Former Goldman Sachs Managing Director joins to scale enterprise customer adoption of Gideon’s market-leading robotics technology
Chicago and New York, May 6, 2025 – Gideon, creator of market-leading AI-powered autonomous robotics solutions, including the autonomous forklift TREY, today announced the appointment of seasoned commercial and finance executive Iva Vukina as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), effective immediately. Iva brings two decades of leadership experience across enterprise sales, capital markets, and risk management, and will be instrumental in driving Gideon’s next phase of growth as the company expands deployments with large enterprise customers and scales operations.
Gideon is on the journey to transform material handling by enhancing human capacity with autonomous robots. TREY is the first autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that fully automates loading bay operations for both loading and unloading across industries such as automotive, retail, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and food and beverage—perfectly aligning with Iva’s extensive enterprise client experience.
Gideon’s technology arrives at a critical inflection point for the logistics and manufacturing industries. Around the world, companies are grappling with persistent labor shortages and growing difficulty in filling physically demanding roles. In the United States alone, according to data from Prologis — the global leader in industrial real estate — there are approximately one million forklift operators, with nearly one-third of them working on loading bays. With an aging workforce and declining interest in physically demanding roles, the shrinking labor pool threatens the sustainability of traditional warehouse operations— underscoring the urgent need for automation.
“I am excited to welcome Iva to our leadership team,” said Josip Cesic, CEO and co-founder of Gideon. “Her proven ability to build high-performing teams, lead complex enterprise client relationships, and drive strategic growth makes her the perfect fit for Gideon as we scale with the world’s largest brands.”
Before joining Gideon, Iva served as Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, where she led the Consumer & Retail Investment Grade Capital Markets and Risk Management business at Goldman Sachs’ advising Fortune 500 companies on complex funding and risk strategies. Earlier, she founded and led Goldman Sachs’ Credit Solutions business, creating innovative, capital-efficient structures for the firm’s corporate and institutional clients. She also held cross-functional sales leadership roles across multiple business units, giving her a unique ability to align strategic vision with execution and customer engagement — a key asset in scaling Gideon’s commercial impact.
Beyond her corporate career, Iva is a recognized civic leader. She serves as Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Grace Institute of New York, sits on the International Advisory Board of the Zagreb School of Economics and Management, and is President of the Association of Croatian American Professionals, New York Chapter.
“I am honored to join Gideon at this exciting moment of growth,” said Iva Vukina. “Gideon’s track record of pioneering real-world automation solutions is inspiring. I look forward to working with the entire team to build on this momentum, strengthen customer partnerships, and scale our commercial impact across global markets.”
Originally from Zagreb, Croatia, Iva holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Decision Sciences and a Master of Engineering in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering. from the University of North Carolina and Cornell University, respectively. She currently resides in New York.
With entities in North America and Croatia, EU, the robotics and AI solutions company specializes in automating material handling processes for logistics, manufacturing, and retail businesses. Its autonomous mobile robots are powered by proprietary spatial AI and 3D vision technology, enabling businesses to automate the most complex warehouse and manufacturing operations and orchestrate workflows of humans, robots, and other equipment supported by real-time data. www.gideon.ai
