Who is flying Ascent
Lionel Sinai-Sinelnikoff
Founder & CEO
Lionel has been in the helicopter industry for close to 20 years. Before founding Ascent, he advised REAPRA investment firm and held executive positions in Airbus Helicopters. Along the way, Lionel has embarked on entrepreneurial endeavours on impact focused projects in education and technology He graduated from INSEAD, Sorbonne-University and EDHEC Business School.
Pierre Mignot
Head of Technology
Pierre is a product engineer with 11 years of entrepreneurship and product development experience. Pierre is the author of 15 patents in the Internet of Things (IoT). He has co-founded, invested, supported and advised startups in Europe and Southeast Asia like Activity Lab, Pixirium, Startech’Up and Somfy.
David-Jonathan
COO
DJ is a corporate strategist from REAPRA. He previously conducted strategic planning, business development & acquisitions at ST Engineering (Aerospace), and was a manager at Singapore’s aviation regulators (CAAS). He is deeply involved in Ascent from the first day and is continuously supporting. He will jumping in ASAP.
Jonas Bitoun
Data Science Lead
Jonas joined the industry in 2019 bringing his expertise in artificial intelligence to the sector. He graduated in Mathematics and Data Sciences from Paris-Dauphine University, Telecom Paris and the National University of Singapore.
Executive team
Board of advisors
François Chopard
Board advisor
François is the founder & CEO of Starburst, first Aerospace startup fund & accelerator with global industry leaders (Airbus, Boeing, IAI, GE, etc.). Prior to Starburst, Francois was a partner at Oliver Wyman and founder & CEO at Arendi Consulting. Earlier, he was a researcher at the US Airforce. He started his career as an Airbus Engineer.
Steve Rosenblum
Board advisor
Steve is a serial-entrepreneur and investor in disruptive ventures such as e-commerce platform Pixmania, music streamer Deezer, personalized entertainment Molotov.tv, fashionable device accessories TheKase and most recently DIY shoewear Baia. He successfully built scalable and sustainable businesses across the globe. He spent 6 years in Asia.
Investors
Reapra
Reapra is a venture builder and investment group based in Singapore with a strategic focus on developing sustainable businesses. Through research and practice, Reapra nurtures entrepreneurs into industry leaders, and contribute towards the betterment of society. To date, Reapra has invested in more than 60 companies in 11 countries, across a variety of industries including agriculture, aviation, education, healthcare, hospitality, real estate, travel and venture capital.
Inseaders at Ascent
Inseaders at Ascent is a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) led by INSEAD alumni of global industry leaders from the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia. This SPV is led by Venture Capital partners with an accumulated portfolio of more than 60 companies globally.
INAEC
Aviation arm of the Lopez Holdings Corp, leading Filipino group in broadcasting and cable (ABS-CBN), telecommunications, real estate (Rockwell Land corporation) power generation FGEN, and distribution; and banking (MetroBank).
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