JoeBen Bevirt (born ) is an American

serial entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

and the founder and the chief executive officer of

Joby Aviation Joby Aviation is a United States venture-backed aviation company, developing an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that it intends to operate as an air taxi service. Joby Aviation is headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, ...

, a California-based

aerospace company An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

. He is the recipient of the 2018 Haueter Award and holds more than 160 U.S. patents in

aerodynamics Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...

, aircraft design, electric and hydrogen propulsion.

Early life and education

Bevirt was born to Paula Fry and Ron Bevirt. He was raised in the Last Chance community in

Santa Cruz County, California Santa Cruz County (), officially the County of Santa Cruz, is a county on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,861. The county seat is Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County comprises the Sa ...

. His name was inspired by the character JoeBen in his family friend

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (; September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and Counterculture of the 1960s, countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies o ...

’s novel ''

Sometimes a Great Notion ''Sometimes a Great Notion'' is the second novel by American author Ken Kesey, published in 1964. While '' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (1962) is more famous, many critics consider ''Sometimes a Great Notion'' Kesey's magnum opus. The stor ...

''. Bevirt graduated from

Santa Cruz High School Santa Cruz High School is a comprehensive public school in Santa Cruz, California which originally opened in 1897 and now serves an enrollment of about 1,040 students in grades nine through twelve. It is part of the Santa Cruz City School Dist ...

in 1991. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Career

Bevirt had been interested in engineering since his childhood and built one of the world’s first full-suspension mountain bikes while in high school. He co-founded Velocity11 in 1999 to develop robotic laboratory systems for life sciences discovery. The company was later acquired by

Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American global company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for laboratories. Agilent was established in 1999 as a spin-off from Hewlett-Packar ...

in 2007. In 2006, Bevirt founded Joby Inc., a consumer products company that developed the

Gorillapod In photography, a tripod is a portable device used to support, stabilize and elevate a camera, a flash unit, or other videographic or observational/measuring equipment. All photographic tripods have three legs and a mounting head to couple wit ...

flexible camera tripod. Bevirt also started Joby Energy with a focus on airborne wind turbines. In 2009, he founded

, a company pioneering the development of all-electric aircraft that can take off and land vertically, while cruising like a traditional airplane. In 2020, his company received a signed G-1 Certification Basis from the FAA and airworthiness certification from the US Air Force. On August 11th 2021, the company began trading on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

, making Bevirt the world’s first

eVTOL An electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is a variety of VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft that uses electric power to hover, takeoff and landing, take off, and land vertically. This technology came about owing to m ...

billionaire according to media reports. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Bevirt worked with the genetics team at the

University of California Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

to launch SummerBio, a company that provides affordable PCR tests. In March 2022, Bevirt was invited to testify before the

United States House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. History The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure was formerly known as the Committee on Public Works ...

during a hearing addressing concerns around aviation noise.

Achievements

In 2018, Bevirt was announced as one of UC Davis’ ‘Most Distinguished Alumni’. He was also the 2018 recipient of the Paul. E. Haueter Award, presented by the

Vertical Flight Society The Vertical Flight Society, formerly the American Helicopter Society (AHS), is the non-profit technical society for the advancement of vertical flight. It has 21 different technical committees and two dozen active chapters around the world. The ...

to recognize outstanding technical contributions to the field of vertical flight.

Personal life

Bevirt lives in Santa Cruz with his wife, Jenny, and four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bevirt, JoeBen 1970s births Living people University of California, Davis alumni Stanford University alumni Santa Cruz High School alumni