Press Release: VFS Announces 2026-2027 Board of Directors

Fairfax, Virginia, USA, April 30, 2026  — The Vertical Flight Society, the world’s leading non- profit dedicated to advancing vertical flight, is pleased to announce its Board of Directors for 2026-2027.

The following members were elected to the Board’s Executive Committee for a one- year term starting July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027:

• Chair: Mr. Chris Speights, The Boeing Company
• President: Mr. Jason Hurst, Bell Textron
• Secretary/Treasurer: Mr. Steve Schmidt, Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company
• Technical Director: Dr. Carlos Cesnik, University of Michigan

VFS Board of Directors

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, 2026, to June 30, 2028. 

Americas Region (Canada, Central America and South America)

• Vice President: Thuva Senthilnathan, Bell Textron
• Regional Director: Phil "Royal" Kelly, Horizon Aircraft

U.S. Mideast Region (Philadelphia and surrounding areas)

• Vice President: John Piasecki, Piasecki Aircraft
• Regional Director: Greg Walsh, The Boeing Company

U.S. Southeast Region (Aberdeen, Federal City, Patuxent River, Hampton Roads and surrounding areas)

• Vice President: James Stephenson, US Army
• Regional Director: Dr. Rajneesh Singh, US Army

U.S. Southwest Region (Southwest Chapter and all surrounding areas)

• Vice President: Bryan Baskin, Bell Textron
• Regional Director: Will Girard, Bell Textron

U.S. Western Region (SoCal, San Francisco, Arizona, and all surrounding areas)

• Vice President: Dr. Colin Theodore, NASA Ames Research Center
• Regional Director: Dr. Mark Jahanbin, Swift Engineering & ERAU

Other elected members of the Board of Directors, who will continue to serve until June 30, 2027, are as follows:

Asia-Australia Region (all countries in Asia and Oceania)

• Vice President: Dr. Arvind Sinha, University of Melbourne, Australia
• Director: Dr. James Wang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Europe-Africa Region (members in Europe and Africa)

• Vice President: Luca Medici, Leonardo Helicopters
• Regional Director: Arnaud Le Pape, ONERA

U.S. Midwest Region (members in the Dayton and St Louis Chapters)

• Vice President: Mr. Doug Washburn, Hartzell Propeller
• Director: Vacant

US Northeast Region (members in the East New England, Stratford)

• Vice President: Usman Asif, Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company
• Director: Vacant

U.S. Southern Region (members in the Redstone, Atlanta, and South Florida Chapters)

• Vice President: Bill McCandless, Army PEO Aviation
• Director: JVR Prasad, Georgia Tech

In addition, the current appointed members of the VFS Board of Directors are:

• Appointed Director: Kaydon Stanzione, LogistiWerx Inc.
• Appointed Director: John Lindsay, Textron
• Appointed Director: Matteo Ragazzi, Leonardo
• Appointed Director: Olivier Honnorat, Airbus
• Appointed Director: Bill Lewis, Tennessee Technical Test Team
• Appointed Director: Mr. Rodney Davis, US Army PEO Aviation (Army Liaison, Non-voting)
• Appointed Director: Mr. Michael Fallon, NAVAIR (Navy Liaison, Non-voting)

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 82 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, Vimeo and YouTube, and has @ElectricVTOL channels on Facebook.

The Vertical Flight Society
2700 Prosperity Ave, Suite 275, Fairfax, VA 22031 USA
+1-703-684-6777 | staff@vtol.org | www.vtol.org