Vertical Aerospace Makes Three New Appointments To Its Leadership Team as its Enters Next Phase of Growth

Ver­ti­cal Aero­space have three senior appoint­ments as the com­pa­ny strength­ens its lead­er­ship team ahead of enter­ing the next phase of growth, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and com­mer­cial readi­ness.

Ollie Roberts has joined as Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer (CPO), Juan Car­los Sac­ristan has been appoint­ed Chief Data & Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer (CDIO) and Richard Moore as Vice Pres­i­dent, Pow­er­train.  

Chief Data & Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer

As CDIO, Juan Car­los (“JC”) Sac­ristan will lead Vertical’s long-term data, dig­i­tal and AI strat­e­gy, con­nect­ing infor­ma­tion across design, pro­cure­ment, test­ing, pro­duc­tion and man­u­fac­tur­ing. His remit includes build­ing the dig­i­tal back­bone, advanced sim­u­la­tion and analy­sis required to enable Ver­ti­cal to scale effi­cient­ly into ser­vice. 

JC brings more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence dri­ving busi­ness growth through com­plex tech­nol­o­gy trans­for­ma­tions and data and AI led strate­gies. 

He has held senior lead­er­ship roles at glob­al organ­i­sa­tions includ­ing CDIO at Abcam, Chief Data and Ana­lyt­ics Offi­cer at Adi­das, Dig­i­tal Glob­al Lead at Nike and CIO at GE Gas Engines, along­side board advi­so­ry roles and expe­ri­ence found­ing and scal­ing start-ups.

Vice Pres­i­dent, Pow­er­train

Ver­ti­cal also con­firmed that Richard Moore has been appoint­ed Vice Pres­i­dent, Pow­er­train.

Richard leads a focused Pow­er­train engi­neer­ing organ­i­sa­tion span­ning ener­gy stor­age, bat­tery man­age­ment sys­tems, elec­tric propul­sion units and charg­ing, fur­ther strength­en­ing inte­gra­tion across these mis­sion-crit­i­cal sys­tems as Ver­ti­cal advances toward cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.  

An aero­nau­tics engi­neer, Richard is an expe­ri­enced glob­al bat­tery expert with more than 35 years of expe­ri­ence in the indus­try.

Pre­vi­ous­ly a board mem­ber and Direc­tor of Propul­sion and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Engi­neer­ing at Lotus, he led the engi­neer­ing of all sports cars, includ­ing the Evi­ja elec­tric hyper­car. 

He was also Chief Engi­neer at Jaguar Land Rover, where he led the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion engi­neer­ing for propul­sion sys­tems across all Jaguar and Land Rover prod­uct pro­grammes, includ­ing the Jaguar I‑Pace, the company’s first all-elec­tric vehi­cle.  

Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer

As CPO, Ollie Roberts will lead all aspects of Vertical’s peo­ple strat­e­gy, includ­ing tal­ent attrac­tion and devel­op­ment, cul­ture devel­op­ment, col­league engage­ment, organ­i­sa­tion­al design and capa­bil­i­ty build­ing ‑deliv­er­ing a diverse, high-per­form­ing and future-ready organ­i­sa­tion as Ver­ti­cal advances toward cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and com­mer­cial oper­a­tions. 

Ollie is a sea­soned C‑suite exec­u­tive with more than 25 years’ expe­ri­ence lead­ing human resources, organ­i­sa­tion­al design and large-scale trans­for­ma­tion pro­grammes across mul­ti­ple indus­tries. 

Most recent­ly, Ollie served as Chief Human Resources Offi­cer and Chief Trans­for­ma­tion Offi­cer at BMI Group, where he led a wide-rang­ing organ­i­sa­tion­al and cul­tur­al trans­for­ma­tion that strength­ened busi­ness per­for­mance and deliv­ery. 

Ollie has also held glob­al lead­er­ship roles at AB InBev, SAB Miller and glob­al real estate leader DTZ. 

Stu­art Simp­son, CEO of Ver­ti­cal Aero­space, said: “Ver­ti­cal has reached an impor­tant inflec­tion point. As we move at pace toward cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, man­u­fac­tur­ing and com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion, strength­en­ing lead­er­ship across tech­nol­o­gy, core engi­neer­ing dis­ci­plines and peo­ple posi­tions us to scale effec­tive­ly and deliv­er on our long-term ambi­tions. I’m delight­ed to kick off this trans­for­ma­tion­al year with these top tier appoint­ments.”