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Keller Rinaudo Cliffton is an American robotics and autonomous airplane entrepreneur and the CEO and a co-founder of
Zipline A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the bott ...
. Zipline began drone deliveries in
Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
in late 2016, and primarily delivers blood to urgent medical situations. He was also the CEO and a co-founder of Romotive, a former company established in 2011 with
Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
funding that made inexpensive small robots that use mobile phones as their computing system, machine vision system, and wireless communication system. Romotive essentially shut down in 2014 and morphed into Zipline. Rinaudo Cliffton presented a
TED Talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
about Romotive in April 2013 and another in November 2017 about Zipline.


Education


Early education

Rinaudo Cliffton attended North High School in
Phoenix Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...
, receiving an IB diploma and being named a
National Merit Scholar The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organizati ...
.


College and internships

Rinaudo Cliffton is a graduate of
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, where he was the founder of the Harvard climbing wall. The wall was initially founded by Rinaudo Cliffton with help from Harvard Business School student Karl R. R. Kuryla as a relatively primitive construction in
Lowell House Lowell House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University, located at 10 Holyoke Place facing Mount Auburn Street between Harvard Yard and the Charles River. Officially, it is named for the Lowell family, but an orna ...
in 2006, and was later upgraded and reopened in the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center in 2017. While a student, Rinaudo Cliffton built computers out of RNA and DNA that he said could operate in human cells as "molecular doctors". He published this research in ''
Nature Biotechnology ''Nature Biotechnology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Portfolio. The chief editor heads an in-house team of editors. The focus of the journal is biotechnology including research results and the commercial busi ...
'', becoming one of the youngest first authors in that publication's history. Rinaudo Cliffton graduated from Harvard
magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...
and Phi Beta Kappa with a 3.9 GPA and was designated a Harvard College Scholar for superior academic achievement both freshman and second years and also won the Detur Book Prize (top 5% of the class).Department of Construction Management & Civil Engineering While in his undergrad at Harvard, Rinaudo Cliffton spent several summers (2006–2008) working at the management consulting firm,
Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...
(BCG). He signed a full-time offer at BCG following his junior year internship to return to the firm following graduation (for fall of 2009). During his time at BCG, Rinaudo Cliffton "Conducted in-depth financial analysis of 140 competitors in the engineering construction industry and co-wrote new international strategy for a US company with $8B in revenue."


MBA

In his senior year at Harvard, Rinaudo Cliffton was also admitted into Harvard Business School (HBS) for the class of 2013 - through the 2+2 program. However, Rinaudo Cliffton ultimately chose not to attend HBS due to the success of Romotive.


Early career

Following his graduation from Harvard, Rinaudo Cliffton spent 2.5 months at BCG in their San Francisco office before quitting to live out of his van and become a professional rock climber. Rinaudo Cliffton grew up rock climbing and quickly found professional success in the sport. As a professional rock climber he was ranked in the top 10 in sport climbing. He has scaled alpine cliffs in France, overhanging sandstone caves in
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
and the limestone towers of Yangshuo, China.


Romotive

In 2011, Rinaudo Cliffton founded Romotive, an iPhone-controlled toy robot. Rinaudo Cliffton sold the first version through
Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
. Romotive morphed into Zipline in 2014 when Rinaudo Cliffton realized that the competition was not other toys but
Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...
and phone apps. "If we’d compared ourselves to true competition-- competition for a 12-year-old's time-- this is not a battle that robotics was going to win."


Zipline

Rinaudo Cliffton is the CEO and Co-founder of Zipline, the world's largest autonomous logistics company headquartered in South San Francisco, California. Zipline designs, builds, and operates drone aircrafts as part of its instant logistics and delivery system used by businesses, governments, and consumers. The company operates distribution centers in
Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
,
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
,
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
,
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
,
Cote D'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and the USA. The company began drone deliveries in Rwanda in 2016 primarily delivering blood and medical products. In addition to
whole blood Whole blood (WB) is human blood from a standard blood donation. It is used in the treatment of massive bleeding, in exchange transfusion, and when people donate blood to themselves. One unit of whole blood (~517 mls) brings up hemoglobin lev ...
, the drones deliver
platelet Platelets, also called thrombocytes (from Greek θρόμβος, "clot" and κύτος, "cell"), are a component of blood whose function (along with the coagulation factors) is to react to bleeding from blood vessel injury by clumping, thereby ini ...
s, frozen
plasma Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pla ...
and
cryoprecipitate Cryoprecipitate, also called cryo for short, is a frozen blood product prepared from blood plasma. To create cryoprecipitate, fresh frozen plasma thawed to 1–6 °C is then centrifuged and the precipitate is collected. The precipitate is re ...
. As of September 2023, about 75% of blood deliveries in Rwanda outside of the capital city
Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...
use Zipline drones. In Ghana, the company began using drones in April 2019 to deliver vaccines, blood, and drugs. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the US Federal Aviation Administration approved Zipline for the delivery of medical supplies and personal protective equipment to hospitals in
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
. The company also plans to offer deliveries to people's homes.


Personal life

Keller is the son of William (Bill) Phillips and Debra Rinaudo. He is married to Stephanie Nevins Cliffton, PhD, who got her PhD at Stanford in Genetics/Genomics. Nevins Cliffton is the founder and CEO of a stealth startup. Keller and Stephanie have two daughters together.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rinaudo Cliffton, Keller 21st-century American businesspeople 1987 births Living people American aerospace businesspeople American chairpersons of corporations American technology company founders American technology chief executives Harvard University alumni