Helen Greiner (born December 6, 1967) is the co-founder of iRobot and currently CEO of CyPhyWorks.
Helen Greiner holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in computer science, both from MIT. She also holds an honorary doctor of engineering degree from WPI.
Helen Greiner co-founded iRobot, a consumer robotics company headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts. Under her leadership, iRobot delivered robots into the industrial, consumer and military markets. She was one of the three people to design the first version of the iRobot Roomba. She has worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Helen is a Trustee of the Museum of Science (Boston), on the Computer Science Advisory Board of Worcester Polytechnic Institute; and is a Director of National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA).
On October 22, 2008 Helen announced her resignation as Chairman of the Board of iRobot. She was replaced by her fellow co-founder and CEO Colin Angle, who announced: “Helen will continue to serve on iRobot’s board of directors as a non-employee director while pursuing other interests and opportunities within the robot industry.” She is currently the CEO of CyPhyWorks.[1]
In 2011, she was listed at #7 on the MIT150 list of the top 150 innovators and ideas from MIT.
In 2003 Greiner was named one of the Ernst and Young New England Entrepreneurs of the Year for 2003 (with iRobot co-founder Colin Angle).
In 2005 she was awarded "Entrepreneur of the year" by Good Housekeeping.[2]
In 2006, she received the Pioneer Award from the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International(AUVSI).[3]
She received the 2008 Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award for Innovation for her work at iRobot.[4]
She has also been honored as one of Technology Review Magazine's TR100 "Innovators for the Next Century."
She has been awarded the DEMO God Award at the DEMO Conference.
She was named by the Kennedy School at Harvard in conjunction with the U.S. News and World Report as one of America's Best Leaders.
She has also been invited to the World Economic Forum as a Global Leader of Tomorrow.