Kodiak Robotics has announced that Surajit Datta has joined the company as chief financial officer, effective immediately. He will be part of Kodiak’s executive leadership team and oversee all aspects of Kodiak’s financial operations, including financial planning and analysis (FP&A), accounting, tax and treasury, investor relations and internal audit. Datta succeeds Eric Chow, who has been with Kodiak since January 2019, has served as CFO since 2022 and plans to remain at Kodiak through the end of 2025 to support the transition.
Datta has experience in financial operations and leadership at publicly traded artificial intelligence semiconductor and SaaS companies, as well as at top-tier investment banks. As a seasoned corporate finance professional, he brings more than 20 years of experience in strategic finance, financial planning and analysis, business partnering, corporate development and strategy, capital raising and investment banking to the role.
Datta joins Kodiak as the company prepares to become a publicly listed company via a business combination with Ares Acquisition Corporation II. Through this business combination, Kodiak expects to become publicly listed on NASDAQ in the second half of 2025.
“Surajit brings significant strategic and operational finance leadership expertise to Kodiak, which will be invaluable to us as we expect to enter the public markets and continue to execute on our strategy to scale our business,” said Don Burnette, founder and CEO, Kodiak.
“We believe a leader of Surajit’s caliber and insight, including his over two decades of experience at leading financial institutions and with rapidly-growing AI technology companies, will strengthen our C-suite and help accelerate our sustainable growth. I would also like to thank Eric for his leadership and dedicated and loyal service helping build Kodiak to where we are today. We appreciate his continued support and wish him the very best in his next chapter.”
“I am excited to join Kodiak because I believe the company’s leadership, technology and track record sets it apart in the autonomous vehicle industry,” said Datta. “It’s a compelling time for Kodiak as the company embarks on the next phase of growth. Kodiak has demonstrated that it is well-positioned to deliver autonomous technology at scale, and I believe that we have a tremendous opportunity ahead.”