ICON Announces Robert Harmon as General Counsel

AUSTIN, TX, July 27, 2023 -- ICON, the construction technologies company pioneering large scale 3D printing, today announced that Robert Harmon has joined the company as its General Counsel and member of the senior management team. Harmon will oversee legal affairs, regulatory compliance and policy functions of ICON’s rapidly growing business across private and public sectors.

“Robert understands technology, innovation, real estate, construction, and policy as well as anyone I have ever met or can imagine. We feel incredibly fortunate that he wants to lend his tremendous abilities, experience, and knowledge to ICON.” said Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO, ICON. “With the addition of yet another accomplished leader to our executive team, I can definitively say we have assembled the best group of senior leaders at any deep tech or construction tech company of which I am aware.”

Harmon brings considerable industry experience as a former leader at Amazon and Tesla. Most recently he served as Associate General Counsel and Director at Amazon where he led a global team supporting Amazon Fresh stores worldwide and online, physical stores, and corporate procurement including benefits, tax, finance, HR and community investments. He advised Amazon Fresh through a number of large strategic investments, including the merger of their online and stores business in 2020. During his time at Amazon, Harmon also held the role of AGC of Economic Development, Energy Transactions and Physical Stores Real Estate where he led as legal counsel for the site selection process and negotiation of Amazon’s new corporate headquarters in Northern Virginia and the Nashville Center of Excellence.

Prior to Amazon, Harmon was Deputy General Counsel and Director at Tesla, serving as the senior legal advisor for all aspects of global real estate and construction. During his tenure, he provided oversight of all aspects of the selection, negotiation, government relations, development strategy and construction of Tesla’s six million sq. ft. battery factory, known as Gigafactory 1 and led strategy for Gigafactory 2 (Buffalo, NY) and Gigafactory 3 (Shanghai, CN).

Harmon is active in several civic, educational and legal organizations and has served on the Board of Directors of Cornerstone Learning in New York, The Children’s Cabinet in Reno, NV and Summer Search Seattle. His accolades have included the Legal 500 GC Powerlist, the 2017 National Bar Association 40 under 40 and the 2016 Tech Diversity – SILICON Valley 40 under 40. Harmon holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Economics from Columbia University and is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School.

“For far too long, we’ve been limited in how we think about designing, permitting and constructing and it’s time for a dramatic shift. It’s time to build,” said Robert Harmon. “I am excited about joining the incredible team at ICON who are using advanced technology to build a future with affordable, resilient and beautiful homes on this planet and beyond.”

ICON is underway delivering the largest community of 3D-printed homes in the world just outside of Austin alongside one of the nation’s leading homebuilders, Lennar. The 100-home community codesigned by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group illustrates that construction-scale 3D printing not only delivers higher-quality homes faster and more affordably, but can change the way entire communities are built for the better.

Additionally in 2023, ICON has completed disaster resilient housing along the Gulf Coast, barracks for women and men who serve in the U.S. Army, innovation centers for the Air Force and Texas Military Department and additional homes for those who have experienced chronic homelessness. ICON recently launched Initiative 99, a global architecture competition aimed at designing accessible, beautiful and dignified homes that can be built for under $99,000. The company will break ground on numerous projects over the next year across residential, social affordable housing, public sector and hospitality including a 60+ acre community development in Marfa, TX with visionary Liz Lambert featuring housing, hospitality amenities and the first 3D-printed hotel.

ICON continues to set new standards for delivering resilient, dignified housing at high-speed and lower cost. Raising $451 million to date in funding, ICON has delivered communities of 3D-printed homes in the U.S. and internationally and forged partnerships with world-renowned architects, builders and housing organizations missionally aligned to shift the paradigm of homebuilding. In fall 2022, ICON was awarded $57.2 million from NASA to develop a lunar surface construction system that will target humanity’s first-ever construction on another planetary body.