Volocopter appoints Oliver Vogelgesang as its Chief Financial Officer, who joins from Lilium

Lil­i­um’s for­mer Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer Oliv­er Vogelge­sang has joined Volo­copter, effec­tive imme­di­ate­ly.

As an expe­ri­enced finan­cial exec­u­tive of a list­ed com­pa­ny, Oliv­er will steer the ongo­ing fundrais­ing activ­i­ties and future-proof finan­cial activ­i­ties fol­low­ing its air­craft cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in 2025 and entry into mar­ket. He takes over this posi­tion from Chris­t­ian Bauer, who remains the Volo­copter’s Chief Com­mer­cial Offi­cer.

Vogelge­sang has three decades of finance expe­ri­ence in the avi­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy sec­tor. As well as Lil­i­um, he held senior lead­er­ship posi­tions across Air­bus.

His exper­tise lies in build­ing up strong and inter­na­tion­al finance teams, busi­ness mod­el­ling, and rais­ing cap­i­tal for tran­si­tion­ing star­tups, which trans­late unique­ly into Volocopter’s short—to medi­um-term finan­cial tar­gets. The appoint­ment is well-timed as the com­pa­ny wel­comes the shift from devel­op­ment to mar­ket entry in 2025.  

Dieter Zetsche, Volo­copter’s Chair­man of the Advi­so­ry Board, said: “Finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty of the com­pa­ny and the indus­try is time­ly and cru­cial; there­fore, it is with great plea­sure to appoint a ded­i­cat­ed CFO in Oliv­er Vogelge­sang.

“His inter­na­tion­al finance and aero­space exper­tise will strength­en our ties with stake­hold­ers and cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties for Volocopter’s future part­ners and share­hold­ers. I would also like to thank Chris­t­ian Bauer, who has held the finan­cial and com­mer­cial man­age­ment side togeth­er dur­ing these chal­leng­ing mar­ket con­di­tions.” 

Dirk Hoke, CEO of Volo­copter added: “The com­pa­ny will be gain­ing an indus­try and finan­cial expert who has been suc­cess­ful in bind­ing trans­ac­tions with mul­ti­ple stake­hold­ers world­wide.

“Oliver’s appoint­ment will invig­o­rate our senior man­age­ment team and sup­port Volocopter’s future growth. Thanks to Chris­t­ian Bauer who has for­ti­fied our finan­cial foun­da­tions so that we can move for­ward.” 

Com­ment­ing on his own appoint­ment, Vogelge­sang said: “I have expe­ri­enced impact­ful indus­try trans­for­ma­tions while build­ing my avi­a­tion career. I strong­ly believe that the company’s eVTOL tech­nol­o­gy and mar­ket approach will change the ways of elec­tric future mobil­i­ty. I am delight­ed to join Volo­copter, espe­cial­ly at this stage of prox­im­i­ty in achiev­ing air­craft type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, to strength­en its finan­cial com­po­si­tion and future-proof its company’s ambi­tious growth.”

Volocopter’s VoloC­i­ty is in the final stages of air­craft test­ing to achieve the Euro­pean Union Avi­a­tion Safe­ty Agency (EASA) cer­ti­fi­ca­tion next year.