Vertical Flight Society Announces 2024 Board of Directors
Industry Executives Continue to Provide VFS Leadership
Fairfax, Virginia, USA, Aug. 15, 2024 — The Vertical Flight Society (VFS), the world’s leading non-profit organization working to advance vertical flight, is pleased to announce its Board of Directors for 2024-2025, for the term that started July 1, 2024. (Those new to the Board are marked with an asterisk.)
The following members were elected to the Board’s Executive Committee for a one-year term:
- Chair: Harry Nahatis, Vice President of Global Pursuits, GE Aerospace
- President: Kathleen “KJ” Jolivette, Vice President/General Manager, Boeing Vertical Lift
- Secretary/Treasurer: David Shilliday *, Vice President/General Manager, Honeywell Advanced Air Mobility
In addition, Dr. Albert Brand, Senior Technical Fellow Flight Technology at Bell Textron, was appointed as the VFS Technical Director, serving on the Executive Committee for a two-year term that began July 1, 2024.
VFS members in half of its ten regions elected or re-elected regional directors and vice-presidents for the two-year term of July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2026.
Americas Region (Canada, Central America and South America)
- Vice President: Chantal Boucher, Bell Textron
- Regional Director: Derek Gowanlock *, National Research Council of Canada (NRC)
US Mideast Region (Philadelphia and Erie Chapters, and surrounding areas)
- Vice President: Keith Conaron, The Boeing Company
- Regional Director: Gregory Walsh *, The Boeing Company
US Southeast Region (Aberdeen, Federal City, Patuxent River, Hampton Roads and Cherry Point Chapters, and surrounding areas)
- Vice President: Dr. James H. Stephenson, US Army DEVCOM, Aviation & Missile Center
- Regional Director: Dr. Rajneesh Singh, US Army DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory
US Southwest Region (Southwest Chapter and all surrounding areas)
- Vice President: Bryan Baskin *, Bell Textron
- Regional Director: Christos Bais, Joby Aviation
US Western Region (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Arizona Chapters, and all surrounding areas)
- Vice President: Dr. Colin Theodore, NASA Ames Research Center
- Regional Director: Gloria A. Randecker *, The Boeing Company
Previously elected members of the Board of Directors, who will continue to serve until June 30, 2025, are as follows:
Asia-Australia Region (members in Asia and Oceania)
- Vice President: Dr. Arvind Sinha, University of Melbourne
- Director: Dr. Yasutada Tanabe, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Europe-Africa Region (members in Europe and Africa)
- Vice President: Luca Medici, Leonardo Helicopters
- Director: Arnaud Le Pape, ONERA
US Midwest Region (members in the Dayton and St Louis Chapters)
- Vice President: Dr. Charlie Svoboda, Jr., The Boeing Company
- Director: Prof. David A. Peters, Washington University in St. Louis
US Northeast Region (members in the East New England, Stratford, Connecticut Valley and Empire State Chapters)
- Vice President: Usman Asif, Sikorsky, A Lockheed Martin Company
- Director: Steven Schmidt, Sikorsky, A Lockheed Martin Company
US Southern Region (members in the Redstone, Atlanta and South Florida Chapters)
- Vice President: William B. McCandless, US Army
- Director: Prof. JVR Prasad, Georgia Tech
In addition, current appointed (voting) members of the VFS Board of Directors include:
- VP Membership: Kaydon Stanzione *, LogistiWerx, Inc.
- VP Washington, DC: John Lindsay, Textron, Inc.
Founded as the American Helicopter Society in 1943, the Vertical Flight Society is the global non-profit society for engineers, scientists and others working on vertical flight technology. For more than 80 years, the Society has led technical, safety, advocacy and other important initiatives, and has been the primary forum for interchange of information on vertical flight technology.
VFS is @VTOLsociety on social media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube, and has @ElectricVTOL channels on Facebook and Twitter.
This press release is also available as a pdf.
The Vertical Flight Society
2700 Prosperity Ave, Suite 275, Fairfax, VA 22031 USA
+1-703-684-6777 | staff@vtol.org | www.vtol.org | www.eVTOL.news