Pivotal CEO Ken Karklin has stepped down from the Larry Page-backed electric aircraft company, ending a tenure of more than four years at one of the eVTOL sector’s more quietly serious players. Mike Ross, an aviation executive who joined Pivotal‘s board in November 2025, takes over on an interim basis effective 31 August 2026, with the board opening a formal search for a permanent replacement, according to the Pivotal CEO transition press release.
Pivotal says Karklin is ‘pursuing new endeavors.’ He didn’t respond to a request for comment before publication.
What Pivotal CEO Ken Karklin’s Exit Means for the Helix Programme
In a statement, Karklin offered a valediction that read more like a manifesto for the whole sector: ‘Leading Pivotal has been the privilege of my career. Together, we’ve moved beyond the promise of light eVTOL and proved it out in practice.’
He also had words for the wider industry: ‘This industry has moved past prototypes and press releases; it’s now operating in the real world, under real constraints, with real consequences for the future of Advanced Air Mobility. As I turn to new endeavors, I do so knowing the foundation we built here will help carry this industry forward.’
Given how many eVTOL companies are still very much in the prototypes-and-press-releases phase, that’s a pointed exit line.
The departure lands roughly two years after Pivotal launched sales of the Helix, its single-seat personal aircraft that starts at around $200,000 and, usefully for its target buyers, does not require a pilot’s licence to fly.
Who Is Mike Ross, Pivotal’s New Interim CEO?
Ross is not a fresh face at the company. When Pivotal appointed him to the board on 4 November 2025, he held the title of Senior Vice President of Global Data at Jeppesen ForeFlight, the aviation data and navigation platform, and brought more than two decades of experience across defence aviation, autonomy, and global flight data systems.
His career path before that is worth noting for what it signals about Pivotal’s direction. According to the company’s CEO transition announcement, Ross most recently served as Senior Vice President leading Global Aviation Data at Jeppesen ForeFlight. Before that, he joined Boeing Digital Aviation Solutions to launch its uncrewed and advanced air mobility group, and helped guide the business through its spinoff as an independent company. He also held product leadership roles at autonomous-drone firm Skydio.
Ross said in a statement: ‘Ken’s leadership over the past four years has been instrumental in bringing Pivotal to where it is today. Our team, our priorities, and our roadmap remain steady through this transition. I’ve had the honor of working closely with Ken as a Board member and watching Pivotal’s disciplined approach to safety, engineering, and accessibility deliver on the vision of electric VTOL flight. I look forward to working with the team and guiding the company forward as we bring our fourth-generation Helix aircraft to market.’
A fourth-generation Helix is apparently on the roadmap. That’s the clearest product signal to emerge from the transition announcement.
BlackFly’s Real-World Moment and the Broader eVTOL Context
Meanwhile, Pivotal’s other aircraft is racking up a record that goes beyond demo flights. BlackFly, the company’s platform aimed at defence and first-responder use cases, responded to an emergency in North Carolina last month: the first operational use of its kind for the aircraft. Pivotal says it beat an ambulance responding in parallel by 20 minutes. BlackFly has now flown more than 10,000 times in total, per the company. For context, Pivotal’s About page recorded over 8,000 flights and more than 50 certified pilots as of 2025, with the 2023 milestone including the first Gen 3 BlackFly customer delivery and a lease of eight Gen 3 aircraft to AFWERX and MTSI.
Pivotal is also one of eight projects selected in March 2026 for the Federal Aviation Administration’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), which spans 26 states. The FAA’s eIPP announcement noted that the eight projects were chosen from more than 30 proposals evaluated by a technical review team from the Department of Transportation and the FAA.
The board search for a permanent CEO will be the next visible signal of where Pivotal thinks it’s headed: whether it doubles down on the consumer Helix market, leans further into defence contracts, or tries to hold both tracks at once. Ross’s background in aviation data and uncrewed systems suggests the company knows exactly which conversations it wants to be having.
