Alert Innovation Hires John Gargasz to Lead Business Expansion

Alert Innovation Inc., maker of automated fulfillment solutions, is bolstering its executive team with the addition of John Gargasz as VP of platform and business development.

Gargasz, who reports to Alert Innovation founder and CEO John Lert, will help expand Alert’s grocery automation fulfillment business beyond the company’s anchor Walmart customer to the rest of the industry. He is also responsible for sales, marketing, product roadmap and partnership development.

“John brings a breadth and depth of experience to Alert as an entrepreneur, manager and marketer to help our team realize the vision of Novastore and our mission to be the world’s leading supplier of automated grocery fulfillment solutions,” Lert said in a release. 

Novastore is an automated supermarket North Billerica, Mass.-based Alert is creating.

“When I was introduced to Alert, I was very impressed by the years of forethought that John, Bill Fosnight and the team put into the Alphabot architecture to bring automation to the grocery business. It is a tremendous opportunity to market this solution to the grocery industry and help scale the business,” Gargasz said.

Gargasz is a serial entrepreneur in tech and real estate and is also an early-stage tech investor. His career spans a number of industries, including retail tech, defense communications, internet of things wireless and advanced materials, with roles ranging from engineering to managing director and board member. He earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from University of Colorado.

Founded in 2013, North Billerica, Mass.-based Alert Innovation has brought to market the Alphabot Automated Storage and Retrieval System and Automated Each-Picking System.