Horizon Aircraft Appoints Tom Hearne to Board and Audit Committee

Hori­zon Air­craft has appoint­ed tech­nol­o­gy exec­u­tive and board mem­ber Tom Hearne to its Board of Direc­tors, where he will also serve as chair of the Audit Com­mit­tee.

Hearne joins the Toron­to-based aero­space com­pa­ny as it advances devel­op­ment of its Cavorite X7 hybrid-elec­tric ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing (VTOL) air­craft. His appoint­ment took effect Sep­tem­ber 4, 2026.

He suc­ceeds Trisha Nomu­ra, who resigned from the board and as Audit Com­mit­tee chair on the same date for per­son­al rea­sons. Hori­zon said her depar­ture was not relat­ed to any dis­agree­ment with the com­pa­ny or its board. Nomu­ra will remain avail­able in a sup­port and advi­so­ry capac­i­ty and con­tin­ues to hold shares in the com­pa­ny.

Hearne brings more than 30 years of expe­ri­ence work­ing with pub­lic and pri­vate tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies, cov­er­ing finan­cial man­age­ment, cap­i­tal mar­kets, cor­po­rate gov­er­nance and strate­gic trans­ac­tions. He has also been involved in financ­ing activ­i­ties total­ing more than $500 mil­lion dur­ing his career. A Char­tered Pro­fes­sion­al Accoun­tant, Hearne holds an MBA from York Uni­ver­si­ty’s Schulich School of Busi­ness.

He cur­rent­ly serves as CEO and a direc­tor of AI tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny ARB Labs and is a direc­tor and Audit Com­mit­tee chair at Enthu­si­ast Gam­ing Hold­ings. He pre­vi­ous­ly held senior posi­tions at Tiidal Gam­ing Group, Sportech and Score Media, includ­ing chief finan­cial offi­cer and chief exec­u­tive roles.

Hori­zon said his finan­cial and gov­er­nance expe­ri­ence will be rel­e­vant as the com­pa­ny moves the Cavorite X7 through man­u­fac­tur­ing, test­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, with com­mer­cial­iza­tion planned fol­low­ing suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of those stages.

The Cavorite X7 is being devel­oped as a hybrid-elec­tric VTOL air­craft designed to tran­si­tion into con­ven­tion­al wing-borne flight for most of its mis­sion. Hori­zon is focus­ing the air­craft around region­al trans­porta­tion and oth­er appli­ca­tions requir­ing ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing capa­bil­i­ties.

Hori­zon said his finan­cial and gov­er­nance expe­ri­ence will be rel­e­vant as the com­pa­ny moves the Cavorite X7 through man­u­fac­tur­ing, test­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, with com­mer­cial­iza­tion planned fol­low­ing suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of those stages.

The Cavorite X7 is being devel­oped as a hybrid-elec­tric VTOL air­craft designed to tran­si­tion into con­ven­tion­al wing-borne flight for most of its mis­sion. Hori­zon has posi­tioned the air­craft around region­al trans­porta­tion and oth­er appli­ca­tions requir­ing ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing capa­bil­i­ties.

Hori­zon said his finan­cial and gov­er­nance expe­ri­ence will be rel­e­vant as the com­pa­ny moves the Cavorite X7 through man­u­fac­tur­ing, test­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, with com­mer­cial­iza­tion planned fol­low­ing suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of those stages.

Bran­don Robin­son, Co-Founder and CEO of Hori­zon Air­craft, com­ment­ed: “As we advance the Cavorite X7 through man­u­fac­tur­ing, test­ing, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, and ulti­mate­ly com­mer­cial­iza­tion, dis­ci­plined finan­cial over­sight and the abil­i­ty to nav­i­gate the cap­i­tal mar­kets will become increas­ing­ly impor­tant. We believe Tom’s expe­ri­ence and per­spec­tive will make him a valu­able addi­tion to our Board.””

The Cavorite X7 is being devel­oped as a hybrid-elec­tric VTOL air­craft designed to tran­si­tion into con­ven­tion­al wing-borne flight for most of its mis­sion. Hori­zon has posi­tioned the air­craft around region­al trans­porta­tion and oth­er appli­ca­tions requir­ing ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing capa­bil­i­ties.

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

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