REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Oct 5, 2021 - Skydio, the leading U.S. drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight technology, today announced three key hires to its international team, strengthening the ability to bring its autonomous drones to customers around the world: VP of International Business Development, Martin Brandenburg; Head of International Solutions Engineering, André Becker, and; International Regulatory Program Manager, Diego Fernández Varela.
Over the past 18 months, Skydio has started shipping its drones and solutions—including Skydio X2 (recipient of CES’s 2021 Best of Innovation Award), Skydio 3D Scan, and Skydio Cloud—to enterprises and public sector organizations in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and other regions. Bringing solutions to customers around the world continues to be a top priority for the company, and these new team members will play a critical role in guiding Skydio’s international expansion strategy.
Drones have become critical tools for enterprise, military services, and first responders around the world. Nevertheless, a variety of factors have limited the scope of deployments, including the complexity, risk, and training costs associated with manual flight. Skydio solves these challenges by transforming drones into intelligent devices that use computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to see, understand, and adjust to their environment. The end result combines world-leading autonomy with unmatched levels of security to provide a radically simpler and safer flight experience that makes missions once considered impossible, possible.
Martin Brandenburg, VP of International Business Development
Martin Brandenburg, Skydio's new VP of International Business Development, is an award-winning professional with over 20 years of expertise in the drone industry and IT. Before joining Skydio, Martin ran a boutique consulting firm helping technology clients inaugurate and scale their businesses in the European market and previously established and led the European team for China-based manual drone maker, DJI. Prior to working in the drone industry, Martin served in various European and Global management positions for large IT companies such as DELL and Fujitsu.
I saw how manual drone technology severely limits the scale of enterprise drone programs, due to the considerable training requirements and constant risk of crashes.
“I’m a longtime believer in the power of drones to help customers evolve the way they capture data. During my career in the drone industry, I saw how drones improve worker safety and drive process efficiency. But I also saw how manual drone technology severely limits the scale of enterprise drone programs, due to the considerable training requirements and constant risk of crashes. Users are clamoring for a solution to enable mainstream adoption of drones, and autonomy is the answer,” said Brandenburg. “The time for autonomous drones has come and I couldn’t be happier and more excited to join the Skydio team and work with our partners and customers to provide products and solutions to the global market.”
André Becker, Head of International Solution Engineering
With more than 10 years of international work experience, André Becker, Skydio's new Head of International Solution Engineering, played an invaluable part in the evolution of consumer and enterprise drones leading the European product management for DJI. He has been a keynote speaker for global product launches, WebSummit, MeConvention and a driving force building up partnerships with Amazon Prime, the FIA World Rally Championship, Peugeot and many more.
Skydio autonomy disrupts the current paradigm of drone technology, not only solving many of the current problems of manual drones, but enabling many new exciting possibilities.
"The future of drones is autonomous, and Skydio's technology truly elevates drone technology to an unseen level. Its safety, ease of use and the level of automation is something you have to experience yourself to believe," said Becker. "Skydio autonomy disrupts the current paradigm of drone technology, not only solving many of the current problems of manual drones, but enabling many new exciting possibilities. This technology is a game changer and I couldn’t be prouder to help bring this evolution to our international customers."
Diego Fernández Varela, International Regulatory Program Manager
Diego Fernández Varela, Skydio's new International Regulatory Program Manager, is an aeronautical engineer from Madrid who started his career at the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), where he helped draft the regulations for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and their operation in Europe. In 2018, Diego joined the UAS Division of the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency (AESA), where he played a key role in the implementation of the EU UAS regulatory framework in Spain and contributed to the European rulemaking and policy efforts in the field of uncrewed aviation.
Once you see a Skydio drone safely and efficiently navigate very complex environments, even without GPS, you realize that advanced operations are now possible.
“I am beyond excited to join Skydio’s journey to enable safe, secure, and scalable UAS operations,” said Fernández Varela. “We need to build trust around automation and autonomy in uncrewed aviation in order to unlock its full potential. Skydio’s AI-driven technology is the answer. Once you see a Skydio drone safely and efficiently navigate very complex environments, even without GPS, you realize that advanced operations are now possible and can make our world more productive, creative, and safe.”
About Skydio
Skydio is the leading U.S. drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight. Skydio leverages breakthrough AI to create the world’s most intelligent flying machines for use by consumers, enterprises, and government customers. Founded in 2014, Skydio is made up of leading experts in AI, robotics, cameras, and electric vehicles from top companies, research labs, and universities from around the world. Skydio designs, assembles, and supports its products in the U.S. from its headquarters in Redwood City, CA, to offer the highest standards of supply chain and manufacturing security. Skydio is trusted by leading enterprises across a wide range of industry sectors and is backed by top investors and strategic partners including Andreessen Horowitz, Levitate Capital, Next47, IVP, Playground, and NVIDIA.
