It might seem like science fiction, but in the era of rapid AI development, the rise of “robotic co-workers” is real and projected to become a nearly $40 billion global market over the next decade.
But humans, do not fear. At the helm of that industry — with a mission to separate fact from fiction — is Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics. In March, she took over the Oregon-based startup that has raised $180 million in venture financing, according to Forbes.
At 62, Johnson oversees the development of humanoid robots — machines that stand as tall as a person, have a head, two arms and two legs — engineered to maneuver freely and work alongside humans in warehouses to fulfill dull, repetitive tasks, like moving products onto conveyors. While the demand for this bipedal bot, called Digit, has skyrocketed in industrial manufacturing, the intent isn’t to displace human workers at all, but rather make them more productive.
For her work in this brave new world of robotics and AI, Johnson was recently honored on Forbes and Know Your Value’s 4th annual “50 Over 50” U.S. list this month, in the innovation category. The list celebrates women who have found success later in life and are shattering age and gender norms.
As far as Johnson is concerned, her age is her greatest asset. “I have this plethora of experiences that one has built on the other, that’s built on the other, through several companies and I couldn’t have done that in a compacted amount of time,” Johnson told ForbesWomen editor, Maggie McGrath. “I had to live by the way through the highs and lows of different projects and different company cycles — all of that is cumulative to the experience I bring today in my current role — so it’s absolutely an advantage and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Johnson’s career in tech leadership began when she joined Microsoft in 2014 as Satya Nadella’s first hire. She made a name for herself as the company’s “chief dealmaker” when she spearheaded Microsoft’s $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn. During the pandemic, she led augmented reality company Magic Leap.
But there was a time when she never envisioned a career in the tech and engineering fields. That all changed in a single day over a fluke conversation she had in college.
“I went off to San Diego State and … I had a [mail delivery] job on campus because I was putting myself through college,” she recalled to McGrath. “I walked into the engineering department one day to deliver mail and the two administrative assistants behind the desk thought I was there to learn about engineering. I said, ‘Nope, just here to deliver mail,’ and they said, ‘Well, do you know anything about engineering?’”
That exchange sparked a bigger conversation. “I had no idea what an engineer did in their profession, and so they sat me down and walked me all through the different types of engineering that I could go into. At the end of the conversation, they pushed the papers across the table to change my major. So, that night I filled it out, came in the next day and became an engineering major.”
With a newly-minted degree in electrical engineering, Johnson landed a job at San Diego tech company, Qualcomm, where she spent 25 years, eventually becoming the company’s executive vice president and head of global market development.
When she later joined Microsoft as the executive vice president of Business Development, she cemented her reputation as one of the world’s most notable women in engineering. In fact, Business Insider lauded her as the “#1 Most Powerful Female Engineer" in 2017.
But that level of success didn’t come without its own set of challenges, especially as a woman in a highly male-dominated industry.
“My biggest learning of my entire career was just to be myself because as I went on to my next job and did not have a female manager, I was oftentimes criticized during performance reviews for not speaking up enough in meetings,” she told Mcgrath. “It became a detriment to my upward mobility in these companies and I thought, well, maybe I’ll try and be that person they want me to be. I tried to be louder in meetings. One day I even hit my hand on the table and said, ‘I want to speak!’ and they looked at me startled, and said, ‘What’s wrong with Peggy?’”
Johnson’s manager at the time stepped in. “I wasn’t myself for sure and then my manager said, ‘You know what, you just be yourself and that will carry us through.’ And he was right, that actually gave me the confidence to be the introvert that I was. I did communicate, but not always in a big meeting. I would go to someone’s office or I’d call them or send an email … I was getting my point across and he helped others recognize that.”
Johnson credits her leadership style today to that authenticity, as well as her ability to hear other points of view — something she learned as a child growing up in a large family.
“I’m one of 15 [and] being the second to the youngest … I was a big listener. And it was hard anyway to get a word in edgewise at our family dinner table,” she told McGrath. “And so I became a listener and that has been one of the areas that I was able to leverage in my management roles over the years and then my CEO roles.”
Johnson herself has raised three children with her husband, Eric, who she met in the very same college engineering department that changed the course of her life four decades ago.
Given the trajectory of her long career, Johnson had this advice for younger women who feel the rush to accomplish their career goals early on: “Don’t feel the need to do that.”
“To make sure to sequence in all of those parts of your life — your work life, your partner, your children, your activities — all of those things are important to us as individuals and you can really abandon those if your only goal is getting ahead,” she told McGrath. “We all have to have that well-rounded part of our lives, because that makes us the person that we are, and if we’re ignoring those parts of our lives and just become the workaholic, I think it actually holds you back.”