Unifly appoints new CEO to prepare for accelerated company growth
Antwerp, August 3rd 2020 – To lead Unifly in its next growth phase, Leon van de Pas has been appointed CEO of Unifly. He succeeds Marc Kegelaers in this role.
Leon van de Pas: “When I first came across Unifly three years ago, for me that was the first time I truly realized the vast potential of unmanned vehicles moving along all three dimensions. I was struck by the opportunity of “mapping” the low altitude airspace. It is even more thrilling to imagine that all solutions currently built on a two-dimensional map for traditional manned vehicles will have to be brought to the third dimension for autonomous vehicles and ultimately in real-time. I want to thank Marc Kegelaers for bringing Unifly where it is today and I am honored to lead the Unifly team through its next growth phase.”
Marc Kegelaers: “After five exciting and intense years, I will be stepping down as CEO of Unifly. I am very proud of what we achieved in such a short time span. Unifly has become an industry leader in the new world of Unmanned Traffic Management. The company raised over 23 million euro in capital with major VCs and strategic investors. We opened subsidiaries in the US and Denmark, signed long term strategic contracts with major organizations such as DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung, NAV CANADA and skeyes (formerly Belgocontrol).
Unifly is ‘top of mind’ for anyone who wants to implement a UTM system. Last but not least, we hired some of the best and brightest people in the industry. Now that Unifly has passed the scale-up stage, it is time to hand over the company to a new CEO to take the company to the next level.
When I met Leon for the first time three years ago, I was impressed with his business-minded “get-up and-go” mentality as well as the energy and the drive with which he can motivate teams to excel. I am thrilled that Leon has accepted the role of CEO of the company and I am convinced that he is the right captain of the ship for the next phase of development of the company.”
Filip Tack, Chairman of the Board: “The Board wishes to thank Marc for the collaboration and his leadership during the past years. In a concerted effort, we lifted the company from the start-up ranks to the scale-up league.
As Unifly’s growth spurt continues within the rapidly evolving UTM-market, we are extremely proud to appoint Leon van de Pas as our new, experienced Chief Executive Officer to guide us to maturity. His appointment will undoubtedly lead to a further strengthening of the executive management team in its entirety.”
About Leon van de Pas
Leon’s business experience spanned several roles across the globe with sales and business responsibilities. He worked in both emerging scale ups and multinational corporations such as Philips, Gemalto, Tele Atlas and HERE Technologies.
His particular area of expertise is the ability to bring disruptive innovations to market, create winning teams and manage exceptional growth. He has a background in medical, wireless, navigation, lighting and IoT services.
Within HERE, the Dutchman led the Consumer Business Group and merged it with the Enterprise Business Group into a global IoT Business Group initiating many new value propositions like indoor mapping, fleet management, supply chain, smart cities, mobility, etc. Before joining Unifly, Leon set up the regional headquarters in Singapore. Within the first year he brought the region to double digit growth.
Leon holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Economics of the “The Hague University”. He is married and has 5 daughters.
About Unifly
Based in Belgium, Unifly is the global leader in the field of Unmanned Traffic Management. The Unifly platform connects authorities with pilots to safely integrate drones into the airspace. Authorities can visualize and approve drone flights and manage no-fly zones in real-time. Drone operators can manage their drone fleet, validate flights and monitor their drone operations. Unifly combines UTM and drone detection (C-UAS) capabilities to detect, identify and differentiate all air traffic within airports and critical infrastructures.