Don Burnette is the Founder & CEO of Kodiak Robotics. Don is one of the autonomous vehicle industry’s true pioneers, with more than ten years experience working on self-driving software development. He began his career as a software tech lead for the Google self-driving car project, the predecessor to Waymo. After over five years at Google, Don left the company to co-found Otto, the first self-driving truck startup, which was acquired by Uber. After nearly two years as Software Technical Lead at Uber, Don left to found Kodiak.

Andreas Wendel is the Chief Technology Officer at Kodiak. As one of Kodiak’s founding engineers, Andy has built the company’s engineering team from the ground up. Prior to joining Kodiak, Andy was the Perception Tech Lead at Waymo, where he was part of the small team that launched the first driverless car on public roads. Prior to joining Waymo, Andy earned a PhD from Graz University of Technology in Austria, where he headed the Aerial Vision Group and lectured at the Institute for Computer Graphics and Vision. Andy has received multiple recognitions for his outstanding work, including being named Austria’s Innovator of the Year.

Gerhard Eschelbeck is Kodiak’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Gerhard draws on his more than 25 years of experience to guide Kodiak’s cybersecurity and data security strategy and team. Gerhard is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on network and system security. Prior to joining Kodiak, Gerhard served as CISO at Aurora and Google. He has held several Chief Technology Officer and executive engineering roles for companies including Sophos, Webroot and Qualys. He also served as Digital and Technology Advisor to the International Olympic Committee for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and as a member of the supervisory board for Deutsche Bank. Gerhard holds a doctorate and master’s degree in computer science from the University of Linz, Austria.

James Reed serves as Kodiak’s Chief Operating Officer. James brings to Kodiak over 25 years of experience in technology, manufacturing, banking, logistics, and finance. Prior to joining Kodiak, James served as President and CEO of USA Truck, a publicly traded logistics and transportation company. He also served on USA Truck’s Board of Directors. Before USA Truck, James was Chief Financial Officer of Interstate Distributor Co. and President of its subsidiaries Interstate Distributor Logistics and Spectrum Logistics. He previously held corporate and operational finance roles at Intel Corp, EMC, T-Mobile USA, and Chase. James graduated from Brigham Young University with his bachelor’s degree and also his master’s in business administration.

Eric Chow is VP of Finance at Kodiak Robotics. Prior to joining Kodiak, Eric spent over a decade focused on developing and executing M&A strategy at Visa, HP and Microsoft. He began his career providing financial advisory with Lazard’s Technology, Media and Telecom Mergers and Acquisitions practice.  Eric earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at the University of California’s Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Jordan Coleman is the General Counsel and Vice President of Policy at Kodiak Robotics where he leads the company’s legal and policy teams to ensure the safe and rapid deployment of self-driving trucks. Jordan is proud to be the first in-house general counsel in the autonomous trucking industry. As a member of the Kodiak executive team, he helps create the strategy for the company at large while also taking a leading role on investor relations, government and external affairs, safety, and business development. Before joining Kodiak, Jordan developed a wealth of experience and deep expertise in the technology industry, specifically with high-growth startups. He was an attorney for Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he specialized in representing technology companies at various stages of their life cycles and was named a “Rising Star” in 2015-2018 by Super Lawyers. Previously, he was an attorney at DLA Piper, a global law firm located in more than 40 countries.

Jamie Hoffacker is Kodiak’s VP of Hardware. Jamie joined Kodiak after serving as  Director of Sensors and Electronics at Lyft’s Level 5 autonomy program, where he was one of the founding engineers. Prior to joining Lyft Level 5, Jamie spent five years at Google Maps, where he designed and deployed next-generation cameras, Lidar and electronics for the company’s mapping fleet, including Google’s Street View and aerial applications. Jamie earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida.

Zsuzsanna Major is VP of People at Kodiak, and is responsible for developing Kodiak’s human capital. Before joining Kodiak, Zsuzsanna was VP of People Operations at Kitty Hawk (previously Zee.Aero), a leading developer of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft “flying cars”. Zsuzsanna was Zee.Aero’s employee #2. During her eight-year tenure, Zsuzsanna grew the Kitty Hawk team to more than 230 employees, spanning three different aircraft projects. Prior to Zee.Aero, Zsuzsanna held a position of Business Operations Manager at OQO, a startup developing handheld computers in San Francisco. Zsuzsanna graduated from Concordia University in Montreal with a Bachelor of Commerce in International Business. 

Michael Wiesinger is the Vice President of Commercialization at Kodiak, and responsible for driving business development and major partnerships, defining Kodiak’s commercial product and deploying it with the mission to optimize value for Kodiak’s customers.Michael spent most of his career in the automotive and supply chain industries. Michael worked for Detroit Diesel, a Daimler Truck subsidiary, before he joined BCG, where he focused on strategy, operations and supply chain topics for some of the world’s largest automotive OEMs. He was also part of the team that launched Ware2Go, a UPS company, where he built the company’s initial warehouse network and led all supply chain related topics. During his time at business school, Michael launched a new ride pooling service for Gett in London.