14 new speakers for Aerial Cities 2024

With Aerial Cities just around the corner, we’re looking forward to shaping the future of Urban Air Mobility together this November in London!

Last year, Aerial Cities brought together 130 executives, over five investors, and more than 30 AAM and drone companies. The event also welcomed 8 CAAs, over 20 cities and governments, and 20+ first responders, telecom, and mobility companies, making it an exceptional gathering of minds and visions. Check out the list of companies that attended last year’s event below!

Our mission is to create a shared understanding and collaborative framework for integrating drone technologies into our urban infrastructures, paving the way for the cities of tomorrow. This year, with a focus on revenue generation and profitability, we’re sure to gain valuable insights into what’s next for the drone and AAM industries.

We have been working hard behind the scenes to get more and more speakers from companies and governments worldwide involved. If you haven’t already, check out our previous featured speaker blogs here!

Let us introduce you to our newest additions to our panels this year:

Gary Cutts, Challenge Director at Future Flight Challenge Programme

Gary has 35 years of experience in the Aviation industry, mainly working on complex engineering systems, business development and strategy. He has held global leadership positions in Rolls-Royce, working across the product lifecycle, including creating the System Design function and leading the digital transformation of Engineering for the group. He has also been a board member at the digital engineering consultancy CFMS. Gary is now leading the UK government’s £300m Future Flight Challenge programme, working across government and industry to create innovative new aviation systems encompassing drones and Advanced Air Mobility vehicles. In this role, he is a member of the UK’s Future of Flight Industry Group, the Zero Emissions Flight Regulatory Group, and a former Council member of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Kara Jones, Director of GENIUS NY

Kara Jones is the Director of GENIUS NY, the world’s largest business accelerator for uncrewed systems (UAS) and robotics. Under her leadership, GENIUS NY has invested over $21 million in 32 innovative startups, helping them secure more than $150 million in follow-on funding. Her ability to build strategic partnerships has been vital to the program’s success, as she excels at connecting startups with the right investors, industry leaders, and mentors to accelerate growth.

With over a decade of experience in innovation, entrepreneurship, and venture capital, Kara is a strong advocate for collaboration. She is skilled at fostering partnerships that drive progress in the UAS industry, creating opportunities for companies to scale through access to resources, talent, and funding. Prior to leading GENIUS NY, she served as Director of Communications at The Tech Garden, where she supported over 100 startups in navigating the innovation ecosystem.

Kara’s expertise extends beyond GENIUS NY. She recently served as a mentor for NIST’s Pulse Accelerator, focusing on UAS for public safety, and regularly coaches and judges at major industry events like SXSW and AUVSI XPONENTIAL. Known for her ability to connect the right people and build networks that fuel innovation, Kara is passionate about helping startups grow and succeed in the UAS and AAM sectors.

The DroneTalks team has spoken with Kara on our YouTube channel before; check it out here!

Manoel Coelho, CEO at Speedbird Aero

Manoel Coelho, visionary entrepreneur and CEO of Speedbird Aero, boasts over two decades of dynamic business leadership and a history of guiding start-ups with groundbreaking technologies. A Thunderbird School of Global Management honours graduate, Coelho seamlessly integrates technological innovation with international business strategies.

His career spans key roles in the telemedicine and healthcare industry, marked by leadership in three disruptive technology-focused start-ups. Taking the helm at Speedbird Aero in 2018, Coelho leverages expertise in Drone as a Service, Software as a Service, Artificial Intelligence, and Telemedicine to lead the company’s global development.

Under Coelho’s leadership, Speedbird Aero is a pioneer in unmanned aviation with cutting-edge technologies in electric propulsion, autonomous flight, and sustainable solutions. Beyond his professional impact, Coelho is a respected figure in the unmanned aviation community, advocating for sustainability.

Denise Braemer, Project Lead, CITYAM (Interreg Baltic Sea Region-Hamburg)

Based in Hamburg, Germany, Denise Braemer is currently leading an Interreg Baltic Sea Region funded project focusing on urban air mobility integration. This 3-year project, CITYAM, began last January and is currently conducting demonstration flights in Hamburg, Helsinki & Stockholm and, together with other cities in the international consortium, developing the necessary strategies, policies, and tools to help prepare cities for the safe integration of UAM. Prior to the move to Hamburg, she worked in the FAA Office of International Affairs in Washington, DC, with a focus on the harmonisation of aviation safety and training standards in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Before joining the FAA, she was a legislative advisor in the U.S. Senate, focusing on aviation issues, including UAM.

Thomas Curran, Head of the Survey & Mapping Division at Dublin City Council

Tom Curran is the Head of Dublin City Council’s Survey & Mapping Division, which incorporates the recently created Corporate Drone Unit. He is a Chartered Geomatic Surveyor with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Society of Chartered Surveyors of Ireland (SCSI) with over 30 years of experience in Land Surveying. He has led the Survey & Mapping Division in embracing the most up-to-date survey technology in the areas of Lidar, 3D scanning, GNSS (GPS) and UAVs (Drones).

