Robert S. Bauer

Executive Director of Commercialization

Willow Garage

Dr. Robert S. Bauer (Bob) has over 30 years of leadership in turning innovative technologies into profitable strategic advantages. He joined Xerox's famed Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) in its inaugural year of 1970. He led the System Sciences Laboratory and created PARC's Advanced Systems Development lab, as well as managing Xerox Corporate R&T investment and IP in software and systems. Bob has incubated and helped create companies that leverage proprietary technology, each of which were acquired for over $100 Million, SDL being the largest at $42 Billion. He is the former VP and founding CTO of Xerox Global Services from 2002-06. In 2006 Bob became CTO of H5, a San Francisco start-up that he guided to become the NIST-certified leader in High Recall search. He is currently Executive Director of Commercialization at Willow Garage, a Menlo Park company dedicated to spawning and participating in the personal robotics industry. Dr. Bauer earned MS and Ph.D. degrees in E.E. from Stanford. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and has been an adviser to the National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, UNESCO and Departments of Commerce, Defense and Homeland Security, as well as numerous start-ups and VCs – most recently as a Partnership Board Member at DeepBridge Capital LLP.