Sherpa hires the former head of Samsung Spain to expand its AI business 

Celestino García, who was responsible for Samsung for Spain and Portugal, becomes its vice president of business development

The Spanish artificial intelligence company Sherpa has added Celestino García to its ranks, until last year responsible for the Korean form of Samsung in Spain and Portugal. Celestino is Sherpa’s vice president of business development this week and will direct, among others, the focus and execution of the company’s next launches.

Bilbao-based Sherpa, founded by entrepreneur Xabi Uribe-Etxebarria, rose to prominence in 2013 with the development of a virtual assistant that was dubbed by media and bloggers as the “Spanish Siri.” This Android application became a key piece of software for Galaxy phones before Samsung developed its current assistant, Bixby.

Since then, the company has focused on developing artificial intelligence products for various scenarios, including a deal with the legendary car brand Porsche to bring its predictive recommendation algorithms to the brand’s luxury vehicles. It has also launched a news application, Sherpa News App, which selects relevant information according to the preferences of each user.

high-profile international executives

The company has recently hired a number of high-profile international executives, including Tom Gruber, Apple’s Chief Siri Officer; Joanna Hoffman, Marketing executive at Apple and NeXT and a well-known figure in Silicon Valley, Alex Cruz, president of British Airways, or Doug Solomon, former strategic manager of Apple.

The company had planned to launch a big launch this past April but the COVID-19 epidemic has delayed plans. In the coming months, Sherpa plans to show the products and services with which it will focus the new stage, focused on artificial intelligence infrastructure for third companies.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has developed a platform that the Basque health service has used to, among other functions, predict the future needs of the Intensive Care Units and model the possible spread of the virus that causes the disease.