Stacey Stewart joins Potential advisory board
10 October 2024
We have appointed Stacey Stewart, an engineering leader who spent more than 20 years at powersports giant Polaris, as strategic advisor.
Stacey is the perfect addition to our powerhouse advisory team, with a 35-year engineering career that includes several leadership roles at Polaris in both motorcycle and off-road vehicle divisions.
“Stacey brings with him an incredible mix of commercial and technical expertise across powersports and motorcycles sectors, which are two of our three core markets,” says Sam Poirier, CEO of Potential. “All the learning and development we do in these smaller sectors directly benefits our third and largest market: automotive.”
“The team at Potential is bringing the next level of performance and safety to the recreational off-road and motorcycle market, allowing riders to more fully utilize the capability of their vehicles,” says Stacey. “Potential’s technology will become the standard of performance in the challenging powersports environment. I am excited to be a part of this ground-breaking effort!”
Potential’s camera-vision technologies include Terrain Intelligence, which reads the surface of the path ahead and can automatically and proactively make changes to suspension, driveline and engine mode settings in advance of hazards or changes in conditions and slope. (Watch a recent testing video of our tech at work in one of our side-by-sides here.) We are also working on in-cab solutions that improve rider experience in other ways.
All of our products boost safety and performance for riders of side-by-sides and motorcycles (as well as being directly transferable to automotive applications). By keeping novice riders safer, we help make powersports more accessible, and by unlocking greater performance, we help our customers offer more excitement to experienced adventurers.
Speaking the language of powersports and motorcycle manufacturers
“Stacey’s technical, commercial and leadership experience at Polaris alone makes him a key target for any business operating in powersports and motorcycle sectors,” says Bill Lamey, our CTO.
Polaris is a global powersports pioneer. The US$8.6bn company was founded in 1954 and now serves 120 countries with 16,000 employees. The Minnesota-headquartered behemoth boasts 35 brands, spanning side-by-sides, all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, snowmobiles and even boats - many of these are segments that we are targeting with our suite of computer vision technologies.
Stacey’s impressive resume includes 23 years at Polaris. His final role at the company, from 2017 to 2021, was leading the off-road vehicles systems engineering team in senior engineering director capacity, where he delivered important improvements in cab comfort, suspension performance, and driveline technology.
Stacey also headed up product development for new Polaris vehicles from 2015 to 2017 as director of engineering in the work and transport division, established a powersports centre of excellence in Switzerland to serve Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and started-up a new plant in Poland.
Prior to these roles, Stacey spent a decade in the company’s motorcycles division, with a particular focus on improving vehicle dynamics. Combined, his time at Polaris has given him a wealth of expertise across product development, research and development, scaling for production, business acquisition and integration, and every type of powertrain imaginable.
“We’re already working with key customers in powersports and motorcycles, many of whom we can’t publicly name at this time,” Sam explains. “Bringing Stacey on board will help us as we develop new products for these markets, and as we progress from pilot projects to pre-production programs and on into full-scale production contracts.”
“Potential’s technology will become the standard of performance in powersports.”
That’s not all Stacey brings to the table. Prior to Polaris, he worked at the $13bn aerospace and defense company Textron, and also spent five years in the mining industry. Post-Polaris, Stacey has held VP positions at e-bike startup Rad Power Bikes, and electric vehicle charge point operator, EVgo.
“Stacey has an all-round knowledge base that is perfect for the growth curve and commercialization phase we’re entering, and will really help us make sure we’re talking the right language of manufacturers in these key sectors,” says Bill.
Stacey joins our superstar advisory team, which includes Scott Kunselman, the automotive off-road guru who was formerly chief engineer at Ram Trucks, and Marcel Lebrun and Chris Newton of Radian6 (acquired by SalesForce), alongside investors who include IBM’s Q1 Labs and Mark Benioff's TIME Ventures and Brightspark Ventures.
“Potential’s advisory board now includes luminaries across our major target markets, who will help us take the right steps and make the smartest choices at every stage,” concludes Sam. “This really is a team of superstars, and the future for Potential is very bright as a result.”