Joe van Niekerk

Co-Founder & CTO at Vantage Robotics

Joe van Niekerk is the Co-Founder and CTO at Vantage Robotics. Joe has over 15 years of experience in the technology industry and has held various positions including CTO, Inventor, and Principal Engineer.

Joe's previous company, Xensr, was a BLE motion tracker for athletes. Joe was with the company from February 2012 to October 2014.

Before that, Joe was with ShadowBox from December 2008 to November 2011. Joe was an inventor and principal engineer there, working on 3d motion tracking to measure jump heights and trajectories of athletes.

From January 2004 to December 2011, Joe was a co-founder at 219 Design. Joe worked on various projects, but their main focus was on 3d motion tracking.

From January 2004 to June 2006, Joe worked as a project engineer at Volkswagen ERL. Joe was responsible for building the drive-by-wire system for the race winning Touareg in the 2005 DARPA grand challenge. Joe also designed and built an antilock brake system for an Audi mountain bike.

Joe van Niekerk has a MSc in Engineering from Stanford University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cape Town.

Joe van Niekerk reports to Tobin Fisher, Co-Founder & CEO. Some direct reports include Aaron Breen - Director, Mechanical Engineering, Vijay Santhakumar - Director, Electrical Engineering. Joe van Niekerk works with Lisa Sanders-Nakahara - VP, People & Chief of Staff, Geoffrey Hitchcock - VP, Sales & Business Development, and Assaf Stoler - VP, Software.

Timeline

  • Co-Founder & CTO

    Current role