Strategic Alliances and Partnerships

Colin Angle, Co-founder and CEO, iRobot Corp.
Colin Angle guides the strategic direction of iRobot. He is a true pioneer in the field of mobile robots, designing the behavior-controlled rovers for NASA that led to the Sojourner exploring Mars in 1997. But more importantly, Mr. Angle has pioneered business models and relationships responsible for the introduction of multiple commercially viable robotic products in commercial and consumer markets. His vision and commitment were recognized when he was named 2003 Ernst and Young New England Entrepreneurs of the Year, along with iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner. This prestigious award lauds his vision, skills, accomplishments, and determination in fostering the growth of a brainchild into a successful business. Mr. Angle holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and M.S. in Computer Science, both from MIT.

iRobot is leading the charge in the emerging commercial robotics market and is committed to building robots for the real world. Its practical, state-of-the-art iRobot Roomba® is revolutionizing home cleaning while iRobot PackBot® is helping protect the soldiers. 

Tom Black, President, Easton Investment
Tom Black has extensive experience both as an entrepreneur building businesses and as an advocate/mentor to other entrepreneurs, helping them build their businesses. Mr. Black began his professional career with the Bank of Boston as a lender to the real estate industry. His banking experience led him to establish and build a Dallas loan production office for the bank which serviced all of the major real estate developers in Texas . Wanting to exercise an entrepreneurial urge, Mr. Black became a developer himself, building a division within a national company, and developing three suburban office buildings and four garden apartment complexes. He raised $120 million in debt and equity, and hired and managed seven support staff.

In 1992, Mr. Black joined the Massachusetts Office of Business Development where he initially helped many small businesses restructure and refinance. Subsequently he helped many start-ups find financing and team members. Mr. Black founded Easton Investment Company in 1998 to finance and help grow start-ups of all types. He serves on the boards of Jarg Corporation, Mapleworks Technologies, and Simplymedia as well as The Capital Network and Harvard Alumni Start-ups; and is president of Enterprise 2000. Mr. Black is a veteran of the US Navy and a graduate of Harvard College .

Norman Strate, Past CEO, Protonex Technology
Norman Strate, has thirty-five years of business experience with major corporations, both in the United States and abroad. He has been involved in several successful turnaround situations and has served as Chief Executive Officer and principal shareholder of J. F. Jelenko & Co., which company has since been sold to Heraeus Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Heraeus Holdings, GmbH.

Among the companies with whom Mr. Strate has worked are RCA, Hertz ( primarily in Europe ), Showtime (a venture of Viacom and Teleprompter) and Talon. He was a member of the buyout group, which acquired Talon from Textron in 1981 and was instrumental in implementing a significant restructuring and highly successful turnaround there.

Mr. Strate graduated from Lehigh University in 1962 with a B.S. degree in Accounting, In 1965, he received an L.L.B. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and is a member of the bar in Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia . He also served as an officer in the U.S. Army.

Mr. Strate is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Dentex Corporation and has also served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Fellows at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He served on the Lehigh University Alumni board and is a frequent speaker at various professional and business forums. Mr Strate is past CEO of Protonex Technology corporation, a PEM fuel cell company focused on affordable power in the 10 watt - 500 watt range. He has also been elected to the board of directors of the Gies Foundation of the American Dental Education Association. .

Mike Chester, President, International Manufacturing Consultants
Mike Chester ( [email protected] ), has founded and built several companies, set up manufacturing operations, set up global joint ventures and commercialized technologies. He spent 16 years with IBM designing robots and automation, marketing and selling IBM products to manufacturing companies, setting up global operations and supply chains, and founding an IBM consulting organization for manufacturing clients which he grew into a $20M business. Mr. Chester served as VP of Business Development for Tonbu, a startup which enabled manufacturing and engineering organizations to collaborate on product development and speed up time to market. Tonbu raised $36M and grew to 142 employees at its peak.

Mr. Chester lived in China for one year while consulting to companies owned by the Machine Building Ministry and taught graduate courses at Hunan University . He has also competed on the TV show Robot Wars. Mr. Chester earned a BS in Electrical Engineering and MS in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University and a MBA from Union College . He serves on the boards of the IEEE Entrepreneurs’ Network, APICS Boston, the IEEE (Region I), and is on the planning committee of the MIT Enterprise Forum.