Val Miftakhov, Founder and CEO, ZeroAvia

Session 2 - Val Miftakhov, ZeroAvia Founder and CEO, is a serial clean tech entrepreneur who knows how to scale technology for use by existing transportation industries. Under Miftakhov's leadership, ZeroAvia is helping to deliver a future of truly clean, guilt-free flight, with the company completing two world-first breakthrough flight demonstration programmes of its hydrogen–electric, zero-emission technology.

Miftakhov’s previous venture, eMotorWerks, developed smart vehicle-grid integration hardware and software, and was acquired in 2017. eMotorWerks' JuiceBox Smart EV charging station is the best-selling product in its category in the United States for the last 5 years.

Before eMotorWerks, Miftakhov held executive business strategy and operations positions at Google, McKinsey & Company, and Nielsen. He also launched and managed three startup companies, in all of which he held the CTO positions. Prior to his industry experience, Miftakhov was a high energy physics researcher at Stanford Linear Accelerator, a Department of Energy facility.

Miftakhov received his PhD in Physics from Princeton University and his MS in Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. He was a two-time winner of the nationwide Russian physics competitions. In whatever spare time he gets, Miftakhov tries to get good use out of his airplane and helicopter pilot licenses.