Wisk brings additional industry expertise to its leadership team with double appointment

Wisk Aero has expand­ed its Exec­u­tive lead­er­ship team with the addi­tion of Sebastien Vigneron as Senior Vice Pres­i­dent of Engi­neer­ing and Pro­grams and Ricky Robin­son as Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer.

Sebastien brings more than 18 years of expe­ri­ence to his role as Senior Vice Pres­i­dent of Engi­neer­ing and Pro­grams, where he will be respon­si­ble for exe­cut­ing the company’s tech­ni­cal vision and roadmap, over­see­ing the devel­op­ment of cur­rent and future air­craft, and direct­ing Wisk’s Engi­neer­ing, Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, Prod­uct Man­age­ment, and Pro­grams teams.

He joins Wisk from Vir­gin Hyper­loop, where he was Vice Pres­i­dent of Prod­uct Devel­op­ment Engi­neer­ing and Chief Engi­neer, and led the devel­op­ment of the Hyper­loop sys­tem, a new mode of trans­porta­tion from require­ments cap­ture through design, build, and test. Sebastien also held key lead­er­ship and tech­ni­cal roles at Bom­bardier and Das­sault Avi­a­tion devel­op­ing type cer­ti­fied air­craft from ini­tial con­cept through flight test­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

Vigneron said: “Join­ing Wisk is a once-in-a-life­time oppor­tu­ni­ty to trans­form mobil­i­ty in a way that is effec­tive, acces­si­ble, and sus­tain­able. I tru­ly believe that all-elec­tric, self-fly­ing air­craft are the future of air mobil­i­ty and Wisk has been at the fore­front of this tech­nol­o­gy for over a decade. I am excit­ed to be part of this amaz­ing jour­ney and to help real­ize the promise of autonomous AAM in mak­ing avi­a­tion smarter, safer, and more effi­cient.”

In his role as Chief Peo­ple Offi­cer, Ricky will help facil­i­tate the con­tin­ued growth of Wisk, includ­ing tal­ent man­age­ment, organ­i­sa­tion­al struc­ture and cul­ture, diver­si­ty, equal­i­ty and inclu­sion (DE&I).

With more than 25 years of expe­ri­ence, Ricky has held var­i­ous HR lead­er­ship roles at Nortek, Anix­ter Inter­na­tion­al, Gap, and Office Depot. His most recent role pri­or to join­ing Wisk was as Vice Pres­i­dent of HR in the Car­dio­vas­cu­lar Port­fo­lio at Medtron­ic, one of the largest med­ical device com­pa­nies in the world. Ricky is also active in the lead­er­ship of a num­ber of non­prof­its, includ­ing the Attles Cen­ter for Excel­lence (ACE), Abil­i­ty Now Bay Area, and the Mary Valle Foun­da­tion for the Cere­bral Palsied.

Robin­son said: “Wisk is a clear­ly estab­lished leader in the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Space with a real val­ue propo­si­tion that makes it an employ­er of choice and a des­ti­na­tion for tal­ent. I look for­ward to lever­ag­ing my expe­ri­ence to help Wisk lead from the front, as we con­tin­ue to grow. I’m extreme­ly excit­ed to be part of the Wisk fam­i­ly and about the oppor­tu­ni­ties that we have in front of us.”

Gary Gysin, CEO of Wisk, added: “Wisk has estab­lished itself as a leader in the advanced air mobil­i­ty indus­try and is on an excit­ing growth tra­jec­to­ry. Our peo­ple, com­bined with our tech­nol­o­gy, are the keys to our suc­cess. The exten­sive expe­ri­ence and exper­tise that Sebastien and Ricky bring to Wisk will be crit­i­cal as we scale in these areas, both today and in the future.”

Since 2010, Wisk has been focused on deliv­er­ing safe, every­day flight for every­one. It is a devel­op­er of the first all-elec­tric, self-fly­ing air taxi in the U.S and cur­rent­ly design­ing its sixth-gen­er­a­tion air­craft.