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Damien Kieran joins Genesis AI as Head of Legal after executive roles at Tools for Humanity, X and Google
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Pally Kumar named Head of Operations, bringing experience from Tesla, Amazon and Lyft
Genesis AI, a global full-stack robotics company, announced the appointments of two senior leaders as the company rapidly expands its talent pool and accelerates toward the introduction of its first general-purpose robot. Damien Kieran, who was formerly Chief Legal and Privacy Officer at Sam Altman’s Tools for Humanity and Chief Privacy Officer and Deputy General Counsel at X, joins as Head of Legal. Pally Kumar has been appointed Head of Operations, and has leadership experience in robotics, manufacturing and operations from Tesla, Amazon, Lyft and Cobot.
“Genesis AI is drawing in an incredible bench of talent as we continue to scale at an extraordinary pace,” said Zhou Xian, Co-Founder and CEO of Genesis AI. “Together, these new appointments bring deep expertise across AI, robotics, data privacy, operations and global business strategy at a pivotal, and incredibly exciting, moment for our company.”
Damien Kieran, Head of Legal
As Head of Legal, Damien Kieran will oversee Genesis AI’s legal and policy interests globally, providing counsel for the company as it scales its next-generation AI and robotics technologies, and grows its international operations. Qualified to practice law in both Europe and the United States, Kieran is uniquely positioned to support Genesis AI’s international footprint. In addition, his background in data protection and security, and emerging technologies will be an invaluable asset as Genesis AI advances its large-scale data collection initiatives designed to power the next era of intelligent robotic systems.
“Physical AI will profoundly change the world as we know it, and I want to be part of a company doing it the right way,” said Kieran. “Genesis has the technical ambition, the seriousness and the long-term vision to lead this transformation responsibly. That conviction is what drew me to the company.”
Kieran brings decades of experience advising disruptive technology companies through periods of rapid growth and global expansion. Most recently, he served as Chief Legal and Privacy Officer at Tools for Humanity, the AI-driven biometric identity company founded by Sam Altman and Alex Blania, where he helped lead the organization through a critical phase of hyper-growth. Prior to that, he served as General Counsel at BeReal, Chief Privacy Officer and Deputy General Counsel at Twitter (now X), and provided legal counsel for Google.
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Pally Kumar, Head of Operations
Pally Kumar joins Genesis AI as Head of Operations, overseeing the scaling and operations of the company’s data collection and manufacturing initiatives. Genesis AI is working to collect real-world robotics training data with the use of tactile-sensing data collection gloves in active work environments. By partnering with enterprises and workers to wear the gloves while performing everyday tasks, Genesis AI is able to capture vast amounts of human data to create the world’s largest human skill library. This immense dataset will be used to power Genesis AI’s recently unveiled innovations, including the industry’s most advanced robotic brain, GENE-26.5, and the company’s dexterous robotic hand.
Kumar brings extensive experience scaling complex robotics and hardware products from early-stage development through large-scale deployment. His background spans engineering, manufacturing, operations, supply chain and program leadership, with a track record of building execution systems in fast-moving technical environments. Prior to Genesis AI, Kumar served as Director of Manufacturing at robotics company, Cobot, and previously held leadership roles at Tesla, Amazon and Lyft.
“I have spent my career taking hardware from prototypes to scale at Tesla, Amazon and Cobot, and the pattern is always the same,” said Kumar. “The breakthroughs are real, but the companies that win are the ones that build a strong operational backbone behind them. Genesis is doing the hard things in the right order, and I wanted in. I’m looking forward to developing the foundational operating systems and infrastructure needed to bring the company’s ambitious full stack of technology into the real world at scale.”
These new hires add a wealth of experience to Genesis AI as the company prepares to introduce its first general-purpose robot. Genesis AI has rapidly emerged as a disruptive player in AI and robotics, recently raising $105 million in seed funding. It is backed by Eclipse, Khosla Ventures, Bpifrance and HSG, as well as visionary leaders including Eric Schmidt and Xavier Niel, and AI pioneers Daniela Rus and Vladlen Koltun.