Meet our leadership team

Led by industry veterans with deep software, engineering and manufacturing expertise. Our leaders bring their diverse experiences across major companies to drive success.
Lior Susan
Co-Founder, Executive Chairman
Lior is a seasoned manufacturing and investment leader with a passion for bringing a full-stack approach to legacy industries and building digital bridges to the physical world. In addition to co-founding Bright Machines in 2018, he founded Eclipse Ventures where he is a Managing Partner. Previously, Lior was founder and General Partner at LabIX, the hardware investment platform of Flex where he led investments in companies across energy storage, wireless/infrastructure, 3-D optics, additive manufacturing, and robotics. He also co-founded Farm 2050, was part of the founding team of Elementum and helped build Intucell. He sits on Bright Machines’ Board of Directors and the boards of Owlet Baby Care, Metrolink, Lucira and Augury. Lior is a (Res) of an elite Special Forces unit in the Israel Defense Force.
Paolo Avagliano
Chief Executive Officer
Paolo is a manufacturing and industrial automation executive specializing in strategy, planning, and control of business operations. Prior to his role as CEO, he served as COO for two years where he led the organization’s strategic vision and go-to-market motions for software-defined automation, and built out full-stack technology teams across hardware, software and AI/ML. Before joining Bright Machines, he was Head of Digital for Comau North America, a global industrial automation and robotics company. He’s held several executive roles including Head of Strategy & Planning, Head of Supply Chain, and Head of Manufacturing. He’s also held consulting and management roles at Accenture and Cooper Standard. Paolo holds a Master of Science in Formal Methods from Universita’ degli Studi di Salerno and an MBA from Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.
Sviat Dulianinov
Chief Strategy Officer
Sviat is a seasoned strategy executive with 10 years of strategic management, management consulting, and startup experience across the United States and Europe. Prior to joining Bright Machines, he served as Chief Strategy Officer at Dutch retailer SPAR. Previously, Sviat had a distinct consulting career at Bain & Company and co-founded an airport mobility company. Sviat holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Foreign Languages from MGIMO University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Itai Mendelsohn
SVP Product and R&D
Itai is an experienced product management and R&D leader with over 20 years of technical expertise in robotics, software, networking, cloud, and data-based systems. Prior to joining Bright Machines, he co-founded Intuition Robotics and served as its VP of R&D. He’s also held leadership roles in product management, R&D, and product architecture at Nokia, SAP, and RAD. Itai holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo and a master’s degree in philosophy of science from Tel Aviv University.
Gillian Bregman
General Counsel
Gillian is an experienced corporate attorney with a background supporting a wide range of companies, from startups to large enterprise. Prior to joining Bright Machines, she was interim General Counsel at Divvy Homes, Inc. She has previously held roles at McDonald’s Corporation and Cushman & Wakefield, where she worked on domestic and global matters. Gillian earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Sean Murray
SVP Sales
Sean Murray is a business leader with 25+ years of experience supporting manufacturing, accelerating sustainable & profitable growth, ensuring customer success, and driving business transformation. Before joining Bright Machines, Sean led the Factory Automation business unit for Panasonic North America and held leadership positions at Philips Electronics, Assembleon and IBM. Sean holds an MBA from Kania School of Management and dual Bachelor’s degrees in Business Management and Psychology from the University of Scranton.
Keren Kagan
VP HR
Keren is an HR leader with over 15 years of experience working at both startups and global enterprise companies across human resource functions. Prior to joining Bright Machines, she was the Global HR Leader at WalkMe, where she was instrumental in helping it scale up from a small startup. Earlier in her career, Keren supported strategic HR programs at PMC-Sierra. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from Bar Ilan University.
Amy Spanik
VP Finance
Amy is an experienced accounting and finance executive. Before joining Bright Machines, she was CFO at United Malt Group, leading the effort to demerge the Malt division into a public company. She was also the CFO of the GrainCorp Malt segment of GrainCorp. Earlier in her career, Amy was a senior manager at Ernst & Young. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Portland and has a post baccalaureate certificate in accounting from Washington State University.
Mindy Hsu
VP Supply Chain
Mindy Hsu is a seasoned business operations and supply chain leader, with over 20 years of experience helping tech companies and startups scale. Before joining Bright Machines, she was the Director of Strategic Sourcing and Technology Development for Impossible Foods and held leadership and management positions at Facebook, Reality Labs, Livongo Health, Square, and Apple. Mindy holds a Master’s degree in Engineering Systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA in Operations and Supply Chain from MIT Sloan School of Management, in addition to a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Binghamton University.
Help build the future
As a global team working towards a common goal, we have a highly collaborative and inclusive approach to work that celebrates diverse voices.

Apply your exceptional skills to create the solutions that will define the next generation of manufacturing at Bright Machines.