The German eVTOL developer Lilium has announced two changes to its senior leadership team, plus a significant growth milestone with the hiring of its 500th employee.
Lilium said that its current chief financial officer, Christopher Delbrück, will leave the company later this year for family reasons, while current chief commercial officer Dr. Remo Gerber will take on a wider remit as chief operating officer.
Lilium hired Delbrück last year from the Düsseldorf-based energy company Uniper SE. He became Lilium’s first CFO at a time when the company had raised a little over $100 million in capital; now, its total funding stands at more than $375 million.
“In a short space of time, Christopher has brought a great deal of professionalism to Lilium,” CEO Daniel Wiegand commented in a press release. “Not only have we made important progress with fundraising during his tenure, but he has also played a critical role in setting up a corporate structure that will allow the company to scale beyond its current size.
“While we’re sad to be losing his leadership, we very much respect, and fully understand, the decision he has made and wish both him and his family all the best at this time.”
Lilium said that a search for a replacement CFO is already underway.
Meanwhile, Gerber’s promotion to COO is effective immediately. Gerber joined Lilium in 2017 from the global ride-sharing app Gett, where he served as managing director for Western Europe.
According to Wiegand: “Our intention has always been to not only develop and manufacture the Lilium Jet, but to also operate a Lilium regional air mobility service. With the creation of the chief operating officer role, we’re taking the next step towards that vision. In his new role, Remo will focus not just on building the commercial partnerships we need to deliver the Lilium service but on all aspects of our proposed commercial operations.”
While Lilium has not revealed specific plans for the launch of its commercial air service, the company is talking to local governments around the world. Last month, it received interest from the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority in Florida, which voted to start exploring ways to bring air taxi service to Tampa, according to local news reports.
When eVTOL.com visited Lilium in August 2019 at its headquarters near Munich, the company had just over 300 employees. Nearly a year later, the company has hired its 500th employee: vice president of procurement Audrey Tauran, who comes to Lilium from Airbus.
Lilium head of communications Oliver Walker-Jones said that although the vast majority of the company’s 500 employees are based in Munich, the company also has small but rapidly growing teams in London, Zurich, and Washington, D.C.
“We have 70 job roles advertised on our website today and will continue to grow the team as necessitated by our progress,” he told eVTOL.com.
Your design which I have followed for a Long time seems extremely efficient and innovative.
I wish your company a well deserved success.
I think what will be interesting is seeing the price point for the actual production aircraft. Is Lillium doing their budget planning based on aerospace manufacturing costs, automotive manufacturing costs, or somewhere in between. That will be a huge learning curve, but I wish all the best for them! They really do have an excellent design.
In this speed in about 5 years batteries for this jest will be small as laptop and powerfull few times more. Lilium is epic and milestone in public aero transport. I hope one day i’ll buy one for my family. Would i have to pass some pilot tests? And how it will gonna cost for civilians?
Running their own airline versus selling aircraft is insane. This will slow down rollout and burn up billions – instead of having buyers pay for everything. And having to drive to one of their hubs removes one of the key benefits of a VTOL – going directly from A to B with no roads in between.
Totally agree. This is due to their socialist ideology that everyone has access. I would buy one now (two seat preferably) and so would many other pilots.
Great design, private ownership is not necessary… who buys a taxi?