Autonomous robot delivery specialist Starship Technologies has recruited former Morrisons CEO Dalton Philips.
Philips was CEO at the supermarket giant from 2010 to 2015. He is currently CEO of daa plc. As well as his role at Morrisons he also held roles including chief operating officer of Loblaw – Canada’s leading retailer, CEO Brown Thomas Group, and chief operating officer of both Walmart Brazil and Walmart Germany.
Dalton Philips said: “Cracking the last mile – as in exceeding customer expectations at a cost that is economically accretive for the retailer – has been the ultimate goal of all digitally connected businesses for the last decade. Starship Technologies has developed both the hardware and software which will allow global retailers to now realise this ambition.”
Starship’s co-founder and CTO Ahti Heinla, added: “Dalton brings an enormous amount of retail experience and nous to Starship. He understands the customer, and critically he understands the challenges needed to succeed in the last-mile delivery space.”
Starship announced in July that Alastair Westgarth had been appointed as the company’s new CEO, joining from Alphabet’s Loon, which started as part of X, Google’s Moonshot Factory.
Starship’s zero-emission robots have made more than 1.6 million autonomous deliveries, travelled millions of miles and make more than 80,000 road crossings every day.
