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Impel Strengthens C-Suite, Adding Veteran Auto Tech Execs as CTO and CPO, and Creating 3 New Executive Positions Amid Aggressive Global Expansion

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“Impel is at the forefront of the AI revolution, and these leadership additions will enable us to deliver a single, unified AI platform and solidify our position as the de facto standard for enterprise-grade automotive AI around the world,” said Impel CEO and Co-founder Devin Daly.

SYRACUSE, N.Y., Aug. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Impel, the global leader in AI Sales and Marketing automation for the automotive industry, announced today a number of executive leadership hires and new positions aimed at enhancing enterprise scale and positioning the company for continued long-term expansion. This announcement comes at a time of significant growth for Impel and follows the company’s recently announced acquisition of Outsell, a leading automotive customer engagement platform, in a deal valued at more than $100 million.

“Impel is at the forefront of the AI revolution, and these leadership additions and changes will enable us to deliver a single, unified AI platform and solidify our position as the de facto standard for enterprise grade Automotive AI around the world.”

Eric Portman joins the Company as Chief Technology Officer. An experienced enterprise technologist and engineering leader, Portman has over three decades of experience in designing and delivering mission critical solutions across various industries. Prior to joining Impel, Portman served as Senior Vice President of Product and Engineering at Cox Automotive, where he led a team of more than 1,200 product and engineering professionals around the globe. At Cox, he spearheaded product and technology innovation, including the technical integration of acquired products. Additionally, Portman led the development of proprietary data and machine learning-powered applications, process automation, and customer solutions to drive significant revenue growth and operational efficiencies. Earlier in his career, Portman was Partner and Managing Director in the Technology practice at Accenture, where he delivered technology-powered change programs for clients like Disney, the National Football League, and BellSouth (subsequently acquired by AT&T, Inc.).

“As the category creator and industry standard for enterprise grade Automotive AI, Impel is uniquely positioned to bring cutting-edge AI-enabled process and technology automation to OEMs, dealers, marketplaces, and technology providers alike,” said Portman. “In today’s global economy, helping the industry to effectively adopt and implement purpose-built AI solutions at scale is a strategic imperative to ensure sustained operational performance and profitability. I’m delighted to be a part of this organization, and I can’t wait to contribute to Impel’s vision of a unified AI platform that powers all channels and touchpoints throughout the automotive retail ecosystem.”

Matthew Muilenburg joins Impel as Chief Product Officer. A seasoned technology and product development executive, Muilenburg previously served as Chief Market Development Officer at Marchex, a leading AI-powered conversational intelligence provider. There, he led the unification of the company’s solutions into a verticalized technology platform, leading to significant business growth across multiple sectors. As Senior Vice President and Head of Industry for Automotive at Marchex, Muilenburg established industry dominance in conversational intelligence by delivering verticalized OEM solutions and landing key enterprise clients including General Motors, Ford, Stellantis, and Honda Motors of America. Prior to that, Muilenburg served as Vice President of Global OEM Solutions at CDK, where he led global market expansion as well as product strategy and platform integration of numerous acquisitions. Earlier in his career, Muilenberg held roles as Vice President of Social Media Products at ADP and Vice President of Product Solutions at Cobalt Group.

“Impel has an established track record of success in enabling automotive manufacturers and retailers to deliver consistently exceptional experiences across the customer journey, while enhancing operational efficiency and profitability,” said Muilenburg. “As we bring to market the auto industry’s first end-to-end AI Sales and Marketing Automation platform, the opportunities for growth are limitless. I look forward to working with the team to deliver AI and technology innovations that drive unprecedented levels of success for automotive enterprises around the world.”

