Ian Thomas
World View, a global leader in stratospheric exploration and flight, has announced the appointment of Ian Thomas as Chief Revenue Officer. Thomas brings more than 30 years of experience scaling global businesses, including 15 years with The Boeing Company, where he served in a variety of senior leadership roles in the United States and Europe, and then led the company’s operations, successively, in the United Kingdom, India, Australia, and China.
“World View is proud to be at the forefront of stratospheric exploration and as we continue to expand our global reach, it is key that our company is helmed by leadership that embodies our mission: to inspire, create, and explore new perspectives for a radically improved future,” said Ryan M. Hartman, World View president and CEO. “Ian’s extensive experience in successfully scaling businesses in relevant markets and his ability to drive strategic partnerships that fill a critical gap in the existing space imaging and analytics sector will be integral for World View’s next phase of growth.”
Thomas will lead the company’s international business development and be responsible for expanding World View’s global market share as the company continues to grow and diversify its remote sensing business. Part of his focus will be to target new industries that stand to benefit from the unique advantages offered by remote sensing via the stratosphere and on delivering capabilities not available with traditional satellite imaging or fixed-wing aircraft monitoring.
Thomas led Boeing’s operations in four of the world’s largest aerospace markets, helping secure the sale and approval of billions of dollars of commercial airplanes and defense products and services. Prior to his time at Boeing, he served in office of NATO policy at the Pentagon and has written widely on U.S. and Allied defense and security issues.
“I’m honored to join the World View team during this exciting time of dynamic growth for the company and for the global remote sensing market,” said Thomas. “World View’s technologies bring critical capability to a wide range of government and industry customers across an expanding field of use cases. I look forward to supporting the expansion of our World View’s business and to scaling a highly profitable global enterprise.”
Earlier this year, World View announced plans to go public through a SPAC deal with Leo Holdings Corp. II. The transaction values the combined company at a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $350 million. World View plans to use the capital to expand its global remote sensing business into new markets, pioneering new and existing use cases in this evolving domain and growing economy.
