Motorola in various software development roles. As a member of the company's semiconductor sector technology group, he helped develop and deploy tools to support the use of emerging complex microcontrollers and processors. As part of Motorola's global software group, Michael helped establish a software center at corporate headquarters to serve the communications, industrial, and automotive sectors. His work in process optimization helped him to earn a Six Sigma Green Belt. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science and mathematics from Cornell and a Doctorate in computer science from the University of Illinois.

A leader in the simulation community with 19 years of experience in services delivery and software product development, Dan manages the systems engineering function that turns unique customer inventory management requirements into working Kiva system designs. Dan helps Kiva use simulation to verify and tune each design and to demonstrate system operation to customers and prospective customers. Prior to Kiva, he founded Systemflow Simulations, Inc., a provider of engineering services to material handling, manufacturing, and mining clients and a developer of system visualization software products. Previously Dan worked for Wolverine Software Corporation, Electronic Data Systems, and TRW. Dan holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

A recognized expert in the development and application of tools for controlling complex dynamical systems, Raff is responsible for overall system architecture and control algorithms development. He received a Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering in 2002 for his "Theoretical and Experimental Advances in the Robust Control of Feedback Systems". Raff served as the system architect and faculty advisor for the four time world champion Cornell University RoboCup autonomous robot soccer team. He is the recipient of two best paper awards from the American Automatic Control Council and the IEEE, has won a National Science Foundation Career Award, and has received several departmental and college-wide teaching awards at Cornell. His dynamic and interactive art has been on exhibit at several international venues, including the Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica, and the National Gallery of Canada. Raff holds an Engineering Science degree from the University of Toronto and a Doctorate from the California Institute of Technology in the division of engineering and applied science. He is a professor of engineering at ETH Zurich.

Jim DeSisto joined Kiva after a variety of successful executive positions with a number of industrial technology companies. Before joining Kiva, Jim was Chief Operating Officer of a private equity backed technology company that he helped turn profitable and cash flow positive with additional sales bookings, customer shipments, and cost controls before selling the company to a larger public company. Prior to this, he was General Manager with profit and loss ownership of $100 and $400 million dollar industrial aerospace businesses with Honeywell/AlliedSignal, where he led significant revenue/profit growth, operational improvements, and cost reduction programs. Jim has also worked as manufacturing manager, program manager, and consultant with roles emphasizing cellular/lean manufacturing, process improvements, six sigma, and cost productivity. He earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

John leads Kiva’s internal business operations including finance, human resources, legal, information systems and corporate affairs. Prior to joining Kiva, John advised over twenty technology companies through all stages of growth and outcome as a corporate attorney at Orrick and Venture Law Group in Silicon Valley. John has negotiated and closed numerous company critical transactions including public offerings, venture capital financings, licensing revenue deals and both private and public mergers and acquisitions. Earlier in his career, John served as a Captain in the U.S. Army leading artillery units and worked as an operations manager at Stryker Endoscopy, a medical device company. John holds a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

As Vice President of Professional Services, J.D. drives all aspects of Kiva delivery and customer care, including Deployment Services and Customer Support. JD has more than 16 years of experience in operations and professional services leadership and is well known in the supply chain marketplace for his extensive background in innovative implementation practices, his focus on high-value customer solutions, and for bringing a “trusted advisor” approach to all aspects of professional services. Prior to Kiva Systems, JD served as Executive Vice President of Nexiant, where he guided the Board and management team towards new value-added technology and services that resulted in the opening of new markets. JD was also Vice President of Operations for HighJump Software, a 3M Company, where he profitably grew the organization from an $18M start-up to a $55M global organization, ultimately completing a successful sale of the company to 3M. He also held senior executive positions at Vision Technologies and Ernst & Young. JD holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin. He has an extensive background in Supply Chain, Distribution, Manufacturing, High Tech, and Six Sigma methods and tools.

