Riona Armesmith

MagniX

Chief Technology Officer

Riona Armesmith is Chief Technology Officer of magniX, the company powering the electric aviation revolution with electric propulsion solutions.

Riona has extensive experience in the aerospace industry with years of progressive leadership roles and an electronic and electrical engineering background, with expertise in electrical machine design. Under Riona’s leadership, magniX has flown four different battery and hydrogen electric aircraft and is working to advance its electric powertrains toward certification and production at scale.

Daniel Ateya

RTX Ventures

President & Managing Director

Daniel Ateya is president and managing director of RTX Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of RTX. Daniel joined RTX Ventures in 2022, with experience in a combination of corporate venture capital, strategy, operational and R&D roles. Since 2022, his team has completed 20 venture investments in aerospace and defense tech startups like Impulse Space, Ursa Major, Tomorrow.io, Hermeus and Encharge AI.

Prior to joining RTX Ventures, Ateya was Director of 3M Ventures and leader of 3M’s Silicon Valley office where he built a large portfolio of venture investments and was involved in a diverse set of partnership and commercial agreements. Prior to 3M, Dan worked at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. as a research associate and project leader developing microfluidic chip technologies for portable sensor applications. He has co-authored numerous articles on sensors and advanced materials in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Ateya holds a doctorate and bachelor of science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He also completed his masters of business administration from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Born and raised in Western New York, Dan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and three children.

Yotam Avrahami

New Vista Capital

Venture Partner

Bio coming soon…

Eiric Allison

Joby Aviation

Head of Product

Eric serves as Joby Aviation’s Head of Product. He most recently led the Elevate team at Uber, developing software tools that built on more than a decade of experience enabling on-demand mobility. His experience in aerospace research, electric propulsion, energy storage, vehicle autonomy, and composite structures led him to the CEO position at Zee Aero, where he spearheaed the development of Cora, an autonomous air taxi vehicle. Eric holds a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford, an MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford, and a BS from the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Marc Ausman

Electra.Aero

Chief Product Officer

Marc Ausman is a recognized expert in the fields of next-generation electric and autonomous aircraft. He is the Chief Product Officer at Electra.aero and previously was co-founder and CEO of Airflow.aero, a company that developed electric Short Take-Off and Landing (eSTOL) aircraft. He most recently served as Chief Strategist for the Airbus Vahana urban air mobility project, and before that he was President of Vertical Power and also was part of the team at Eclipse Aviation to bring to market the world’s first very light jet. Marc served with the US Navy as a Naval Aviator and holds a commercial pilot certificate with multiengine and instrument ratings.

Katerina Barilov

Jump Aero

COO
Ms. Barilov is the COO at Jump Aero, a startup building an eVTOL designed to help first responders and EMS personnel save lives in rural areas. Ms Barilov has extensive experience in aviation, structured asset-backed finance, and corporate strategy. She joined Jump Aero in 2019 after several years of providing consulting and niche financing in the aviation industry through her own private consulting business. Prior, Ms. Barilov was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs’ Industrials Group in New York, focused on assisting top tier aviation, aerospace and defense clients.
Prior to Goldman Sachs, she ran the Structured Finance division for Europe Middle East and Africa at Hawker Beechcraft, a leading aerospace manufacturer based out of Wichita Kansas. She joined Hawker Beechcraft as part of a small team of structured finance professionals formed to create a new solution for sales financing support of cross-border aircraft acquisitions. The team designed and launched a Structured Finance department which developed and maintained relationships with third party financiers, structured financing support and conducted credit analysis of potential clients.
She holds an MBA and Bachelors degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. She is an avid pilot with a passion for aerobatic competition with experience in a Pitts S2C. She spends her free time focused on adventure flying in her modified Piper Colt, cycling and running.

Stephan Baur

Roland Berger

Principal

Stephan Baur joined Roland Berger in 2011 as a Principal in our Industrial Products & Services team. He is an expert in aerospace and in particular the Advanced Air Mobility industry. He is the global leader of the AAM team at Roland Berger and has advised clients globally on topics ranging from corporate strategies, financing, due diligence to operational topics such as production ramp-up.

Stephan Baur holds degrees in aerospace engineering from the Technical University of Munich (TU) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and completed his PhD work on risk-sharing partnership in the aerospace industry from ETH Zurich. In addition, he is also a hobby pilot.

