We have an experienced first-class team of forward-thinking, passionate people, working for a new era of electric aviation.
Senior Leadership

Dr. Chris Harris
Chief Executive OfficerChris has over 25 years’ experience building and leading high-tech, high-growth businesses in the UK, Europe and US. Chris is passionate about building world-class British manufacturing companies, the transition from hydrocarbon to electric transportation and growing a diverse pipeline of UK engineering talent.
Chris is a founder of Evolito and spun out the company from YASA in July 2021 to exploit YASA’s IP in the aerospace sector. Chris was CEO at YASA for 11 years. He joined YASA when it was a nascent company focused on the motorsports sector, revising the business plan, restructuring the Senior Management Team, commercialising the technology and negotiating long term development and supply agreements with customers including Rolls Royce, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes AMG. Chris led the sale of YASA to Mercedes Benz in August 2021.
Prior to joining Evolito, Chris held senior roles in companies including VG Elemental, Perkin Elmer, PA Consulting and was President of Plasmon US, a $100m turn-over provider of data storage solutions. Chris has been interviewed by The Financial Times, BBC, Channel 4 News and Reuters on topics ranging from UK manufacturing policy, developing engineering talent and trends in electrification.
Prior to joining YASA, Chris held senior roles in companies including VG Elemental, Perkin Elmer, PA Consulting and was President of Plasmon.

Marc Holme
Chief Technical OfficerAn accomplished Technologist, Engineering Executive and Technical Leader with strong strategic and customer focus. Experience of developing and delivering advanced product technology strategy and complex products on time and to budget, managing geographically dispersed organisations and large, multi-national teams. Highly motivated with an in depth technical knowledge of electrification, proven track record of new product introduction, research and development and implementation of engineering design processes.
Marc previously worked in an executive role at Collins Aerospace leading their Propulsion and Electrification organisation from 2020 to 2023. This role incorporated responsibility for engineering teams across the UK and US, and a budget of over $50M, including a number of UK, EU and US government match funded programmes. Prior to that Marc was in an executive position in Collins’ Enterprise Engineering organisation, leading technology development in the area of power electronics, electric machines and controls. He has also held positions as a Technical Fellow, Engineering Director and Programme Technical Manager over the last 20 years.
Marc began his career with GEC Alstom working in the field of industrial drive systems and has worked for Lucas Automotive, Lucas Aerospace, TRW Aeronautical Systems, Goodrich Power Systems and UTC Aerospace Systems prior to his roles in Collins Aerospace.

Ajay Lukha
Chief Commercial OfficerFor the last nine years, Ajay has led YASA’s marketing, global customer development and revenue growth in the automotive and aerospace sectors, managing the Sales and Account Team and scaling the company’s revenues. Ajay has deep commercial awareness, twinned with technical concept-level problem solving, strong communication skills and a proven ability to quickly build networks of influencers within customer organisations from C-suite through to engineering, design and procurement.
In his career, Ajay has serially established novel technologies as mainstream in industrial, consumer and cleantech markets, identifying and matching technology with customers. At YASA, Ajay established YASA’s speciality products revenue, initiating and driving key OEM customer wins and developing a powerful new business pipeline across automotive and aerospace. Prior to joining YASA, Ajay held senior roles at Kingston Technology Company, Intel Corporation and Duerr Group.

Gareth Morris
Chief Operating OfficerGareth is an executive engineering, programme and business leader with nearly 40 years’ experience working within the aerospace industry. Most of his career was spent with Collins Aerospace in a variety of roles and locations, where he was responsible for leading development programmes across a range of platforms ranging from small helicopters to large commercial aircraft.
From 2012 to October 2020, he was responsible for creation of Collins Aeropace’s specialist Centre of Excellence for high performance electric motor drive systems and power electronics, growing a globally diverse team covering technology and product development, industrialisation, supply chain, repair and in-service support.
He joined Evolito in May 2021 to help lead the spin-out of Evolito from YASA to address powertrain electrification opportunities within the Aerospace industry. He is highly collaborative, customer facing and comfortable working with diverse teams, Government agencies and Certification Authorities. He was the Collins Aerospace representative on the board of the UK Aerospace Growth Partnership from 2013 to 2020.

Rachael Wallwork
Chief People OfficerRachael has established Evolito’s People Team function, creating an attractive benefits plan to attract and retain Evolito’s talent pool. She has led the company’s growth. and is responsible for setting Evolito’s culture, interpreting the business needs and making sure the company has the right resource to meet those needs. She has created an environment that is agile, responsive and fun in order to attract the best talent and disrupt our competitors. The People Team consists of business partners who are able to work with our managers to ensure every employee has a personal development plan. Rachael’s vision for the People Team is for the department to be an enabler for the Company, and as a innovative approach to HR.
Rachael encourages her team to constantly look for new ways of engaging with our employees and providing a professional work environment where people don’t have a job- they have a career. Before joining Evolito, Rachael held roles in UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and China. Most notably she previously worked in YASA for six years and was part of the management team who sold the business to Mercedes-Benz.
Board

John Behrendt
Non-Executive DirectorJohn worked for Eight Roads in an advisory capacity and as Head of Portfolio Management with companies spanning healthcare, technology and renewable energies.
With a background in finance, the majority of Johns career has been spent in the tech sector where he has operated in CEO, COO and CFO positions.
He has successfully exited two venture-backed fabless chip businesses; Alphamosaic Limited in 2004 and Frontier Silicon Limited in 2012.