John Clavadetscher, formerly President of Outsell, has been named Impel’s Chief Commercial Officer. A veteran automotive industry leader, Clavadetscher brings more than 25 years of experience successfully scaling high-growth software and digital companies. At Outsell, Clavadetscher was instrumental in dramatically increasing revenue, bookings, and retention, which led to the acquisition by Impel. Prior to Outsell, Clavadetscher was on the founding team and served as President of Cooler Screens Inc., the largest in-store digital retail media platform in the US. Previously, Clavadetscher was on the founding team and subsequently spent 20 years at Cars Commerce (NYSE: CARS), a leading automotive technology company that includes Cars.com, Dealer Inspire, and AccuTrade. While there, he scaled the company’s go-to-market operations, accelerating revenue and retention in various leadership roles. He was serving as Chief Revenue Officer, leading the commercial and operations functions, when the company went public in 2017.

Steve Saporta, formerly Chief Technology Officer, has been named Impel’s Chief Information Security Officer. This new role reflects the critical importance of global data security and privacy. Data breaches and cyberattacks are a pressing concern worldwide, with the average cost of a breach reaching $4.88 million in 2024 (the highest yearly jump since the pandemic), according to IBM’s Data Breach Report. The business and reputational risks of cyber incidents are higher than ever, and the need for trusted partner policies and systems is paramount. In his new role, Saporta will spearhead Impel’s continued development and delivery of world-class global information security, privacy, and data protection policies, protocols, processes, and systems. Additionally, he will oversee the continued availability and reliability of the Company’s SaaS (Software as a Service) and AI solutions, ensuring optimal performance for the automotive retailers and OEMs who depend on Impel technology to support core business operations.

Andrew Lumsden, formerly Chief Product Officer, has been appointed to the newly created role of Senior Vice President of Platform Services. As Impel continues to make significant inroads with automotive OEMs, marketplaces, and enterprise groups around the world, the ability to deliver customized enterprise applications and globally scalable platforms has become critical to company growth. To meet these needs, Lumsden will lead the development of shared services and applications, as well as expanding the company’s ecosystem of technical integrations and client engineering capabilities across the globe. Additionally, Lumsden will spearhead the development of enterprise-level product testing and experimentation processes, enabling greater data utilization and application across the company.

“The adoption of AI in automotive is accelerating at a breakneck pace across all geographies and sectors of the industry. Vertical AI models and applications are becoming indispensable to automotive retailers, marketplaces, and OEMs around the world as the foundational engine that unlocks additional value from existing data and operational systems,” said Devin Daly, CEO and Co-Founder of Impel. “Our recent acquisition of Outsell creates a powerhouse of more than 170 Engineering, R&D, and Product Development specialists focused on creating unparalleled AI solutions and seamlessly integrated products – and we’ll continue to scale the organization to drive global growth. Impel is at the forefront of the AI revolution, and these leadership additions will enable us to deliver a single, unified AI platform and solidify our position as the de facto standard for enterprise grade Automotive AI around the world. I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Eric and Matt to the team, and to see John, Steve and Andrew take on critical new roles where they’ll continue to make meaningful impact on our business. Onward!”

About Impel

Impel offers automotive dealers, OEMs, and third-party marketplaces the industry’s most advanced AI-powered customer lifecycle platform. The company’s end-to-end omnichannel solution leverages proprietary shopper behavioral data and generative conversational AI technology to deliver hyper-personalized experiences at every touchpoint. Impel’s fully integrated platform works seamlessly with all major website, CRM, and DMS platforms. To date, the company has delivered 22 billion shopper interactions, influencing $6 billion in Sales and Service revenue across 51 countries. To learn more about Impel, visit impel.ai.

Media Contact

Alexis Cardona, Impel, 1 844-384-6735, alexis@impel.ai, https://impel.ai

View original content:https://www.prweb.com/releases/impel-strengthens-c-suite-adding-veteran-auto-tech-execs-as-cto-and-cpo-and-creating-3-new-executive-positions-amid-aggressive-global-expansion-302215002.html

SOURCE Impel

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

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Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

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New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry 

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry. 

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedInXFacebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/air-products-to-expand-industrial-gas-supply-for-samsung-electronics-next-generation-semiconductor-fab-in-south-korea-302757497.html

SOURCE Air Products

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