SRI appoints Robert Mandelbaum as Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives

Former Lockheed Martin ATL General Manager and Director and DARPA Program Manager to lead institute-wide high-growth programs.

MENLO PARK, CA, UNITED STATES, September 29, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- SRI today announced that Robert "Robbie" Mandelbaum has joined the institute as Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. In this role, Mandelbaum will drive SRI's major growth initiatives, bringing together capabilities from across SRI's research divisions to create, scale, and lead new programs that span the institute.

Mandelbaum brings three decades of experience in advanced technology R&D, with a record of turning next-generation concepts into fielded capabilities for both government and commercial customers. At SRI, he will partner with leadership, principal investigators, and business development teams to pursue major programs where strategic customer needs meet SRI's strengths in AI, autonomous systems, healthcare, space-based architectures, and security.

“Robbie has spent his career doing exactly what SRI does best: building programs to bring deep technologies to market,” said David Parekh, CEO of SRI. “His experience at Sarnoff, DARPA, and Lockheed Martin gives him a unique view across research, government, and industry. As we pursue large, ambitious programs that draw on every part of the institute, Robbie is the right person to create the programs that deliver across industry and technology capabilities.”

From AI to quantum, biosciences to education, space to security, SRI develops and delivers complex solutions that serve dozens of industries. Leveraging proven expertise to transition real-world solutions with meaningful impact, SRI advances breakthrough technologies that shape how we work, live, and learn. SRI has developed technologies that billions of people use every day, from ARPANET (the Internet), personal computing, early AI systems, Siri, and more.

Mandelbaum most recently served as General Manager and Director of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Laboratories (ATL), where he led several applied research labs working in spectrum systems, informatics, AI, human systems augmentation, and autonomy. Before that, he was ATL's Chief Technology Officer, setting technical direction, managing research investments, and serving as a technical liaison to customers including the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research, and DARPA.

Mandelbaum began his career at Sarnoff Corporation, now part of SRI, where he helped pioneer real-time computer vision applications, including early work on self-driving cars, robotic autonomy, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). He served as Program Manager in the Information Processing Techniques (I2O) and Tactical Technologies (TTO) offices at DARPA. He holds a PhD in Computer and Information Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand.

“Some of the most formative work of my career happened at Sarnoff, and I've watched SRI shape entire fields for decades,” said Mandelbaum. “What excites me most is the breadth here. The biggest challenges our customers face don't fit neatly into one discipline, and SRI has world-class people in nearly all of them. My job is to connect that talent to the problems that matter most in the world and bring impactful solutions to the market.”

About SRI  
An independent nonprofit R&D institute, SRI has a proven 80-year history of delivering impactful technology used by billions of people every day. We create and deliver world-changing solutions for a safer and healthier future. From AI to quantum, SRI has a successful track record of delivering deep technology innovation to the real world. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, SRI has offices across the United States and in Japan. Learn more at www.sri.com. 

Kelly Brieger
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