Noted for his work in the development of complex engineered systems, Pete contributes his technical and program experience to hardware engineering and the development of Kiva's products. Pete comes to Kiva from Mansfield Technical Consulting, a technical engineering and consulting firm he founded and ran in Bellevue, Washington for more than six years. A range of projects included development of custom automated manufacturing test and inspection systems and a complex gear-box design for the aerospace industry. Prior to launching Mansfield Technical Consulting, Pete spent seven years with Intelligent Automation Systems, Inc., where he served in a range of research and program management roles and focused on developing custom automation equipment for manufacturing and laboratory deployment, including a complex 3D vision system, NASA robotic manipulator, and golf ball tracking technology. Pete holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia and a Doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mark is responsible for ensuring that Kiva's customers maximize the performance of their Kiva Mobile Fulfillment System, leading Customer Solutions Design, Customer Service, and Continuing Engineering. Prior to joining Kiva, Mark held operations and supply chain roles at industry leaders such as Amazon.com, Weight Watchers, Hewlett-Packard and Webvan. At Amazon.com, Mark was Director of Fulfillment, where he led fulfillment operations for the UK and for a US fulfillment center, driving improvement in quality, productivity, output, and safety. Prior to Amazon.com, Mark was the Program Director at Webvan, where he managed the program from concept through launch, then becoming Director of Distribution for the Bay Area. Mark began his career in operations as a software developer for Oracle's ERP system, and has worked as a management consultant at Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath. Mark holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Biology, and Master of Science Degrees in Management and Materials Science and Engineering from MIT.

Chris leads Kiva's Worldwide Sales and Business Development teams, and in this capacity drives all aspects of Kiva's global customer acquisition and market expansion efforts. Chris brings over 15 years of US and International enterprise sales leadership experience to Kiva, and has a track record of driving companies to exceptional revenue and customer growth. Chris most recently led Worldwide Sales at Endeca Technologies, a leader in the Enterprise Information Access market, growing business to over $100M in revenues and to over 500 customers during their first six years in the marketplace. Prior to Endeca, Chris ran International Sales and Operations for Mirror Image Internet while living in London, England. Chris also spent seven years at Parametric Technology Corporation, where he held several sales leadership positions, including SVP of Asia Pacific Operations, based in Tokyo, Japan. In this role Chris ran a sales and support organization of over 400 people, generating over $200M in revenue, or 20% of the companies global revenues. Chris holds a BA in English from Saint Bonaventure University.

Mitch Rosenberg - VP of Marketing

Rob Stevens - VP of Business Development

Rob is responsible for business development at Kiva, working with existing and new customers as well as developing channel and industry partners. Rob joined Kiva from FreeMarkets, Inc., the leading provider of global supply management technology and services. An early member of the FreeMarkets team, Rob helped create and formalize the company's unique online market making offering, and holds eight United States patents as a co-inventor of innovations in the field. Rob started the product management group at FreeMarkets and initiated the company's multi-product strategy before moving to Tokyo to open the Japanese office and act as General Manager. After returning to the U.S., Rob became Director of Strategy and Business Development, where he negotiated a variety of partnerships and acquisitions, as well as leading the company's strategy development. Prior to FreeMarkets, he spent two years as a business analyst with McKinsey and Company in Pittsburgh. Rob holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Matt Verminski - VP of Hardware Engineering

 

Widely respected for his research and practical application of Internet and e-commerce technologies, Pete oversees the architecture of Kiva's host control material handling software platform and the creation of resource algorithms that drive various modules of our systems.  Prior to joining Kiva, Pete was an associate professor of computer science at North Carolina State, where he served as co-director of the university's e-commerce program and a member of the faculty of its operations research program.  An early researcher in Internet auction technology, Pete led the development of the Michigan Internet AuctionBot in 1995 and earned a prestigious National Science Foundation Career Award to study flexible trading agents. He has spent the past decade researching multi-agent resource planning, game theory, and computational mechanism design.  Pete holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Master of Science degree and a Doctorate in computer science from the University of Michigan.