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Boston Dynamics' Robert Playter is stepping down as CEO after six years in the role and more than 30 years with the company, according to a staff memo he sent to employees on Tuesday.Playter's last day will be February 27, the memo said.
Amanda McMaster, Boston Dynamics' chief financial officer, will serve as interim CEO, while the company board searches for its next chief executive, Playter wrote.In a statement to Business Insider, Boston Dynamics said Playter had guided the company from its early days of "hopping robots" to Spot, the quadruped robot."He transformed Boston Dynamics from a small research and development lab into a successful business that now proudly calls itself the global leader in mobile robotics," the company said in the statement. "He will be sorely missed, but we hope he enjoys some well-deserved time off. Thanks, Rob."A spokesperson for Boston Dynamics said Playter will not play any advisory role and will be spending time off with his friends and family.Playter's retirement comes on the heels of Boston Dynamics' unveiling of Atlas, a six-foot-tall humanoid robot, and in the midst of a global humanoid robot race.Atlas has been advertised as the factory worker of the future. Hyundai, which owns a majority stake in Boston Dynamics, said it expected the robot to hit the factory floor by 2028, starting with simpler tasks."We've been doing this for a long time. But for us to be approaching a point where we're really thinking about commercializing the humanoid, I don't know that we expected that years ago," Playter told Business Insider at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.Playter first joined Boston Dynamics in 1994, shortly after pursuing a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.During his tenure, Playter saw the robotics startup change multiple hands. The company was first acquired by Google, then SoftBank, and most recently by Hyundai Motor Group.Playter told Business Insider he was overseeing a team of nearly 1,100 people.Read the memo Playter sent to staff on Tuesday:
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