Hannah Dymoke
Board Member – B-FlexionHannah joined B-Flexion in 2022 as a Director of Responsible Investing and Thematic Research at B-Flexion. Prior to B-Flexion, Hannah did independent research into the disruptive developments reshaping the economy as part of her sustainability advisory business, Balance Point.
Previously, Hannah was a Director at Generation Investment Management, a sustainable investment business chaired by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. She was also a Vice President at PIMCO Europe Ltd. focused on ESG integration.
Hannah holds dual master’s degrees in business administration and international studies from the Wharton School and Lauder Institute of the University of Pennsylvania. She is a Tutor at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, CFA Charterholder and trained Climate Reality Leader. Hannah is a dual-UK/US citizen based in London.

Alex Hammacher
Board Member - OSEAlex joined Oxford Science Enterprises in October 2019, bringing over two decades of clinical medicine and corporate finance experience.
Alex is responsible for major corporate finance activities at OSE and its later stage companies, including public market transactions, acquisitions and exits. He also manages OSE’s Investment Committee, and leads long-term strategic planning.
Alex began his career as a junior doctor in Oxford before joining investment banking in 2007. He has raised equity and debt capital for both private and public companies, and advised on local and cross-border M&A and partnerships whilst at UBS and Lazard in Europe, US and Australia-Pacific. His experience includes both large cap pharma and medtech, early-stage biotech and digital health, as well as cleantech, utilities and infrastructure.
Alex holds degrees in medicine & surgery and physiological sciences from the University of Oxford.

Cyrus Jilla
Board Member - B-FlexionCyrus joined B-FLEXION (or Waypoint, as then was) as a Partner in March 2020, with a remit to expand the company’s existing businesses and to partner with others to grow or create new asset managers.
Prior to joining B-FLEXION, Cyrus was, most recently, a President and Officer at FIL (Fidelity International Limited), the parent of the global asset management business, where he had primary responsibility for FIL’s proprietary investments. Earlier in his career Cyrus was Managing Partner at Bain & Company, London. He has been a Board Director of numerous companies, including COFRA A.G., Colt Telecom, and Element Six Group. Cyrus began his career at Schroders plc having studied medicine at the University of London.

Stephen Parker
Chair & Non-Executive Director30+ year track record of taking technology from innovation to industrialisation, achieving significant returns for investors by scaling up new technology businesses in the automotive and transportation sectors.
Previously Chair of the board of YASA and in this role was instrumental in the sale of the business to Mercedes Benz. Post-acquisition holds the position of Senior Independent Director of YASA under Mercedes ownership.
Joined the board of Evolito at the point of spin out from YASA becoming Chair of the Evolito board.
Pro-Chancellor of Coventry University and formally Chair of the University Board of Governors
Senior Non-Executive Director of The Transport Research Foundation (TRL) a science and technology business focused up future transport and mobility, policy, science and technology
15+ years’ experience of working at partner level in blue chip international professional service firms working with the boards of large international corporations in the aerospace, automotive and technology sectors to develop and implement business strategy, undertake operational performance improvement and business turn around.
Prior industrial experience includes senior executive and business leadership roles in UK, French, US and German companies having been responsible for subsidiary companies in France, Germany, USA, Korea, Japan, China & Sweden.
Advisors

Eric Ferreira
P3X GmbH & Co. KG (subsidiary of Porsche AG)
Chief Aviation officer and Executive Board Member at Porshe
Head of Airbus Helicopters for ten years –
V.P of UAM Engineering and Programme Management
V.P Head of Airworthiness
Eight years at Eurocopter

Richard Ingram
Richard is an experienced CEO in Aerospace and Industrial business with a strong track record of returning business to profitable growth via operational improvement, now working in Private equity.
Excellent leadership skills and strong multilingual communication ability, having lived and worked in France, Germany and the UK. Board member and advisor, Richard is currently a managing director in Brookfield’s Private Equity Group, and prior to joining Brookfield in 2019, he held various senior positions including CEO of Smith Detection, CEO of Zodiac Aerospace Electrical systems, and leadership roles at United Technologies and Goodrich

Heiko Lutjens
CTO and Director of Engineering Thales Deutchland
Chairman of the Evaluation Research Committee for the German National Aerospace Centre
Ex Senior Vice President A380 & A350 Programmes
Ex VP Engineering Airbus
Ex Managing Director Leibherr Aerospace
Ex Chairman of Bundesverband der Deutschen Luft- und Raumfahrtindustrie e.V. (German Aerospace Manufacturers Association)

Colin Smith CBE
Fellow of The Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, The Royal Aeronautical Society and The Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Ex CTO Rolls Royce Civil Aerospace
Chairman Forgemasters
Ex Chairman of the Aerospace Growth Partnership
Ex President of ADS, the trade organisation UK Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space Sectors.