Nauto Appoints Microsoft and Waymo Execs In New Leadership Roles

Palo Alto, CA — Autonomous vehicle technology company Nauto, whose artificial intelligence-powered system and data platform is helping improve fleet safety today and informing the development of self-driving technology in the auto industry, has named ex-Microsoft executive Sanket Akerkar as Senior Vice President, Global Fleets and Insurance, and Jennifer Haroon, most recently from Waymo, as Head of Corporate Development and Business Operations. Both will be based in Nauto's Palo Alto headquarters and will report to Nauto CEO and Founder Stefan Heck.

Mr. Akerkar is spearheading Nauto's global growth among its key commercial fleet and insurance business lines in North America, Japan, Europe, and additional regions around the globe. Most recently, he was Vice President of Microsoft's Global Enterprise Sector, where he oversaw sales, services and marketing for its largest global commercial relationships and was responsible for $5 billion in annual revenue and 900 sales and technical professionals around the world. He joined Microsoft in 2003 and while there, assumed roles with increasing regional and global responsibility, including Global lead of Enterprise Sales Excellence, Chief Evangelist for the U.S., and Managing Director of Microsoft India. Prior to that he spent 6 years with McKinsey & Company. He earned a Masters in Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelors of Science in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.

In her new role, Ms. Haroon will lead Nauto's corporate development initiatives, including partnerships and acquisitions, and overseeing their management and execution through Nauto's business operations. She joins Nauto from Waymo, where she spent three years as Head of Business Operations and was the first business hire in what was formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project. Prior to Waymo, she held several significant strategy and operational roles at Google from 2008 to 2014. Before Google, she was with The Boston Consulting Group in San Francisco and Stockholm. She earned a Masters in Business Administration from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley and a Bachelors of Science from Duke University.

"Nauto's value to our clients and partners increases exponentially with scale, and we now have executives who are uniquely skilled and experienced in leading global expansion and operating within and on behalf of some of the world's most dynamic and respected companies," said Dr. Heck. "From our time together at McKinsey through his tenure at Microsoft, I always valued Sanket's insight and respected his leadership ability and performance. Jennifer is truly a veteran in the autonomous vehicle space, and brings an incredible network, business acumen, drive and creative thinking to Nauto. We're fortunate to have them lead our growth and to help us realize our mission to deliver smarter, safer driving around the world."

"Nauto is truly transforming transportation and informing some of the biggest innovations in business today with an unmatched ability to generate precise insights and understand human driving behavior," said Akerkar. "I'm excited to join Stefan, Jennifer and the rest of the Nauto team in expanding our business worldwide."

"In founding Nauto, Stefan conceived of an ingenious approach to realizing safer and more efficient driving by starting with an after-market solution that can be networked across a range of vehicles to have a positive impact today," said Haroon. "It's exciting to be working with Nauto's key strategic automotive and other partners to deliver Nauto's game-changing fleet management solutions and insights."

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About Nauto

Nauto® is the only real-time AI-powered Driver and Fleet Safety Platform able to help predict, prevent, and reduce high-risk events in the mobility ecosystem. By analyzing billions of data points from over 650 million AI-analyzed video miles, Nauto's machine learning algorithms continuously improve and help to impact driver behavior before events happen, not after. Nauto has enabled the largest commercial fleets in the world to avoid more than 25,000 collisions, resulting in nearly $180 million in savings.

Nauto is located in North America, Japan, and Europe. Learn more at nauto.com or on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

For media inquiries, contact press@nauto.com.

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