Helen Greiner
CoFounder and Chairman of the Board
iRobot Corporation

Under Helen Greiner's leadership, iRobot Corporation is delivering robots into the industrial, consumer and military markets. iRobot became a household name in 2002 with the Roomba, the hands-off, robotic vacuum cleaner. When that product launched, it was a marketing phenomenon, redefining household chores and promising to make tedious tasks easier, at prices that most people could afford. Since then, iRobot has sold more than 1.2 million units and expanded this successful design to create the Scooba, a mopping robot.

More importantly, the company realized that there were ways robots could save people's lives―and as a result developed the PackBots series. These robots explore places where soldiers shouldn’t, for instance, Afghan caves and mine-infested battlefields. They are also being continuously upgraded to perform new functions, like detecting snipers in the field. The US government currently has over 200 of these tactical mobile robots in use.

And iRobot isn’t ready to stop there. In the works are projects as varied as robots that help out around the home, controlled online or via remote control, and unmanned ground vehicles, in collaboration with John Deere.

In acknowledgement of these out-of-the-box solutions to real life challenges, Helen was recently named one of the Ernst and Young New England Entrepreneurs of the Year for 2003 (with iRobot co-founder Colin Angle). Selected from entrants across New England, she was cited for her experience, expertise and innovation. She has been honored as a Technology Review Magazine "Innovator for the Next Century," invited to the World Economic Forums as a Global Leader of Tomorrow, and has been awarded the prestigious DEMO God Award at the DEMO Conference. Her 15 years of experience in robotic technology includes work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Helen holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in computer science, both from MIT. Helen is an alumna of the Springboard New England 2002 venture capital program hosted by the Center for Women & Enterprise.