Vertical Aerospace, a UK aerospace and technology company in electric aviation, has appointed Ollie Roberts as chief people officer (CPO), Juan Carlos Sacristan as chief data and information officer (CDIO) and Richard Moore as vice president, powertrain. Together, these appointments further strengthen Vertical's leadership team as the company enters the next phase of growth, certification and commercial readiness.

As CDIO, Juan Carlos Sacristan will lead Vertical's long-term data, digital and AI strategy, connecting information across design, procurement, testing, production and manufacturing. His remit includes building the digital backbone, advanced simulation and analysis required to enable Vertical to scale efficiently into service.

Sacristan brings more than 20 years of experience driving business growth through complex technology transformations and data and AI led strategies. He has held senior leadership roles at global organisations including CDIO at Abcam, chief data and analytics officer at Adidas, digital global lead at Nike and CIO at GE Gas Engines, alongside board advisory roles and experience founding and scaling start-ups.

Vertical has also confirmed that Richard Moore has been appointed vice president, powertrain. Moore leads a focused powertrain engineering organisation spanning energy storage, battery management systems, electric propulsion units and charging, further strengthening integration across these mission-critical systems as Vertical advances toward certification.

An aeronautics engineer, Richard is an experienced global battery expert with more than 35 years of experience in the industry. Previously a board member and director of propulsion and executive director, engineering at Lotus, he led the engineering of all sports cars, including the Evija electric hypercar. He was also chief engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, where he led the electrification engineering for propulsion systems across all Jaguar and Land Rover product programmes, including the Jaguar I-Pace, the company's first all-electric vehicle.

As CPO, Ollie Roberts will lead all aspects of Vertical's people strategy, including talent attraction and development, culture development, colleague engagement, organisational design and capability building, delivering a diverse, high-performing and future-ready organisation as Vertical advances toward certification of its Valo eVTOL aircraft and commercial operations.

Ollie is a seasoned C-suite executive with more than 25 years' experience leading human resources, organisational design and large-scale transformation programmes across multiple industries. Most recently, Ollie served as chief human resources officer and chief transformation officer at BMI Group, where he led a wide-ranging organisational and cultural transformation that strengthened business performance and delivery. Ollie has also held global leadership roles at AB InBev, SAB Miller and global real estate leader DTZ.

Stuart Simpson, CEO of Vertical Aerospace, says: “Vertical has reached an important inflection point. As we move at pace toward certification, manufacturing and commercialisation, strengthening leadership across technology, core engineering disciplines and people positions us to scale effectively and deliver on our long-term ambitions. I'm delighted to kick off this transformational year with these top tier appointments.”