Volocopter confirms Dirk Hoke as its new CEO and Managing Director, to replace Florian Reuter later this year

Dirk Hoke was been announced as Volo­copter’s new Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer and Man­ag­ing Direc­tor, replac­ing Flo­ri­an Reuter, who will be leav­ing the com­pa­ny after sev­en years in the role.

Hoke is for­mer CEO of Air­bus Defence and Space and will take up his new role in Sep­tem­ber. He brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence in lead­ing big tech enti­ties with­in Air­bus and Siemens from a tech­ni­cal, strate­gic and com­mer­cial per­spec­tive. Reuter leaves Volo­copter upon his own wish­es and will remain CEO until a han­dover peri­od has been com­plet­ed.

Hoke brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence in lead­ing big tech enti­ties with­in Air­bus and Siemens from a tech­ni­cal, strate­gic, and com­mer­cial side. His strong track record in trans­for­ma­tion and dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion made him the can­di­date of choice. Volo­copter makes the dream of elec­tric flight in cities come true and aims to be the first UAM devel­op­er to go to mar­ket. 

Dirk Hoke, future CEO of Volo­copter, said: “No com­pa­ny is clos­er to mak­ing this most inno­v­a­tive form of mobil­i­ty a real­i­ty in cities around the world than Volo­copter. Bring­ing elec­tric air taxis to mar­ket in the next years is a dream come true not only for me but for many.

“My expe­ri­ence from Air­bus and Siemens will help us mon­e­tise on the lead­ing mar­ket posi­tion Volo­copter has achieved under Florian’s lead­er­ship. Volocopter’s prod­uct line­up, its cer­ti­fi­ca­tion progress, team spir­it, and ecosys­tem approach put us in a unique com­pet­i­tive posi­tion.”  

Volo­copter has been devel­op­ing UAM for over a decade. It has cre­at­ed a fam­i­ly of elec­tri­cal­ly pow­ered air­craft that can trans­port pas­sen­gers (the VoloC­i­ty and Volo­Con­nect) and goods (the Volo­Drone). It is the only eVTOL com­pa­ny that has obtained design as well as pro­duc­tion orga­ni­za­tion approvals (DOA and POA) from the Euro­pean Union Avi­a­tion Safe­ty Agency (EASA).

The recent announce­ment of $170 mil­lion in its lat­est Series E Financ­ing Round will cer­tain­ly help towards the goal of cer­ti­fy­ing the star­tup’s eVTOL air­craft. Addi­tion­al­ly, Volo­copter announced Avi­a­tion Cap­i­tal Group will help finance its grow­ing fleet for up to $1 bil­lion.

Stefan Klocke, Chair­man of the Advi­so­ry Board at Volo­copter, said: “Out of an impres­sive line­up of can­di­dates, Dirk Hoke was our absolute pre­ferred choice. Com­bin­ing our suc­cess with Dirk’s expe­ri­ence and vision for our com­pa­ny, Volo­copter will con­tin­ue to lead the emerg­ing indus­try and suc­cess­ful­ly mas­ter the com­ing phase of growth and com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion.

“The abil­i­ty to attract such a renowned indus­try leader is proof of the qual­i­ty of the work done by our team. Volo­copter is in the best shape ever: We fly our air­craft in cities world­wide, increased our val­u­a­tion to over $1.7 bil­lion, raised over $579 mil­lion in funds, and estab­lished his­toric indus­try mile­stones that make us the undis­put­ed leader in UAM.”

Pay­ing trib­ute to Reuter’s impact at Volo­copter, Klocke added: “All this would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the pas­sion­ate lead­er­ship of Flo­ri­an over the past sev­en years. We are tru­ly grate­ful for his extra­or­di­nary con­tri­bu­tion and let him go with a heavy heart. We ful­ly respect and under­stand his per­son­al deci­sion and are hap­py to keep him in the fam­i­ly as a friend and share­hold­er.”

Flo­ri­an Reuter, CEO of Volo­copter, said: “I have known Dirk for a num­ber of years and am con­vinced that his expe­ri­ence and lead­er­ship style are a per­fect match for the strat­e­gy and cul­ture at Volo­copter, which is why I put his name for­ward to the Board.

“It has been an incred­i­ble priv­i­lege and hon­our to serve as Volo­copter CEO to a world-class team from across the globe. It is thanks to every sin­gle one of them that Volo­copter con­tin­ues to lead air taxi devel­op­ment. I’m proud of the team and wish Dirk all the best on the great Volo­copter jour­ney ahead.”