John Spruce is an experienced executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years in the Aerospace and Defense industries. John has successfully assembled and led diverse teams in the execution of complex business models that combine engineering, manufacturing, and services as well as intellectual property development and licensing. Prior to founding Kane Robotics, John served as CEO of Advanced Steel Recovery where he oversaw the installation of numerous large-scale automation projects around the world. John also served as CEO of Mechtronic Solutions, Inc., an engineering and manufacturing services firm specializing in the development of unique airborne sensor systems for manned and unmanned aircraft for the U.S. Government. John has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo and an MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Ken Daub has nearly 30 years of experience driving financial discipline, capital markets, and M&A activity. Prior to joining Kane Robotics, Ken was an investment banker, private investor in and advisor to several private companies. He was a Managing Director at Bear Stearns and later founded Wilshire Park Advisors, a Los Angeles based investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services and private placements for small- to mid-cap companies. Throughout his career, Ken has successfully advised on a wide range of complex transactions across numerous industries, including domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, sales and divestitures, restructurings, special committee assignments, unsolicited acquisitions and hostile defense as well as debt, equity and equity-linked offerings with aggregate values totaling in excess of $40 billion. Ken began his career as a CPA and quickly rose to the position of Audit Manager with Coopers & Lybrand.

In addition, since 2008, Ken has served on the board of Advanced Steel Recovery, a highly innovative, privately held scrap steel processor and broker, ranked among the top container exporters in the U.S. Advanced Steel Recovery invented and holds several patents related to FASTek, the world’s first machine designed to fully automate the containerization of scrap metal.

Ken graduated with the degrees of B.S. in Business and Economics from Lehigh University and M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Alan Hiken is a Subject Matter Expert in Composites Manufacturing with more than 35 years of experience in the Aerospace and Defense Industries. His expertise includes hands-on experience in the design and manufacture of advanced composite structures and elastomer-based products for high-performance applications. He previously served as VP of Operations and VP of Engineering & Technology at Rubbercraft Corporation where his responsibilities included overseeing the development and deployment of the company’s elastomeric tooling for composites manufacturing. Alan previously worked for Northrop Grumman in El Segundo, CA and held composite intensive leadership positions such as:

Alan received his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Alan holds a patent related to composite processing and is a published author and presenter.

Paul Ekegren has over 25 years of experience designing, prototyping, and testing various types of machines and mechanisms. Prior to joining Kane Robotics, Paul served as Chief Engineer at MicroDexterity Systems which developed surgical robotic systems that were successful in several cadaver labs. MicroDexterity was acquired by Stryker Corporation where he served as Principal engineer for nine years designing and developing several parallel and serial robotic arms in force control applications. Paul has also designed large industrial automation systems such as FASTek for Advanced Steel Recovery.  Paul led the team for FASTek, which revolutionized how an industry loads scrap steel into shipping containers, by taking an inventors concept and designed the first of its kind, commercial product. Paul has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico.