Global UTM Association Elects Its First Board of Directors

The newly founded Global UTM Association has elected its first board of directors. The board is composed of nine members: Jonathan Evans (Skyward) as president, Christian Struwe (DJI) as vice president, Lorenzo Murzili (Swiss FOCA) as treasurer, Sebastian Babiarz (Nokia), Marc Kegelaers (Unifly), Hao Liu (BUAA), Yannick Lévy (Parrot), Gontran Reboud (ViaSat), and Mark Watson (NATS).

The goal of the association is to identify actions to be taken to safely, securely, and efficiently integrate Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS, also known as drones) into airspace systems. Its working groups will draft and distribute interoperability blueprints for UAS Traffic Management (UTM).

The board will focus on agility, speed, and actionable results. Its first priority is to draft blueprints for an overall UTM architecture, followed by a series of protocols, standards, and guidance for UAS identification, registration, dynamic geofencing, manned/unmanned integration, or weather data APIs.

The association will work exclusively on technical UAS standards and will actively collaborate with regulators and other stakeholders worldwide to identify scalable and compliant technical solutions to the development of UTM systems. It is global both geographically and by activity sectors. Current members already represent 10 countries across six industries: air navigation service providers, UAS manufacturers, UAS operators, UTM software and infrastructure providers, regulatory bodies, and academic experts.

“The Global UTM Association will pave the way for global adoption of interoperable protocols for UTM systems. We intend to accelerate the growth of the UAS industry worldwide while maintaining high safety and security standards for all, in the air and on the ground,” said Jonathan Evans, president of the Global UTM Association and CEO of Skyward. “We will make it easier and less expensive to bring customized solutions to the market, as the Association is based on the time-tested principle of cooperating on standards and competing on products,” continued Evans.