We are propelling the
future of regional flight

Ivor van Dartel is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of VÆRIDION, where he leads the strategic direction of the company as it develops fully electric aircraft for regional air travel. Before co-founding VÆRIDION in 2021, Ivor spent multiple years at Airbus in a range of roles across engineering, operations, manufacturing, program management, and research and technology. During this time, he served as project manager responsible for the hybrid-electric propulsion system of the E-Fan X Hybrid Electric Demonstrator. Ivor van Dartel designed his first electric aircraft in 2007 while studying Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft. He then completed his master’s thesis at Lockheed Martin. With VÆRIDION, he aims to enable a green revolution in aviation by bringing battery-electric aircraft into commercial service within this decade.

Markus Kochs-Kämper is the Chief Technology Officer at VÆRIDION, where he leads the company’s engineering organization and oversees the development of the Microliner. He is responsible for guiding the technical strategy, advancing the aircraft design, and leading the team towards certification. With almost 25 years of aviation experience, Markus has held leading engineering roles at Heart Aerospace and Deutsche Aircraft. He has a strong track record of leading international and multifunctional teams within both Part 23 and Part 25 Design Organizations.

Otto Verhoeff is the Chief Business Officer at VÆRIDION. In this role, he focuses on scaling VÆRIDION’s business operations and commercial platform to bring its 100% electric aircraft to market. Otto brings over 20 years of experience in the aviation industry, with a strong track record of scaling technology-driven companies and building high-performing global teams. Prior to joining  VÆRIDION, Otto held senior leadership positions at Air France KLM’s MRO division in Amsterdam and Miami, as well as in the aircraft leasing and aviation finance sector with Castlelake in London and Dublin.

Daria is a Founding Partner at World Fund, Europe’s leading climate tech VC. She has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and investor. In addition, Daria sits on the boards of trustees of the Max Planck Institute and is the member of the extended board of the German Startup Association. She is the co-founder of the think tank 1E9 Denkfabrik, and has close ties with global tech thought leaders. Her expertise guides World Fund’s investments. In addition to VÆRIDION, she advises as a board member Customcells, IQM, Space Forge, ecoworks and Planet A Foods.

Lieutenant General (ret.) Dennis Luyt is the former Commander of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, a position he held from 2016 to 2023. During this period, he led the transformation towards a modern fifth-generation air force. Today, he shares his experience on leadership, innovation, and defence transformation as an advisor and speaker.

Herbert is a founding partner at Vsquared Ventures. He was also part of the founding team of the predecessor fund Vito Ventures. Prior to working in the venture capital industry Herbert was a researcher with the LadHyX at École Polytechnique in Paris, the Large Graphs and Networks Group at UCL in Louvain-la-Neuve, and the Information-Oriented Control Group at TUM in Munich. He is trained in mechanical and aerospace engineering and an alumnus of the technology management program at the CDTM in Munich. Together with the former WIRED Germany lead team he is also co-founder of the 1E9 Denkfabrik, running an online magazine and tech conferences with the Deutsches Museum and Blitz Club in Munich.

Thorsten Luft is an aviation fuel expert and former Vice President Corporate Fuel Management at Lufthansa Group. Prior to joining Lufthansa, he spent over 20 years at Air bp in various leadership roles, most recently as Performance Unit Manager for North and Central Europe. Today, Thorsten acts as an independent sustainable aviation consultant and serves as Executive Advisor to VÆRIDION.