2007-08 Distinguished Speaker Series

Speaker Biography

Colin Angle’s leadership has transformed iRobot Corp. (Nasdaq: IRBT) from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spin-off to an over $200 million business and a leader in the robot industry. One of the world’s leading authorities in mobile robots with almost 20 years experience, Angle is a true pioneer in the field. Under his guidance, iRobot has inspired a growing consumer robot industry by delivering the world’s first affordable home robot, the iRobot Roomba® Vacuuming Robot. Continuing with the growth, iRobot has introduced 6 additional robots including the iRobot Scooba, iRobot Dirt Dog, iRobot Verro and most recently the iRobot Looj and the iRobot Connector.

A long-time sailor, Angle is known for his ability to bring together and inspire a winning crew. His vision for the future of robots and keen sense of business strategy is behind iRobot’s successful identification and execution of expansion opportunities. By setting a winning course of team empowerment, collaboration and innovation, Angle is enabling iRobot to deliver cutting-edge, market-leading robots that save time and lives. Today, more than 1200 iRobot PackBot® robots are deployed worldwide, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan. These robots have completed tens of thousands of missions and credited with saving scores of soldiers’ lives Meanwhile, and over 2.5 million robots are in homes doing the dirty work so you can spend more time doing what you want to do and less time on what you have to do.

Under Angle’s leadership, iRobot has joined forces with exceptional strategic partners – including The Clorox Company, The Boeing Company – to create new and innovative robot solutions that build on decades of leading expertise from each partner’s respective industry.

In iRobot’s early days, Angle and his team designed the behavior-controlled rovers for NASA that led to the Sojourner exploring Mars in 1997. Angle’s team won the NASA Group Achievement Award for its accomplishments, and his name is inscribed inside the case of the Mars exploration rover, Spirit, now on display at NASA.

Before co-founding iRobot in 1990, Angle was president of Artificial Creatures Inc., a robot design firm that ultimately become part of iRobot. Earlier in his career, Angle worked for three years at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he first teamed with iRobot co-founders Rodney Brooks and Helen Greiner. Angle’s master thesis at MIT introduced “Genghis,” a six-legged autonomous walking robot that was later installed at the Smithsonian Air and Science Museum in Washington, D.C.

iRobot robots are highly decorated with awards, and Angle has also been honored for his leadership. In 2007 Angle was named to the High Tech All-Stars by Mass High Tech, and in 2005, Angle was named one of Fortune Small Business Magazine’s “Best Bosses.” He also was awarded in 2003 the Ernst and Young New England “Entrepreneurs of the Year” Award with iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner. Angle has spoken at leading industry conferences such as International CES, The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital, Future in Review (FiRe), Wired Magazine’s NextFest, and RoboNexus. Angle has appeared on CNN and CNBC, and has been profiled as an industry expert in media outlets such as Business Week, CNET, the New York Times and Newsweek. He currently sits on the board of directors for Axon Labs, Inc. and is active on the Robotics & Intelligent Machines (RIM) advisory board.

Angle holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in computer science, both from MIT