Vertical Aerospace strengthens leadership team with new Director of Infrastructure and Chief Marketing Officer

Ver­ti­cal Aero­space has made two senior appoint­ments, with Andrew Macmil­lan join­ing the com­pa­ny as Direc­tor of Infra­struc­ture and Arnd Mueller as Chief Mar­ket­ing Offi­cer. 

The pair join the com­pa­ny as it con­tin­ues to build on the business’s suc­cess­ful tran­si­tion to a rapid­ly scal­ing man­u­fac­tur­er of eVTOL air­craft. In a press release, Ver­ti­cal said their ‘expe­ri­ence and exper­tise will sup­port Ver­ti­cal through its next stage of growth and in main­tain­ing its ambi­tion to be the pre­ferred glob­al sup­pli­er of zero emis­sions air­craft’.

Stephen Fitz­patrick, Founder and CEO of Ver­ti­cal Aero­space, said: “As we enter the next phase of our growth, we con­tin­ue to attract the very best glob­al tal­ent to our busi­ness. Hav­ing spent the past five years build­ing the best engi­neer­ing capa­bil­i­ty in our indus­try, we are now focussed on bring­ing in world class oper­a­tional tal­ent who will help us deliv­er on our strat­e­gy.

“With strong track records of lead­er­ship and exten­sive expe­ri­ence in help­ing busi­ness­es nav­i­gate chang­ing envi­ron­ments, Andrew and Arnd are out­stand­ing addi­tions to our team.”

At Heathrow, Macmil­lan was respon­si­ble for strat­e­gy, mas­ter­plan­ning, fore­cast­ing and reg­u­la­tion, includ­ing its long-term busi­ness and invest­ment plans and nego­ti­a­tions with the UK reg­u­la­tor, the CAA, and air­lines.

For over a decade, he held a num­ber of roles design­ing, financ­ing and build­ing pub­lic and pol­i­cy sup­port for world-lead­ing air­port infra­struc­ture and ser­vices. Macmil­lan’s track record of estab­lish­ing part­ner­ships across the infra­struc­ture and avi­a­tion indus­tries will be cen­tral to Ver­ti­cal as it pre­pares to launch one of the most advanced eVTOL air­craft in the world, the VA-X4.

Com­ment­ing on his new role, Macmil­lan said, “This is an excit­ing time for the avi­a­tion indus­try and for the role that Ver­ti­cal will play in its trans­for­ma­tion. Ver­ti­cal is a proven leader, with out­stand­ing indus­try investors, rev­o­lu­tion­ary tech­nol­o­gy, and a world-class team and part­ner ecosys­tem, which makes it the stand­out in this grow­ing sec­tor. I am look­ing for­ward to help­ing shape the next break­through in avi­a­tion.”

While Mueller brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence in entre­pre­neur­ial brand build­ing with scale up com­pa­nies like Lil­i­um and has worked with some of the world’s most icon­ic brands and cor­po­ra­tions, such as The Walt Dis­ney Com­pa­ny, the Ber­tels­mann Group and ESPRIT.

He has held com­mer­cial and glob­al mar­ket­ing lead­er­ship roles, man­aged mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar dig­i­tal-first cam­paigns and built new brands to glob­al recog­ni­tion. Mueller will be respon­si­ble for all glob­al brand, mar­ket­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion efforts.

He added: “Ver­ti­cal has already built a team of world-class engi­neers and is seek­ing to rein­vent air trav­el for a smarter and clean­er way to trav­el. Our focus is now on build­ing an icon­ic brand that con­nects with our glob­al audi­ences and on our engi­neer­ing prowess. I am excit­ed to be help­ing Ver­ti­cal be a leader in our new indus­try and defin­ing what the future of air mobil­i­ty looks like.”