Speedshield Technologies – a global provider of industrial connectivity and safety solutions – is accelerating its US expansion with the appointment of Michael Barnard as Vice President of Sales.  

Barnard joins the company at a time of accelerating demand for AI-powered safety systems and brings more than a decade of experience in construction equipment, territory development, and customer relationship building. 

In his new role, Barnard will oversee Speedshield Technologies’ go-to-market strategy across North America, with a focus on expanding adoption of the company’s flagship AiVA system beyond material handling and into sectors such as construction, mining, agriculture and forestry.  

AiVA, Speedshield’s advanced pedestrian detection platform, uses stereoscopic vision and on-board AI to identify human forms in real time – even in low-light or high-risk operating conditions. Built for scalability and rapid deployment, the system is already in use across thousands of assets throughoutt major industrial fleets. 

 “What drew me to Speedshield was the mission. This is a technology that quite literally saves lives,” Barnard said in a news release. 

 “When you spend years working around heavy equipment, you understand how easily a split-second mistake or lapse in attention can lead to tragedy. And the high volume of false alarms in legacy systems erodes trust to the point where workers and operators become overwhelmed and unable to do their jobs safely and effectively.” 

“We now have a system that can detect pedestrians with near-perfect accuracy, virtually eliminating the risk of false alarms,” Barnard said. “My goal is to make sure this technology gets into the hands of the people who need it most.”