Jun 16, 2026 · 11 min · 5 segments
The conversation with Val Miftakhov from Zero Avia covers the company's changes, government impact, and regulatory challenges in the aviation industry. Val discusses the company's shift to the UK, the…
Val MiftakhovGuest
Danielle McLeanHost
So, you know, I stepped down as a CEO, still obviously founded the company, still the largest shareholder on the board of the company.
But we just realized that with the basically moving the entire company to the UK and focusing on deliverable on the certification of the first product, this is really these two things.
It would make sense to have a new lead coming in that would be a local to the team in the UK.
in Kemble and where we do most of the work and also have some certification experience delivering the product and having the team really focused on one thing, delivery of the first product.
And, you know, as I remember, last year, years before, we were running multiple programs at the same time, working on large aircraft, working on liquid hydrogen, working on high temperature fuel cells.
There are a lot of programs running all together, flight testing, all of that.
And now, because of the funding environment last year, we had to contract quite a bit and focus.
And we were fortunate enough to get all the support that we got from our existing investors.
And we're able to push forward with our mission, but need to reconfigure as that reconfiguration kind of drove this change.
So, you know, I stepped down as a CEO, still obviously founded the company, still the largest shareholder on the board of the company.
But we just realized that with the basically moving the entire company to the UK and focusing on deliverable on the certification of the first product, this is really these two things.
It would make sense to have a new lead coming in that would be a local to the team in the UK.
in Kemble and where we do most of the work and also have some certification experience delivering the product and having the team really focused on one thing, delivery of the first product.
And, you know, as I remember, last year, years before, we were running multiple programs at the same time, working on large aircraft, working on liquid hydrogen, working on high temperature fuel cells.
There are a lot of programs running all together, flight testing, all of that.
And now, because of the funding environment last year, we had to contract quite a bit and focus.
And we were fortunate enough to get all the support that we got from our existing investors.
And we're able to push forward with our mission, but need to reconfigure as that reconfiguration kind of drove this change.
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