Former Airbus CEO Dr. Thomas Enders to serve as Lilium’s Chairman of the Board following business combination with Qell

Lil­i­um has announced advi­so­ry board mem­ber Dr. Thomas Enders will become Chair­man of the Board of Direc­tors of Lil­i­um N.V., upon com­ple­tion of Lilium’s busi­ness com­bi­na­tion with Qell Acqui­si­tion Corp.

The Ger­man start­up plans to go pub­lic as part of a joint SPAC merg­er with Qell, which was announced in March and will val­ue the new com­pa­ny at approx­i­mate­ly $3.3 bil­lion. The trans­ac­tion is expect­ed to be com­plet­ed in the sec­ond quar­ter of 2021.

Dr. Enders, who served as the CEO of Air­bus dur­ing a career in aero­space span­ning 30 years, joined Lilium’s Advi­so­ry Board in Jan­u­ary 2021, and an announce­ment was part was made as part of Lil­i­um’s inau­gur­al Ana­lyst Day which was held vir­tu­al­ly yes­ter­day (Tues­day).

Lilium’s exec­u­tive team, includ­ing team mem­bers who worked on devel­op­ing some of the most suc­cess­ful air­craft in avi­a­tion his­to­ry, shared more infor­ma­tion on cer­ti­fi­ca­tion plans, man­u­fac­tur­ing approach, busi­ness mod­el and com­mer­cial rela­tion­ships with estab­lished indus­try sup­pli­ers and infra­struc­ture devel­op­ers.

There was also a first look at the cab­in of the sev­en-seater Lil­i­um Jet, which has space for six pas­sen­gers and one pilot, spa­cious win­dow seats, clear views, a cen­tral aisle and a sep­a­rate hold for lug­gage.

Dr Enders said: “I would be hon­ored to lead the first Board of Lil­i­um once the busi­ness com­bi­na­tion is com­plet­ed and am grate­ful for the con­fi­dence my col­leagues put in me. Now, I’m focused on expand­ing this world-class board of direc­tors to sup­port CEO Daniel Wie­gand and his great man­age­ment team, and set the course for suc­cess.”

Daniel Wie­gand, Co-Founder and CEO of Lil­i­um, said: “Tom Enders is an avi­a­tion indus­try giant, and we are all delight­ed to see him reaf­firm his com­mit­ment to Lil­i­um by accept­ing the future role of Chair­man of the Board when Lil­i­um becomes a Nas­daq-list­ed com­pa­ny.

“We will con­tin­ue to lever­age Tom’s incred­i­ble net­work across aero­space, both in the deliv­ery of air­craft and in com­mer­cial devel­op­ment, and togeth­er with Bar­ry Engle and the direc­tors who will serve on the Board of Direc­tors of Lil­i­um N.V., Tom will pro­vide impor­tant coun­sel and stew­ard­ship as we pre­pare for a planned com­mer­cial launch in 2024.”

In a video mes­sage, Dr. Enders dis­cussed the impor­tance of Lil­i­um’s com­mer­cial rela­tion­ships to the com­pa­ny’s future suc­cess, which includes Hon­ey­well Aero­space, Palan­tir, Lufthansa Avi­a­tion Train­ing and Fer­rovial – and their antic­i­pat­ed con­tri­bu­tion to devel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­iza­tion of the Lil­i­um Jet.

Hon­ey­well Aero­space will work with Lil­i­um to reduce cer­ti­fi­ca­tion sched­ule risk and cost by pro­vid­ing avion­ics and fly-by-wire flight con­trols.

Palan­tir, which along with Hon­ey­well have com­mit­ted to invest in Lil­i­um through the pre­vi­ous­ly announced PIPE offer­ing in con­nec­tion with Lilium’s busi­ness com­bi­na­tion with Qell, will pro­vide enter­prise-grade intel­li­gence and a data-first approach to sup­port the man­u­fac­tur­ing and deliv­ery of the 7‑Seater Lil­i­um Jet;

Lufthansa Avi­a­tion Train­ing is devel­op­ing bespoke pilot sourc­ing and train­ing pro­grams to qual­i­fy pilots to fly the Lil­i­um Jet

Fer­rovial is work­ing with Lil­i­um to plan and devel­op a net­work of at least ten ver­ti­ports in major cities across Flori­da, Lilium’s planned launch mar­ket in the U.S.

Bar­ry Engle, Founder and CEO of Qell and who is also part of Lil­i­um’s Board of Direc­tors, added: “Tom Enders needs no intro­duc­tion, hav­ing led one of the world’s most suc­cess­ful aero­space com­pa­nies as part of a suc­cess­ful career. He will bring enor­mous indus­try insights, expe­ri­ence, and fore­sight in cor­po­rate gov­er­nance to Lil­i­um, and we look for­ward to hav­ing Tom serve as Chair­man of the Board as Lil­i­um devel­ops and seeks cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for the 7‑Seater Jet.”