Having active drones in 96 countries worldwide, which fly 100,000 flights annually, Wingtra’s drones mapped 18 million acres (7.3 million ha). Clearly, the WingtraOne VTOL commercial drone has emerged as a formidable aerial data solution on the market. In fact, this is so much the case that it has drawn the commitment of five executives with a strong industry track record at companies like Leica, Hilti and Citrix.
The combination of the Wingtra’s founding leadership with these new talents will help the company expand its sales force and sales, while continuing to deliver a top-quality platform and service.
“Every one of these leaders has impressive experience from leading companies,” said Maximilian Boosfeld, CEO and Cofounder at Wingtra. “They responded to the call at Wingtra to fill a role that they know inside and out. When they took a close look at us, they joined.”
Beyond being grateful and excited to have their talent on our team, our founding members see this as a massive vote of confidence. With everyone on board, we have now redoubled our mission to seriously scale while preserving the excellent care and product experience our customers have come to expect.
Max Boosfeld
CEO and Cofounder at Wingtra
“Big-player” mindset
As commercial drone users run up against the limitations of multirotors and classical fixed-wing drone platforms, the demand for VTOL grows. WingtraOne stands out as an easy-to-use but powerful Swiss-quality leader in this market segment. Survey and mapping professionals get good return on investment from it, so it’s only natural that the demand grows. And so Wingtra has now opened its second manufacturing center, in Croatia. To propel growth to the next level, though, a shift in mindset across the company is also required.
Wingtra’s new vice president (VP) of product, Marcos Bayuelo—who previously directed products and innovation at the mining division of Hexagon AB, driving business growth from USD 12m to 60m in a single product portfolio—is all about enacting this shift, company-wide.
At Wingtra, I’ll be working with our product mindset to shift it even more to a commercially-oriented focus, so that we not only create a great product, but also cement our position as the leader in the market. I’ll also be supporting the company to work closely together in a B2B context while anticipating and overcoming any challenges to growth along the way.
Marcos Bayuelo
VP Product, Wingtra
Ramping up sales
Increasing sales is not only about adding more reps. Wingtra’s current growth goal involves strategic planning and close alignment with partners to become the industry standard in the global marketplace. All of this while offering the personal touch, exceptional quality and localized expertise the brand is known for.
Wingtra’s new VP of sales and customer success, Aleksandar Kostanidov, brings two decades of experience building international sales alliances and introducing Leica and Hexagon products to untapped markets. With a background in geomatics and business administration, he quickly recognized the value and future potential of WingtraOne survey drone as an upcoming global leader and decided he wanted to be a part of it.
My approach is based on visionary leadership. Motivational, visionary leadership. This is something that is also very important in my role—getting everyone on the same course. You can have the most intelligent people in the room. If you don’t bring them on the same course, you won’t have an effect.
Aleksandar Kostanidov
VP Sales, Wingtra
Wingtra’s new GM of sales in the Wingtra’s largest market, the US, Alberto Toledo served as VP of sales when his former company, Citrix, lept from USD 4m to 25m revenue in just three years. This achievement allowed him to retire and shift into funding startups. He’ll be growing sales as well as attracting funding and developing team culture.
Preserving Wingtra culture amidst growth
Besides the excellence of the drone solution in a ripe market, what drew and has impressed all of the new leaders most, unanimously, is the culture at Wingtra. So there’s definitely an emphasis on preserving it. With 15 years experience as the head of HR in leading tech companies, Corinna de Maddalena recently joined as the new VP of people.
She brings know-how from managing large human resources teams overseeing up to 700 employees. She operates with a vision “of Wingtra when it is four times as big as it is today” and will be focused on moving step-by-step in this direction.
Wingtra’s new COO, Marco Schicker, has overseen the transformation of global teams and brings insights and strengths from successful years at Hilti AG, as well as consulting and building three startups. He specializes in business strategy, supply chain management, data science and brings a penchant for motivating teams at all stages of development.
Culture is very important to me. Business growth always requires cultural development or cultural transformation. And that’s the hardest part, because it can only develop; it cannot be changed just by printing a nice poster or something. Those can all be elements to remind employees about where we want to go. But in the end, when push comes to shove, it’s about what people experience every day at work.
Marco Schicker
COO, Wingtra
You can find more information about Wingtra on our website and all available open roles on our career page.
