Physical AI firm Agility Robotics announces appointment of Michael Beer as its new Chief Financial Officer
Agility Robotics, a humanoid robotics and physical AI company, has announced the appointment of Michael Beer as Chief Financial Officer ahead of its planned public listing through a previously announced business combination with Churchill Capital Corp XI.
Current Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Hunter will transition to serving exclusively as Chief Operating Officer.
As Chief Financial Officer, Beer will oversee Agility's finance organisation, including capital markets, financial planning and analysis, accounting, treasury and investor relations. He will lead the company's financial strategy and partner with the executive leadership team to support Agility's commercial expansion, execution, and long-term growth strategy.
The company reports deployments with customers including Schaeffler, GXO and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada while advancing a pipeline of more than 30 enterprise customers across logistics, manufacturing and supply chain operations. Following its previously announced business combination with Churchill Capital Corp XI, which is expected to provide more than $620 million in gross proceeds, and with the support of investors and partners including NVIDIA, Amazon, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Schaeffler, Foxconn, Abico, DCVC, and Playground Global, Agility says it is well positioned to accelerate production and expand customer deployments.
"We're entering an exciting new chapter for Agility as we continue scaling customer deployments, expanding production and preparing to operate as a public company," says Peggy Johnson, Chief Executive Officer at Agility Robotics. "Strengthening our leadership team is a natural step in that evolution. As our business has grown, the scope and importance of both our finance and operations organisations have expanded significantly. Michael brings outstanding public company finance and capital markets experience, while Jennifer, with her prior experience as a publicly traded COO, will focus exclusively on scaling our operational excellence and manufacturing capabilities. Together, they create an even stronger leadership team to execute on the tremendous opportunity ahead and deliver long-term value for our shareholders."
Prior to joining Agility Robotics, Beer served as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Corporate Services at Energy Vault Holdings. Earlier in his career, he held senior finance leadership roles at technology companies and spent more than a decade as an equity research analyst covering the global transportation, logistics and infrastructure sectors at Citigroup, Wolfe Research and Bear Stearns.
"Agility has built an exceptional business with clear technology leadership, growing commercial traction and a disciplined approach to execution," he says. "The opportunity ahead is extraordinary, and I'm excited to join the company at such an important stage of its journey. I look forward to partnering with Peggy, the executive leadership team, and our employees as we continue scaling the business, deepening relationships with customers and the investment community, and creating long-term value for our shareholders."
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
Robotics will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