Philip Brady

Skyports Infrastructure

US Partnerships and Acquisitions Manager

Philip Brady is a US Acquisitions and Partnerships Manager for Skyports Infrastructure. Philip heads up the company’s efforts in the US, where he leads on the acquisition, design & build, and operation of vertiports for air taxis.
Philip’s team addresses real estate agreements, local stakeholder engagement, regulatory approvals, airport planning, operational procedures, and enabling technology required to develop and operate safe, efficient, passenger-friendly vertiport infrastructure.
Philip began his career as a tenant broker with Savills in Washington, D.C. Following that, he worked in property management and construction at industry leading companies, including Gilbane Building Company.

Philip holds a Masters in Real Estate Development from George Mason University.

Tamara Casey

AURA Network Systems

President, AURA Network Ventures

Recognized for her visionary leadership and more than 35 years of experience
in helping telecommunications and technology firms achieve their full potential,
Tamara Casey serves as President of AURA Network Ventures, where she
leads efforts to identify, develop, and implement strategic opportunities that
advance AURA’s mission. In addition to cofounding AURA Network Systems,
she served as its President & Chief Technology Officer for more than three
years, assembling a team uniquely qualified in both telecom and aviation. She
remains laser-focused on transforming transportation by delivering commandand-
control (C2) communications capabilities via a regulatory-compliant network
designed for crewed and uncrewed aircraft.
As the granddaughter of a distinguished World War II veteran/U.S. Air Force Lt.
Colonel, Tamara has been passionate about aviation her entire life. A licensed,
multi-engine rated pilot, she has been intricately involved in the development
of standards designed to safely integrate Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) into
the National Airspace System (NAS). She served on the RTCA Drone Advisory
Committee to help develop minimum operational performance standards for
C2 data links utilizing aviation-allocated spectrum resources. As CTO for Ligado
Networks, she led successful demonstrations of control and non-payload
communications (CNPC) capabilities for UAS and was also actively involved in
supporting the evolving communications needs of the Helicopter Emergency
Medical Services (HEMS) community and other mission-critical infrastructure
customers.
Tamara’s experience as a technology strategy consultant to numerous private
equity firms and telecom giants provides cutting-edge insights to the innovation
and capital that can be harnessed for the execution of AURA’s vision. She holds
an Executive Leadership Certificate from Georgetown University’s McDonough
School of Business and studied media communications at Laney College.

Victoria Coleman

Acubed by Airbus

CEO

Dr Coleman is the Chief Executive Officer of Acubed, the Airbus Silicon Valley
Innovation Center and Head of North America Research and Technology for the
company. In this role she leads disruptive R&D and partnerships in the U.S and
Canada on behalf of Airbus Group, including Commercial, Defense & Space and
Helicopter.
In her prior role, Dr. Victoria Coleman served as the 37th Chief Scientist of the
U.S. Air Force. She was the chief scientific adviser to the Secretary of the U.S. Air
Force, the Air Force Chief of Staff, and the Chief of Space Operations.
Dr. Coleman is a Visiting Professor in Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences
Department at the University of California, Berkeley and serves as a Special
Assistant to the Dean of the College of Engineering.
Dr. Coleman has more than 35 years of experience in computer science and
technology, including as both an academic leader and industry executive.

Erick Corona

Wisk

Director of ConOps & Airspace Ecosystem

Erick Corona is the Director of ConOps & Airspace at Wisk Aero LLC., a company focused on developing a remotely supervised, highly automated electric vertical-take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Working at the intersection of aeronautics, automation, telecommunications, and battery technology, the company aims to deliver a safe, sustainable, affordable, and beyond-cool novel urban transportation solution.

Before Wisk, as Director of Products at C3.ai, Erick led the development of now-deployed AI-capable Predictive Maintenance solutions within DoD. Prior assignments include management, flight test, and engineering design positions at Boeing and GE Aircraft Engines. Erick also led the adoption of data-driven infrastructure asset management efforts at Pacific Gas & Electric.

Erick holds a B.S. in Mechanical Electrical Engineering from the ITESM (Mexico) and an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Washington. He is also a graduate of the MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) Program, where he earned an S.M. in Engineering Systems and an MBA from the Sloan School of Business.

