SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, announced that Jia Xu has been appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO), succeeding Amir Husain who will remain actively engaged with the company as a board member. Boeing has also added to its investment in SkyGrid to support the company’s future product strategy to be led by Xu.

Xu brings decades of strategic, technical, product development, and market leadership to SkyGrid. Previously, Xu served as the Chief Technology Officer for unmanned aerial systems and urban air mobility at Honeywell Aerospace. Xu has also held several roles leading autonomy and unmanned systems at Airbus, General Atomics, and RAND Corporation. He holds a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford.

“I want to thank Amir for his exceptional leadership of SkyGrid and effort to advance autonomous aviation,” said Marc Allen, Chief Strategy Officer, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development of Boeing. “As Amir shifts his focus to the Board, we’re pleased to welcome another strong leader, Jia Xu. His track record in unmanned aerial systems, advanced air mobility, and autonomy make him the perfect fit for SkyGrid as the company progresses with its future product roadmap to enable safe, scalable commercial autonomy.”

At inception in 2018, SkyGrid was established to explore the emerging small UAS (sUAS), beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), and Advanced Air Mobility markets. As founding CEO, Amir successfully led this exploratory phase to inform SkyGrid’s future strategy focused on the development of secure third-party services for remotely piloted aircraft. With new investment from Boeing, the company will accelerate its product development to advance the safe integration of commercial autonomy into the airspace.

“Since SkyGrid’s inception, Boeing and SparkCognition’s goal has been to shape the future of advanced air mobility. These last few years, SkyGrid’s founding concept and technology have made a significant impact in the industry and the team’s work over the coming years will continue to materialize and fulfill that vision,” said Amir Husain. “With Boeing’s continued investment, SkyGrid is entering an exciting new phase, and I am thrilled to continue to support the company as a member of its board while wishing SkyGrid great success under the strong leadership of Jia Xu.”

“The future of aviation is autonomous, and SkyGrid will play a vital role in safely integrating unmanned flights into the airspace and enabling routine autonomous operations at scale,” said Xu. “I live this mission and am privileged to join this world-class team to build the autonomous future, together.”