Michael Bearman is chief legal and safety officer at Vecna Robotics, where he has been part of the team since its founding. A hardware-enabled platform executive with more than 20 years of experience, he has helped scale regulated technology businesses across government and commercial markets, including deploying physical infrastructure at national scale, securing more than $145 million in federal contracts, and supporting more than $100 million in venture fundraising.
Bearman serves as convenor of the ISO Working Group on Robotic Interoperability, is a member of ASTM Subcommittee F45 on Robotics, Automation, and Autonomous Systems and ANSI/RIA R15.08 Industrial Mobile Robots and was a co-lead drafter of the MassRobotics Interoperability Standard.
Michael holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. in international studies from the University of Washington.
Robotics is a key enabler of reshoring production to the U.S., but there is little consensus on how to best encourage it. Most industrial automation is made by foreign-owned companies, but can recent policies such as tariffs and FCC import restrictions help build back manufacturing? This expert panel, which includes representatives of leading robot manufacturers and industry analysts, will examine the need for a national robotics strategy and debate industrial priorities.