Cory Cozzens

Altaport

Founder and CEO

Cory Cozzens is Founder and CEO of Altaport, provider of the Altaport VAS, a vertiport automation system enabling the activation and automation of AAM infrastructure networks. Cory has spent most of his career launching and managing innovative businesses in the aviation industry, including Surf Air, the largest scheduled §135 operator in the US; Matternet, the world’s first urban drone delivery service; and Voom, an Airbus subsidiary tasked with providing on-demand VTOL service in preparation for AAM. Cory holds an MBA from Wharton, a JD from George Mason, and a BA in Economics from BYU. When not building aviation businesses, Cory can usually be found adventuring with his young family in their beloved Utah mountains.

Ronnie Fahy

Xplorate

CEO

Bio coming soon…

David Fiore

Export Import Bank of the US

Vice President, Transportation

David Fiore is the Vice President of the Transportation Division of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM). The Transportation Division is responsible for EXIM supported financings of large commercial aircraft, business aircraft, agricultural aircraft, helicopters, aviation-related goods and services and railroad-related equipment. David has been with EXIM for more than 30 years, with more than 20 years’ experience in transportation finance.

Prior to assuming his responsibilities as Vice President of the Transportation Division in October 2018, David previously held the positions of Vice President-Acting, Deputy Vice President, and Senior Loan Officer.

In April 2022, EXIM launched its Domestic Finance Initiative (Make More in America) to establish or expand U.S. manufacturing and infrastructure projects in the United States that would increase U.S. exports. David is part of the inter-divisional Working Group within EXIM that is implementing this initiative.

David has a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College in Vermont and a Masters of Business Administration from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. David speaks French and Italian.

Nikhil Goel

Archer Aviation

Chief Commercial Officer

Nikhil Goel is the Chief Commercial Officer at Archer. After starting at Uber as a product leader on the emerging markets and rider experience teams, Goel co-founded Uber Elevate. Working alongside NASA and Uber executives, Goel helped spearhead the vision for Uber Elevate which has, in turn, inspired the approach to commercializing the industry. In 2020, Goel helped spin off the Uber Elevate business in a strategic sale to Joby Aviation. Goel has been a Senior Advisor to Archer since 2020 and prior to Uber held roles at McKinsey & Company, Google, Microsoft, and NASA. He attended Vanderbilt University and earned his Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a double major in computer engineering and economics.

Karthik Gollapudi

Sift

Co-Founder & CEO

After seeing repeated failures in aerospace due mainly to simple software glitches caused by patchwork legacy tools, Karthik left his role at SpaceX to build the first observability stack for real-world data and solve the $21B challenge in telemetry, monitoring, and observability. Backed by Google Ventures, Karthik brought his learnings from his time leading the Dragon Flight Software Operations team and building the majority of Cargo Dragon-specific simulation software to the co-founder and CEO role.

Hamid Hamidi

Limosa

Founder & CEO

Dr. Hamid Hamidi is a distinguished figure in the aerospace sector, harnessing a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering to fuel innovation. With dynamic leadership, he has contributed significantly to renowned industry players such as Bell Helicopter and Bombardier Aerospace, honing his expertise. As an enterprising visionary for over 20 years, he founded Limosa in June 2021 and spearheads Limosa’s dedicated team, pioneering LimoConnect—an all-electric Vertical and Conventional Take-off and Landing (eVTOL+eCTOL) aircraft that prioritizes often-overlooked human factors and user experiences. Driven by a profound commitment to sustainability, he is poised to revolutionize aerial transportation, embodying the fusion of technical acumen, leadership, and a forward-looking perspective.

Chris Hickey

Riley, Safer, Holmes and Cancila

Partner

Vik Kachoria

Spike Aerospace

President & CEO

Vik Kachoria is President & CEO of Spike Aerospace, an innovative company focused on the development and reintroduction of supersonic flight. Spike Aerospace is revolutionizing air travel by making it faster, quieter and environmentally sustainable. Mr. Kachoria’s experience spans aerospace, finance, and entrepreneurship, enabling him to lead a team of experts dedicated to the design and launch of the Spike S-512 Diplomat.

Vik’s career in aerospace is driven by a passion for technology, aviation, travel and exploration. “Aerospace, to me, represents a field where diverse disciplines such as engineering, legal, finance and communications all intersect to achieve remarkable feats.”

His interest in science and engineering began in his teens, with projects ranging from homemade hot-air balloons to RC planes and later expanded into more complex areas like anti-particle research and quasar simulations. His professional journey has taken him from early roles at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and GE Aircraft Engines to leading technology ventures in CAD and communications, before delving into banking and consulting in mergers & acquisitions.

Mr. Kachoria was born in a remote village in India, before moving to London and then the US. He earned his pilot’s license at 17 and pursued studied at MIT Sloan School of Management and Boston University, obtaining an MBA and a BA in Physics and Mathematics.

