Overlord Labs Adds Former Texas Instruments Battery Management Chief and Former Acting Secretary of the U.S. Army to Its Board

Appointments of David Heacock and the Hon. Robert M. Speer come as GENESIS™ Battery Intelligence IC approaches first silicon

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Overlord Labs, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company building battery intelligence infrastructure for compute-intensive, battery-powered devices, today announced the appointment of David Heacock, former Senior Vice President of Analog at Texas Instruments, and the Hon. Robert M. Speer, former Acting Secretary of the United States Army, to its Board of Directors.

The appointments come as Overlord Labs transitions from tape-out to first silicon, with engineering samples of its flagship GENESIS™ Battery Intelligence IC, built on the company's proprietary Silicon × Algorithm Architecture, expected later this month. The milestone will pave the way for initial customer sampling and platform validation.

David Heacock's career in battery management spans more than three decades, beginning at Benchmarq Microelectronics through its acquisitions by Unitrode and, later, Texas Instruments. At TI, he led the integration of the company's $6.5 billion acquisition of National Semiconductor and went on to serve as Senior Vice President and General Manager of TI's Silicon Valley Analog Group, retiring in 2017. His experience taking battery management silicon from architecture through high-volume production gives Overlord Labs rare, domain-specific guidance as GENESIS™ scales beyond first silicon.

As compute continues moving to the edge, battery-powered devices are placing unprecedented demands on power efficiency, thermal management, safety, and runtime. Traditional fixed-function battery management ICs were not designed for this new generation of intelligent products. Overlord Labs' Silicon × Algorithm Architecture solves this by building battery intelligence directly into silicon, giving OEMs a more adaptable foundation for these systems.

The Hon. Robert M. Speer served nearly 28 years in the U.S. Army, including battalion command in the 82nd Airborne Division and Brigade Level Command of a Defense Agency operation. In 2004, he was tasked with establishing financial controls over $18.6 billion in Iraq reconstruction funding. He then served as a managing director for PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he led their Defense and Army business. He was later confirmed by the Senate as Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management and Comptroller, and in January 2017 was one of only six senior Pentagon officials asked to stay on through the presidential transition, becoming Acting Secretary of the Army. His experience building financial discipline into large, complex organizations under real operational pressure brings rare governance rigor to Overlord Labs' board.

"Dave has spent his career solving the exact problem we're built to solve; at a scale few people ever get to. Bob has dedicated his career to establishing financial rigor within complex entities facing significant operational strain, providing a degree of oversight rarely encountered at the board level," said Richard Nicholson, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Overlord Labs. "That's the kind of judgment you want in the room as we build GENESIS™ into the infrastructure layer every battery-powered device will run on."

"Dave and Bob strengthen our board at exactly the right time," said Carlos Rodriguez, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Overlord Labs. "Their leadership will help guide us as GENESIS™ moves from lab to fab to commercialization."

About Overlord Labs

Overlord Labs is a fabless semiconductor company building battery intelligence infrastructure for the next generation of compute-intensive, battery-powered devices. Powered by its proprietary Silicon × Algorithm Architecture, the company's GENESIS™ Battery Intelligence Platform integrates advanced battery intelligence directly into silicon, enabling OEMs to improve runtime, safety, performance, and design flexibility. Initially focused on wearables, smart glasses, and edge AI devices, the platform is designed to scale across a broad range of battery-powered systems. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Overlord Labs is engineering battery intelligence from the silicon up.

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SOURCE Overlord Labs