Pivotal Appoints Mike Ross as Interim CEO After Ken Karklin’s Departure

Piv­otal has appoint­ed Mike Ross as inter­im chief exec­u­tive offi­cer fol­low­ing the depar­ture of Ken Karklin, who led the light elec­tric ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing (eVTOL) air­craft com­pa­ny for the past four years.

Ross took on the role on August 31, 2026, and will con­tin­ue serv­ing on Pivotal’s board. The com­pa­ny said its board will begin a search for a per­ma­nent CEO.

Piv­otal said its exist­ing pri­or­i­ties and prod­uct roadmap will remain unchanged dur­ing the tran­si­tion. Ross is expect­ed to over­see the com­pa­ny as it con­tin­ues devel­op­ment of its fourth-gen­er­a­tion Helix air­craft.

Ross brings expe­ri­ence across avi­a­tion, defense, auton­o­my and robot­ics. He pre­vi­ous­ly held a senior lead­er­ship role at Jeppe­sen Fore­Flight and was involved in Boeing’s uncrewed and advanced air mobil­i­ty busi­ness. He has also held prod­uct roles at drone man­u­fac­tur­er Sky­dio and con­nect­ed-oper­a­tions com­pa­ny Sam­sara. Ross is a for­mer U.S. Navy com­man­der, fight­er pilot and test pilot, and pre­vi­ous­ly served with the Defense Inno­va­tion Unit.

Karklin’s depar­ture comes as Piv­otal points to sev­er­al recent mile­stones for its air­craft pro­gram. The com­pa­ny said its fleet of Black­Fly V3.3 air­craft has sur­passed 10,000 flights.

Piv­otal also high­light­ed a pub­lic-safe­ty demon­stra­tion in which a Black­Fly respond­ed to a 911 call and arrived at the scene 20 min­utes ahead of an ambu­lance trav­el­ling in par­al­lel. The com­pa­ny has posi­tioned pub­lic safe­ty along­side recre­ation and short-dis­tance trans­porta­tion as poten­tial appli­ca­tions for its air­craft.

Piv­otal launched sales of its Helix air­craft in Jan­u­ary 2024. The air­craft uses a tilt-wing design to take off and land ver­ti­cal­ly with­out a run­way and is intend­ed for short-dis­tance flight.

The lead­er­ship change comes as the wider eVTOL sec­tor moves from pro­to­type devel­op­ment toward com­mer­cial oper­a­tions and reg­u­la­to­ry inte­gra­tion. Piv­otal is par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Mul­ti­state Col­lab­o­ra­tive eIPP, a Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion-backed pro­gram exam­in­ing the inte­gra­tion of eVTOL air­craft into the U.S. avi­a­tion sys­tem.

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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