Fabrice Kunzi

Avidyne

President

Fabrice has a unique combination of deep technical and regulatory expertise, along with experience launching and leading new technology ventures. He was recently appointed President at Avidyne, a leading provider of integrated avionics systems for general aviation, AAM and business aviation aircraft. Prior to joining Avidyne, Fabrice was Chief Product Officer at SkyGrid, a Boeing Joint Venture and provider of ground-based services that enable the safe operation of remotely piloted aircraft.

Prior to joining SkyGrid, Fabrice spent six years at General Atomics Aircraft Systems, Inc (GA-ASI) where he started as the Chief Engineer on the Detect and Avoid (DAA) system and eventually led the broader commercialization and venture efforts at GA-ASI.

Fabrice earned his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of North Dakota and holds both Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also holds an FAA Commercial Pilot’s License with an IFR and Multi-Engine Rating, as well as a Swiss Private Pilot’s License.

Gwen Lighter

GoAero

Founder & CEO

Gwen Lighter is the CEO and founder of GoAERO. Supported by NASA, Boeing, RTX, and a variety of aerospace and public safety partners, GoAERO is catalyzing the creation of Emergency Response Flyers—safe, autonomy-enabled aircraft that rescue people and perform critical response missions in the face of natural disasters, medical emergencies, climate change, and humanitarian crises.

Since 2017, Gwen has also served as CEO of GoFly, where she has led a network of over 3,600 innovators from 103 countries, creating a multitude of personal flying devices, including jet packs, flying motorcycles, and human-carrying drones.

Anthony Mc Loughlin

Better Futures

Founder & CEO

Anthony Mc Loughlin is a business and thought leader in the area of Engineering and Artificial Intelligence.  He has a unique 15 year background helping leading manufacturers such as Airbus, Mercedes and Rolls Royce, successfully adopt AI.  Anthony has worked at AI software leaders Altair RapidMiner and Databricks, holding several key leadership positions up to vice president. He is currently Founder & CEO of BeterFutures.ai with the mission: to empower engineers with AI, so they can build better futures for their industries and our world.

Lee Moak

Intrepid

CEO

The focus, determination, and leadership skills developed over the course of Lee Moak’s career as a Marine Corps and Navy fighter pilot, B-767 Delta Air Lines Captain, and as President of the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), have led him to become a significant force for change in the realm of air transportation, international policy and safety matters. His extensive experience within the corporate, labor, and political worlds allows him to offer an expansive perspective on business and policy agendas that have proven to be both widely applicable and very effective. An aviation safety expert, he served as co-chair of the U.S. DOT’s Special Committee to Review the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Process.  Captain Moak has served on the FAA Management Advisory Council (MAC) on management, policy, spending, and regulatory matters. He served on the FAA’s Drone Advisory Committee (DAC) and the Advance Aviation Advisory Committee (AAAC). He has also served on the FAA NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC), composed of industry decision makers and was tasked with advising the administration on key decisions regarding the improvement and modernization of the US’s aviation infrastructure. Presently, Moak sits on the board of the International Aviation Club of Washington, DC.

Chris Proudlove

Global Aerospace

Senior Vice President, Senior Underwriting Manager

Robert Rose

Reliable Robotics

CEO & Co-Founder

Robert’s deep engineering experience spans over 20 years across aerospace,
self-driving cars and robotics. Prior to co-founding Reliable Robotics, in his role as Director of Flight Software at SpaceX, Robert was responsible for flight, ground,
simulation and data management software, successfully launching and operating the first 10 Falcon-9 rockets, 5 Dragon spacecraft and Grasshopper VTVL tests. He led the development of the onboard flight software for the first commercial mission to the International Space Station, for which he received special recognition from NASA.

At Tesla, Robert brought to market the first consumer automobile with fully unassisted self-driving capability. He led the team through developing novel computer vision, human-machine interfaces and controls technologies, resulting in the successful deployment of Autopilot 1.0 and the 7.0 version of Tesla’s instrument panel. At Google
[X], Robert led a team working on a secret project combining AI techniques with practical robotic systems to bring advanced machine perception and manipulation technologies to large vehicles. Earlier in his career, Robert contributed to three “Game of the Year” award-winning titles during his time at Sony Playstation, and worked at
Hewlett-Packard Co. as a software engineer.

