AutoGuide Mobile Robots recently announced the appointment of Mike Harper as vice president of sales and marketing. The experienced robotics and application engineering executive will lead the sales and market share growth of AutoGuide, establish the global footprint of the company with key integration partners, and enable the success of its customers in their efforts to improve efficiency and throughput with AutoGuide’s advanced, flexible and modular product architecture. 

“Working with AutoGuide to help manufacturers and warehouse managers successfully move materials through their facilities in today’s rapidly changing circumstances was instantly compelling to me,” Harper said. “AutoGuide’s unique modular mobile robotic solutions let companies quickly get their products where they need to be, from stock to dock and back, so to speak. With AMRs that are easy to train and deploy, have short ROIs and are inherently safe, AutoGuide continues to scale fast across multiple markets while preserving its nimble, entrepreneurial culture. As I’ve already experienced during my short time with AutoGuide, this is an excellent market to be in today and will be for years to come.”

 
Prior to joining AutoGuide, Harper served as the VP of sales and application engineering at Soft Robotics, Inc., where he was a key member of the executive team responsible for business development, revenue reporting to the board of directors and global leadership. Before Soft Robotics, Harper served for 10 years as the sales director for Festo US, leading and managing sales channels, applications engineering and business development of the US sales division, including Puerto Rico. He has also served as the director of sales, Americas, Australia, New Zealand and Japan for Adept Technologies and the vice president of business development and sales for Bodine Development & Test Systems. Harper holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and MBA from East Carolina University.
 
”Mike’s proven experience in the robotics and engineering fields make him an ideal fit for AutoGuide,” said Rob Sullivan, president and CEO, AutoGuide Mobile Robots. “While none of us has experienced the exact circumstances we’re dealing with today, his level-headed personality and vast knowledge of the inside workings of manufacturing and warehouse environments can help innovative warehouse managers adapt and prepare for this next evolution of material transport. We’ve already seen this situation play out with several prospects in the few weeks Mike has been with us.” 

AutoGuide’s family of advanced high-payload AMRs includes the Max-N15 and Max-N10 tuggers, Max-N10 pallet stacker and SurePath fleet management software, which provides an easy means to specify routes, coordinate autonomous lifting and transport of pallets, and manage the AMRs’ traffic to optimize customers’ material transport. AutoGuide products are easy to deploy and program, improve safety, reduce costs and increase efficiency for a wide range of material-handling operations and are already proven at leading manufacturers and warehouse providers such as Pactiv, Ford and Husqvarna. 

Harper will participate in an upcoming series of webinars to help educate manufacturers and warehouse managers on deploying AMRs in their operations. The first webinar, “Warehouse Automation is No Longer an Option. Now What?” will take place May 20 at 1 p.m. EST.