Thomas
von der Ohe

Co-Founder, CEO

WHAT DRIVES ME

You come across an opportunity to positively impact societies around the globe maybe once in your lifetime. An opportunity to truly make a difference. Our unique approach to autonomous driving gives us this chance: redefining how people move in a better way. Building and shipping a product with this great team is what drives me day and night.

BACKGROUND

Launched Zoox’ first self-driving vehicle on public streets as leading Technical Program Manager in Silicon Valley, launched Amazon’s first Echo as leading Technical Program Manager on Device Software, Founded two (funded) mobility companies. M. Sc. Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University.

Fabrizio
Scelsi

Co-Founder, VP Engineering

WHAT DRIVES ME

Building products together with an amazing team based on cutting-edge technology to serve a greater purpose and solve problems – for the people, for our planet.

BACKGROUND

Manager of an engineering team in Silicon Valley to build autonomous shuttles, built teams and various mobility products: electric race cars, e-motorcycles, light electric vehicles, electric passenger vehicles, including one of the most successful electric delivery vehicles in Germany. RWTH Aachen, Imperial College London.

Bogdan
Djukic

Co-founder, Director Teledrive Experience

WHAT DRIVES ME

Vay is aiming to launch the first vehicle without a safety driver on public roads in Europe. This involves exciting engineering challenges, many of which have never been worked on before, ranging from autonomous vehicle technology, cybersecurity, backend, machine learning and safety-critical SW. Coming up with engineering solutions to these topics is something that I’m super excited to work on at Vay.

BACKGROUND

Team Lead at Microsoft, Senior Software Engineer at Skype. M. Sc. in Computer Science from Belgrade University.

Mariona
Bosch

Director of Engineering Operations

WHAT DRIVES ME

Working closely with people from different cultures and professional backgrounds (hardware, software, operations, etc.) gives me the chance to learn new ways of approaching projects, structuring teams, and setting up processes every day. The results of this incredible teamwork are hugely rewarding, and visible in each step of our product.

BACKGROUND

Part of the management circle at AUDI AG, responsible for the implementation of prototypes at early development stages of new products (innovation vehicles, concept and pre-series vehicles, show cars, design models, testing single parts, PoCs, 3D-printing)

Hans-Leo
Ross

Director of Safety

WHAT DRIVES ME

All my professional life I have been working for the protection and safety of people and the environment. I want to further provide safe and user-friendly automation systems for our future mobility needs.

BACKGROUND

25+ years experience in system safety at Conti., Mando, Bosch. Led the VDA working group in Germany to create ISO 26262 and influenced worldwide safety standardization. Author of several text books on functional safety.

Justin
Spratt

VP - Business & Corporate Development

WHAT DRIVES ME

What drives me is to work on goals that have a big impact on society. Additionally, I wanted to work with the smartest and most innovative people in the tech world. That’s better at Vay than any other company I’ve spoken to recently.

BACKGROUND

Was CEO and chief growth officer at Quirk. Began his professional life at Morgan Stanley as a fixed income trader after studying economics and finance. Built the first startup incubator in Africa in 2002 and has been mentoring founders of technology startups for over ten years. He is an angel investor in software technology and holds board positions in some of these companies.

Christian
Hertlein

VP - Product Design and Brand

WHAT DRIVES ME

Building the future of mobility, which is sustainable and truly serving the needs of people, by creating a holistic experience, a relatable brand and shaping services that are going to make a difference to how we move within and between cities.

BACKGROUND

Head of Global Design at N26, Senior Lead Designer at IDEO, in-car interactions for Volkswagen.

David
Gossow

Senior Principal Software Engineer

WHAT DRIVES ME

After having worked in autonomous robotics research for a long time in the Silicon Valley, I am thrilled to be working at a company that is finally bringing this technology into people’s everyday lives.

BACKGROUND

Tech Lead at Google Tango in Mountain View, Research Engineer at Willow Garage, yoga instructor since 2018.

Vladimir
Bilonenko

Director of Software Engineering

WHAT DRIVES ME

Helping engineers to do their best and most important work. Elegance in software. Bringing ideas from books to real life and from one domain to another. Going from A to B fast.

BACKGROUND

Software Generalist. Maps and Mobility Geek (Lon, Lat not Lat, Lon). High Load at Yandex, Geo Analytics and Last Mile at HERE Maps, Mobility Platform at Daimler. Conway’s Law Enthusiast.

ALINA
PRESTI

Teledriver

WHAT DRIVES ME

A car enthusiast, driven by cars, driving and technology.

BACKGROUND

Nursery school teacher. Driver at Skoda’s start-up Caredriver.

Stepping into the future of mobility

”I had the chance to work in a company that is transforming the mobility industry with its innovative teledriving approach. My experience at Vay was an opportunity to help shape the future of mobility and make a real contribution.”

Noya Assaraf as an Intern in communications at Vay

Over the past 6 months, I’ve been part of Vay’s team as a Communications Intern. During my internship, I developed strategies to build global thought leadership in the mobility industry, raise awareness, create a community and trust, leverage our media content and worked on many other external communication projects. 

I first heard about Vay at the START Summit conference that I co-organized. Thomas von der Ohe, CEO and co-founder of Vay, introduced the teledriving technology as an alternative to car-ownership on stage. I was astonished by Vay’s futuristic and visionary service. Timing was right: Anja Rechtsteiner, the Head of  Communication, was looking for an intern to kick off the new department. 

During my internship, I learned how to understand our potential customers and to develop effective communication strategies accordingly. I worked on several projects such as building a community, developing referral marketing strategies, preparing media visits and interviews and building the social media  communication strategy. I constantly stayed up-to-date on the latest news in the mobility industry, did lots of research on the industry and collected data on what Vay is solving for the transportation sector. I was amazed by the speed in which the startup is growing and how fast we would move from one project to the next. 

My key learning is how important the culture is within a company. I learned that a great culture is not only about organising team events, but is mainly shaped by the impact that employees have on the company and how they interact with each other. What makes the team special is that people are always open to help and share their knowledge, regardless of one’s position. Therefore I learned a lot about our technology, business strategy and the development of our service. The team is transparent and openly informs about the milestones, obstacles and situation of the company. Thanks to the open communication and great feedback culture, I had the chance to learn about many different areas beyond my department.

It was very valuable for me to see how business, tech and creative talents are working together towards solving transportation in metropolitan areas. Vay has a whole ecosystem, from software-, electrical-, mechanical-engineering, design, finance to communications, it offers the opportunity to work with many different departments and inspiring colleagues.

What I found unique about Vay is its collaborative workspace where you learn from experienced people who worked in exciting companies like Uber, Amazon, Tesla, Google, Audi, BMW or BCG, and some have even founded companies. This unique environment of open-mindedness and knowledge sharing was valuable for my growth and development, both professionally and personally. Being part of an innovative fast-growing company with a big vision for the future is an exciting environment to learn and grow.

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