Sebastian Babiarz joins and strengthens the Dronehub team

Recent months have been a time of wide expansion of Dronehub’s structures – after the successful recruitment process at the beginning of the year, after the opening of a new office in Warsaw, now it’s time for further staff strengthening of the team. Sebastian Babiarz, an expert in the drone industry with extensive experience in the global UAV market, has just joined us.

What is his background in the industry? What areas at Dronehub will he develop? What goals does he set for himself and for the company? – here is an introductory conversation with Sebastian Babiarz.

Sebastian, you are another person who has recently strengthened the Dronehub team. What factors convinced you to pursue your professional career with us?

Dronehub, as a drone-in-the-box solution, stands out from the competition with an advanced stage of process automation – from the take-off phase, through the flight itself, mission execution, landing and battery change. These processes at Dronehub are highly automated. And I am convinced that this automation of these processes is a necessary condition for the further development of drone companies, for their scalability. This is the direction in which UAV technology will develop. High automation of flying systems with the minimization of human participation will simply be the base, the starting point for the further development of the industry. Dronehub already has it, it is already in this place where the competition is just heading, so it can be said that Dronehub is one step ahead of everyone. This advantage of Dronehub was appreciated, for example, by IBM (read more here), who decided to cooperate with us in partnership, which confirms the fact that the solutions proposed and developed by Dronehub are the future of the industry, and the company itself has great global potential.

The second factor that also convinced me to join the team was the fact that the company’s headquarters is in my hometown. I come from Rzeszów and after years of working abroad in international companies, local patriotism awoke in me. I am glad that I will be able to add my experience and knowledge to the development of the company from my home region.

You have assumed the position of vice-president of business development. What tasks will you be responsible for?

My task is to create a network of distributors and acquire partners on the EMEA markets – in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. These are our priority markets where we want to build a leadership position. We want to be a leading provider of drone-in-a-box solutions for monitoring, measurement, inspection and delivery in industry, as well as to support public services. From the use-case perspective, we will focus on the further development of systems dedicated to the security, insurance or drone-delivery, like the HeliDeli project.

What goals do you set for yourself – what would you consider to be the success of working with us in a year, in 3 years and in 5 years?

Speaking from the end: in five years, Dronehub is to be the European champion in drone-in-a-box solutions, especially in industrial usage. The goal for 3 years is to build a solid network of distributors, and the goal for the next 12 months is to launch proofs of concept in several key EU markets.

In which companies and on what projects have you gained your knowledge and skills that you will use with us?

I have over 16 years of experience in the tech and drone-related industries. For the last 4 years, I was heading strategic business development at AirMap, successfully built the AirMap business across the EMEA region. Between 2017-2020, as the Industry consultant, I have helped the European Commission and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to formulate Drone and U-space European Regulations, successfully enabled earlier this year. Before AirMap, I also led innovation within Nokia, focusing on Unmanned Aircraft Systems and UTM integration.      

Since 2016, I’m proud to be co-founder and co-president of the Global UTM Association (GUTMA), which plays a crucial role in enabling harmonized and interoperable drone services at scale.

I am passionate about the potential of new technology and automation to improve our lives.

Which way do you think the UAV industry will develop?

As I mentioned at the beginning – a necessary condition for the further development of drones is their full automation. It will be a bit like in sci-fi movies – drones will fly over our heads with virtually no human interference.

For example, in the security and monitoring segment, the drone control mission will be triggered by sensors, and in the deliveries segment, the drone mission will be triggered by clicking the “buy” button in the e-shop. I believe that the market will develop in this direction, because with the almost complete elimination of the need for human participation in the operation of drones, their usefulness will be the greatest.

Sebastian, welcome on board!