Eythor Bender

Eythor Bender has been an innovation and business leader in the emerging field of robotics and bionics for more than two decades. He is the CEO and Co-Founder of UNYQ a cutting edge health tech company that embraces authenticity, empowering lives through convergence of exponential technologies, design and fashion. Amputees and teenagers with scoliosis have taken UNYQ products on the runway of New York Fashion Week and recently The White House.

Eythor’s journey is about improving the quality of life for those in need. His enthusiasm for helping people with disabilities to regain mobility and healthy lifestyle drove him to advance the field of bionic suits. As CEO of Ekso Bionics he commercialized a wearable robot “Ekso,” which enables wheelchair users to stand and walk, an award winning breakthrough that was selected by Time Magazine as the product of the year in 2010. Today bionic suits are the industry standard in rehabilitation of spinal cord injured and patients with neurological issues.

Before that, Eythor spent 13 years in executive team of Ossur founded in Iceland, growing it to the 2nd largest prosthetic and orthotic company in the world. Ossur pioneered among others the field of bionic prosthetic devices and introduced the boomerang-shaped prosthesis Cheetah Flex-Foot. Worn by history-making, bilateral amputee Oscar Pistorius from South Africa, this device changed the world’s perception of the disabled athlete. Eythor and his team helped him win the right to compete in the Olympics and today the Cheetah Flex-Foot is the prosthesis used by nearly every medalist at the Paralympics.