We are Evolito.
We have an experienced first-class team of forward thinking, passionate aerospace engineers, working for a new era of urban air mobility.
We have an experienced first-class team of forward thinking, passionate aerospace engineers, working for a new era of urban air mobility.
Evolito CEO and co-founder, Dr. Chris Harris, has over 25 years’ experience building and leading high-tech, high-growth businesses in the UK, Europe and US. He is passionate about building world-class British manufacturing companies, the transition to electric mobility and the importance of growing a diverse pipeline of UK engineering talent.
Chris joined YASA in 2012 when it was a nascent company focused on the motorsports sector, revising the business plan, restructuring the Senior Management Team and commercialising the technology. While CEO at YASA, he grew the team to over 300 and negotiated long term development and supply agreements with customers including Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari. Spinning out YASA’s aerospace division as Evolito Ltd to exclusively commercialise YASA’s electric motor technology and IP in the electric aerospace market. Chris also lead the acquisition of YASA by Mercedes-Benz in August 2021, taking the YASA’s axial flux technology into mass production.
Chris left YASA in September 2022, on his departure, Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management and Chief Technology Officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG said, “Chris has been key to YASA’s development, and we would like to thank him warmly for all his achievements, especially his role in supporting YASA’s successful transition to becoming a fully-integrated subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz.”
Prior to joining YASA, Chris held senior roles in companies including VG Elemental, Perkin Elmer, PA Consulting and was President of Plasmon.
A few weeks into his PhD, Tim had a eureka moment – realising there was a much better way to build an electric machine called a torus axial flux motor. The insight Tim had was that by removing the motor’s stator yoke and splitting it into segments, he would be able to open up some very significant reductions in the motor’s weight – while at the same time improving its torque, power density, efficiency and manufacturability, making it transformative within the then-nascent electrification industry.
On completing his PhD in 2009, Tim founded YASA to develop and commercialise his new approach to the axial flux motor. As CTO, Tim leads the development of YASA’s technology to exhibit best-in-class efficiency and power densities for automotive and aerospace electric powertrain applications. Tim has also led the development of a new class of motor controllers with novel cooling techniques. He has over 20 patent applications, with more than 50 patents granted to date in the area of drives and electrical machines. In addition, Tim has authored 4 papers related to the thermal and magnetic design of the YASA machine and presented YASA’s technology at technical conferences and industry symposia around the world.
Gareth has over 35 years’ of engineering, programme and general management experience working for large tier 1 global aerospace companies. Most of his career has centred around the development and industrialisation of more-electric aircraft systems, and from 2012 to 2020 he led the creation of a specialist Centre of Excellence for electric motor drive systems and power electronics at Collins Aerospace. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College.
For 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.