Features

Christian Ehrbar – Berkshire Grey

Giving the global supply chain a robotic helping hand

Whether a package needs to arrive at a retail shop or your front door, it needs to be pulled from the shelves of a warehouse or distribution center before being shipped. Berkshire Grey provides robotic equipment that can easily and quickly pick, pack and sort orders—without the need for workers. BG also integrates artificial intelligence that allows the robotics to learn a product’s size and fragility.

“AI has been growing in use, but BG’s solutions truly fulfill AI’s promise and support customers in ways that seemed impossible even just a few years ago,” Christian Ehrbar says.

Christian Ehrbar | Vice President and General Counsel | Berkshire Grey

Christian Ehrbar | Vice President and General Counsel | Berkshire Grey

With more shopping being done online and a recent shortage of workers to pick their orders, BG realized it needed to expand its product offerings. To help with these and other other challenges, it hired Ehrbar as its vice president and first in-house general counsel in December 2020.

“My years of experience with tech companies like IBM also made me a good fit to help take Berkshire Grey public as the business rapidly expanded its sales and its customer base,” Ehrbar says.

Building a foundation for growth

During Ehrbar’s interview process, BG informed him of its interest in going public and raising funds to do so as soon as possible. This meant it couldn’t pursue a traditional initial public offering—a complicated and lengthy process that can take up to a year.

Instead, BG chose the alternate “special purpose acquisition company” option, which has provided many companies a new way to access public market and raise capital. Although the SPAC route has recently become more challenging, he and his team were ready to tackle it, Ehrbar says.

A SPAC allows a business to merge with a company that’s already publicly traded but does not sell products to consumers. Once the merger is complete, the private company and the SPAC are combined. The new company publicly trades under a new ticker chosen for combined entity.

After hiring Ehrbar, the BG team quickly found Revolution Acquisition Acceleration Corporation for its SPAC merger. Complicating matters, however, was that once BG decided on RAAC, the company’s counsel immediately began asking Ehrbar and the BG team due diligence questions.

“Berkshire Grey was started in 2013, so I only had a couple months to get caught up on over seven years of company history in order to answer the SPAC partner’s questions,” Ehrbar explains.

Christian Ehrbar | Vice President and General Counsel | Berkshire Grey

He not only managed it but was excited about the prospect. As outside counsel, he’d helped companies go public before, but this was his first time on the inside—and he knew how important this transaction was for BG and its growth. Time, however, was the one resource Ehrbar didn’t have.

Hired in December 2020 and immediately starting work on going public, he helped BG sign the SPAC deal less than two months later, in mid-February. The SPAC transaction was completed in July 2021 and the combined company now trades as BGRY on Nasdaq.

Turning wheels

The company is also expanding internationally, which means hiring and ramping up sales efforts. This brings about some challenges as it requires engaging with expert legal counsel in other countries to assist with employment matters. Ehrbar has engaged and managed the company’s counsel in Canada, the U.K. and Asia with a primary focus in Japan.

According to Ehrbar, most of his time is spent setting up BG’s commercial contracting framework, managing outside commercial contracting attorneys and building a team to handle an uptick in transactions as the demand for robotics skyrockets.

“I’m not much of an inventor or engineer, but I love working with folks, especially at BG, who are pushing into uncharted territory and discovering technology solutions to problems that need solving right now,” he says.

Christian Ehrbar | Vice President and General Counsel | Berkshire Grey

Ehrbar’s enjoyed working with and helping tech entrepreneurs, innovators and inventers almost since finishing law school over 20 years ago—notable clients include software and hardware companies, biotech companies, a solar panel manufacturer, a boutique information technology consulting firm and a century-old, fortune 50 technology provider.

He particularly enjoys legally helping them produce, market and get their products into the hands of customers.

When not at work, he enjoys projects around the house and his cooperative ski club. One of his favorite projects was a custom shed he designed and built with repurposed antique windows and doors leftover from an earlier home renovation. When he gets tired of fixing things and really needs a break, he turns to biking or skiing.

“Cycling helps me keep my sanity. I usually ride to work but also find time for longer excursions,” Ehrbar adds. “The momentum and rhythm of riding—up and down the hills and grinding out the long windy stretches—matches the momentum and rhythm I try to achieve for companies to expand, move forward and be ready for the next big climb.”

View this feature in the Vanguard Winter II 2022 Edition here.

Published on: December 15, 2021

regions:

categories:

Showcase your feature on your website with a custom “As Featured in Vanguard” badge that links directly to your article!

Copy and paste this script into your page coding (ideally right before the closing tag) where you want to display our review banner.

Testimonials

I was honored to be the subject of an article. I enjoy reading Vanguard articles and seeing how other attorneys got to their positions and see their jobs. It's also interesting to see how different law firms partner with the subjects of the articles.
– Henry Marquard, in-house counsel, Stanley Consultants Inc.
The piece highlighting my company, Bob Baker Enterprises, Inc., came out fabulous. Our company is in the new and used car sales and service industry. Everyone was great to work with and extremely professional. They produced a high-quality product and have provided expert assistance and guidance post-production of the article.
– Wade Poulson, General Counsel, Bob Baker Enterprises Inc.
As promised in advance, my feature in Vanguard has increased my visibility within the profession and prompted more than a few people I have not communicated with recently to reconnect. One of the Italian law firms I have used in the past is now in the process of interviewing me for an article on their website and tweeting out the feature story. Activity and the number of people connecting with me on LinkedIn has soared, which is great. The Vanguard writers and editorial staff were great to work with—highly professional and made the effort to make the experience both fun and rewarding (they were also respectful of the time pressures and demands all lawyers face). I was very pleased with the experience and the final outcome. Needless to say, I have been very pleased. All in all working with Vanguard has been a very positive experience which generated good publicity for both Shawcor and myself. My sincere thanks.
– Tim Hutzul, General Counsel, ShawCor Ltd.
It was a great honor to be featured in Vanguard Law. Working with every member of the team, from the initial interview with Erin Clark, through production with Victor Martins, writing the article with Taryn Plumb and creating the final content with Dave Gushee, was a true pleasure. Everyone was very professional, enthusiastic and supportive, and their creative approach and positive attitude clearly came through in the final product.
– Kevin C. Rakowski, Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Compliance with Radian Group Inc.

LATEST EDITION

Summer IV 2023

READ NOW

GET VANGUARD IN YOUR INBOX.

  • * We’ll never share your email or info with anyone.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.