Gwen Lighter, CEO at GoAERO and GoFly

Gwen Lighter is the CEO and founder of GoAERO. Supported by NASA, Boeing, RTX, and a variety of aerospace and public safety partners, GoAERO is catalysing the creation of Emergency Response Flyers—safe, autonomy-enabled aircraft that rescue people and perform critical response missions in the face of natural disasters, medical emergencies, climate change, and humanitarian crises.

Since 2017, Gwen has also served as CEO of GoFly, where she has led a network of over 3,600 innovators from 103 countries, creating many personal flying devices, including jet packs, flying motorcycles, and human-carrying drones.

Markus Bardach, Managing Director at skyzr GmbH

Markus Bardach gathered experience in different roles in the IT sector after finishing his master’s degree in computer science and economics with a focus on data science. In 2020, he joined the Frequentis New Business Development department to evaluate innovative ideas in the drone sector. Markus was one of the founders of the corporate start-up skyzr, where he has also been Managing Director since early 2022, developing innovative software solutions for drone operators. skyzr offers one of the most advanced SORA automation tools and SORA consultation for UAS operations all over Europe.

Bobby Healy, CEO and Founder of Manna Drone Delivery

Bobby began his career building video games for Nintendo. He then founded Eland (an airline tech company), which he sold to SITA. He then built CarTrawler over 15 years and led two successful LBOs for the business. For the last four years, he’s been building Manna Drone Delivery – a business whose mission is to improve the world by making lightning-fast suburban deliveries affordable, green, and safe. He is also a founder of Meili Technology, which aims to end the fiasco of care hire brokering.

Check out our previous discussion with Bobby on our YouTube channel!

Maron Kristófersson, CEO and Founder of Aha

Maron is the CEO and co-founder of Aha, an experienced entrepreneur with global private and public company experience across multiple industries and continents. Before founding Aha, Maron played a pivotal role in leading a multinational company through a successful listing in the US. Aha builds online marketplace businesses with instant deliveries and is at the forefront of the energy transition in Iceland, with its delivery fleet consisting entirely of electric cars and drones. Maron has spoken at numerous conferences worldwide about the future of drone deliveries, energy transition, last-mile logistics, and the future of retail.

Tim Murrell, National Fire Chiefs Council Drone Lead, Drone Manager for Lancashire Fire & Rescue

Tim Murrell is the National Fire Chiefs Council lead for Drones. His portfolio allows him to work with Academia, small businesses, and research organisations to develop the use of drones to improve response outcomes. Tim also manages the Lancashire Fire & Rescue Drone team, which deploys and evaluates new drone and robotic capabilities at operational incidents.

Dr Michael Splett, Global Head of Operation Offshore Wind at EnBW AG and CTO at EnBW Erneuerbare Operation & Service GmbH

Michael Splett is Global Head of Operation Offshore Wind at EnBW AG and CTO of EnBW Erneuerbare Operation & Service GmbH. He is responsible for O&M of all EnBW Offshore Wind Assets and is a four-time winner of the WFO economic forum award “Best German Offshore Wind Farm in Operation” with the EnBW fleet. He has over 15 years of professional experience in offshore wind.

He is also a member of the Federal Ministry of Digital and Transport’s national advisory board for drone technology (UAS-Beirat des Bundesministeriums für Digitales und Verkehr). Michael holds a PhD in electrical engineering and a diploma in industrial engineering.

Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Publisher and Editor at Unmanned Publications Ltd

Philip Butterworth-Hayes is a consultant and communications specialist in the aerospace and defence sectors.

For over 30 years, Philip has specialised in delivering highly complex technical and industrial aerospace information and advice to many government and industry clients. His background includes posts as the director of communications and strategy at the Civil Aviation Navigation Organization (CANSO) in Amsterdam and the launch editor of the European Defence Agency’s European Defence Matters.

Phil Hanson, Aviation Technical Assurance Manager at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Phil’s career began as an Avionic engineering apprentice at the Royal Naval Aircraft Yard Fleetlands in Gosport, Hampshire.

Highlights of Phil’s career in aviation to date include Working with the REME in Germany, Implementing business change in the Defence Aviation Repair Agency, Working on MOD airworthiness policy, Managing and developing UAV research programmes for the MOD, and Project managing the implementation of an interim Search and Rescue (SAR) Helicopter contract to introduce new technology.

Phil is the Aviation Technical Assurance Manager of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). Responsible for the technical aspects of the procurement and acceptance into service of MCA SAR helicopter service throughout the UK, as well as MCA aerial surveillance capability and maritime drone capability.

Connor Lyons, Innovation Lead at Associated British Ports

Connor Lyons is an Innovation Consultant and Innovation Lead at Associated British Ports, the UK’s largest port operator. He leads the Innovation Program across 21 ports, focusing on driving technological advancements to improve efficiency, productivity, and safety.

Connor also co-founded and co-led the Innovate UK Future Flight Challenge Phase III programme ‘InDePTH’, which leverages automated drone technology and advanced AI to develop low-carbon, cost-effective solutions for infrastructure management.

Secure your place at Aerial Cities 2024 today!

Mark your calendars for 13-14 November 2024 and be part of the movement that’s setting the course for the future of our cities. With C-level executives, stakeholders, and governments worldwide, this event is not to be missed.

Do you want to become more visible in the industry and speak at our event? Click the link here to download our brochure!

Announcing our expert lineup: 14 new speakers for Aerial Cities 2024