Universal Robots hires Douglas Peterson as General Manager of Americas Region

ODENSE, Denmark

Since entering the North American market in the fall of 2012, Universal Robots has pioneered the emergence of collaborative robots – or cobots – penetrating a wide range of industries coast to coast. With a doubling of year to year revenue, the Danish robot manufacturer is expanding its local presence, adding to its existing office in Long Island, NY, a string of new regional sales and support offices in Ann Arbor, MI, Irvine, CA, Dallas, TX, and Mexico City with future short range plans to expand into South America.

Chief Commercial Officer of Universal Robots, Daniel Friis, welcomes the new General Manager, emphasizing how Peterson will be key in the rapid expansion process:

“Douglas Peterson has a proven track record of more than 25 years in industrial automation and electronics manufacturing; spearheading strategic leadership, successfully building up sales channels and expanding them internationally. We’re excited to have him lead the Americas team into the next growth phase.”

Douglas Peterson comes to Universal Robots from a CEO position with Tennessee Industrial Electronics, a leader in refurbished FANUC CNC and robot parts. Prior to this he was President of Rittal Corporation, a US division of a global manufacturer of industrial and IT enclosures. He also held executive positions within Belden and Phoenix Contact and a wide range of leadership positions within General Electric, overseeing areas such as the Americas CNC Business and GE FANUC Automation.

“What really attracted me to Universal Robots is the clear value proposition their collaborative robots present to both end users and channel partners,” said Peterson. “The company is not only innovative, entrepreneurial and fast growing, it also has all the benefits of a larger corporation with the backing of its parent company, Teradyne. Being the commercial leader of a company like this on the forefront of industrial automation and leading in the emerging collaborative robotics segment was an opportunity I could not turn down.”

Peterson looks forward to expanding the already strong distribution base, adding more channel partners such as system integrators and vertical market distributors, as well as expanding sales and technical support at the new UR offices.

“Opening up new hubs in our growth regions, brings us closer to our distributors, end users, and value added partners, enabling us to offer unparalleled service and support,” says Peterson.

About Universal Robots
Universal Robots is the result of many years of intensive research at Denmark’s successful robot cluster, which is located in Odense, Denmark. The company was established in 2005 by three researchers, Esben Østergaard, Kasper Støy and Kristian Kassow. They wanted to make robot technology accessible to all by developing small, user-friendly, reasonably priced, flexible industrial robots that are safe to collaborate with and that on their own can be used to automate and streamline processes in the industry. The product portfolio includes the collaborative UR3, UR5 and UR10 robotic arms named after their payload in kilos. Since the first UR robot was launched in December 2008, the company has experienced considerable growth with the user-friendly robots now sold in more than 50 countries worldwide. At just 195 days, the average payback period for UR robots is the fastest in the industry. The company is headquartered in Odense and has subsidiaries and regional offices in the U.S., Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Singapore, India and China. Universal Robots has more than 270 employees worldwide. For more information, go to www.universal-robots.com or visit the company blog.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160620006181/en/

Press Contact:
McCall Media
Mette McCall, +1 415-847-8649
Mette@McCallMedia.net
or
Company Contact:
Universal Robots
Douglas Peterson, +1 937-207-3611
General Manager, Americas Region
dpe@universal-robots.com