Robert is a Presidentially invited Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Robert
holds multiple patents, a B.S. in Computer Science, a B.S. in Computer Engineering, and an M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Oregon State University.

Gopal Rajaraman

Lockheed Martin Ventures

Senior Investment Manager

Gopal joined Lockheed Martin Ventures from Motorola Solutions, where his most recent role was the General Manager of Motorola’s Drone Software business, providing Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Drone solutions to public safety and government customers. Having been at Motorola for 23 years, Gopal is an experienced technologist and corporate venture capital investor who spent 5+ years with Motorola Solutions Venture Capital. He has invested in cutting-edge AI startups and has been nominated as Rising Star by Global Corporate Venturing.  At Lockheed Martin Ventures, Gopal invests in rotary and mission systems technologies, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR),  autonomous systems, and power and propulsion technologies.

Gopal holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business with a concentration in Analytical Finance and Accounting. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Engineering from Purdue University and a B.Tech degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Kolin Schunck

Lufthansa Innovation Hub

Senior Manager Strategic Innovation & Intelligence

Kolin Schunck is a business and law graduate with experience in innovation, aerospace, and strategy consulting. He currently works as a Senior Manager for Strategic Intelligence at Lufthansa Innovation Hub, where he is responsible for the area of sustainable aviation. This includes sustainable aviation fuels, electric and hydrogen aviation, and advanced air mobility. Kolin is passionate about the disruptive forces shaking up the aerospace and aviation industry and is dedicated to contributing to a more sustainable aviation industry by connecting with the ecosystem, providing knowledge, and sharing insights with both external and internal Lufthansa Group stakeholders. He is a true aviation enthusiast and brings his passion to his work in a positive and impactful way.

Rob Wiesenthal

BLADE Urban Air Mobility

Founder & CEO

Since July 2015, Mr. Wiesenthal has served as founder and Chief Executive Officer of Blade Air Mobility, Inc., a technology-powered, global air mobility platform committed to reducing travel friction by providing cost-effective air transportation alternatives to some of the most congested ground routes in the U.S. and abroad. The company is also the largest dedicated air transporters of human organs for transplant in the world.

From January 2013 to July 2015, Mr. Wiesenthal served as Chief Operating Officer of Warner Music Group Corp., a leading global music conglomerate. From 2000 to 2012, Mr. Wiesenthal served in various senior executive capacities with Sony Corporation, most recently as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Sony Corporation of America.

Prior to joining Sony, from 1988 to 2000, Mr. Wiesenthal served in various capacities with Credit Suisse First Boston, most recently as Managing Director, Head of Digital Media and Entertainment. Mr. Wiesenthal previously served on the Board of Directors of Starz.

Mr. Wiesenthal has a B.A. from the University of Rochester.

Bryan Willows

Bristow Group

Program Manager – Advanced Air Mobility

Bryan Willows became the Program Manager for Bristow’s Advanced Air Mobility team in March 2022. In this role, Bryan is responsible for strategic planning and introduction of Bristow’s eVTOL/eSTOL fleet and AW609 fleet in new and existing markets. Additionally, he advises Bristow’s external partners and Executive Leadership Team on technical aviation matters.
Before joining the Advanced Air Mobility team, Bryan worked as the Powered-Lift Program Manager, focusing on the launch of the AW609 at Era Helicopters and Bristow Group. Prior to joining Era in 2019, Bryan earned an MBA from the Acton School of Business in Austin, TX in 2012 and served in various roles with Johnson Controls Building Efficiency division from 2013-2019. From 2001-2011 Bryan served as a U.S. Marine Corps Officer flying the CH-46E “Sea Knight” and MV-22B “Osprey” pilot, deploying twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He holds ratings as an Airline Transport Pilot – Helicopter, Commercial – Powered-lift, Single and Multi-engine Airplane pilot, and is a Powered-Lift CFI/CFII.

keisuke Yasukochi

Skydrive

Global Intelligence Officer

Keisuke is the Global Intelligence Officer for SkyDrive, the eVTOL OEM from Japan and has been managing the business development for international market. He has been attending and speaking at number of the AAM events around the world to promote not only SkyDrive but AAM as a whole. Previously working as a consultant specializing in innovation consulting and Advanced Air Mobility industry and its ecosystem including eVTOLs, and drones. He has been running and managing a number of projects from building a strategy for AAM entry and implementing market strategy for specific areas within UAM, such as unmanned Traffic Management (UTM), regulations & rule making, vertiport, and it’s charging station.