By following her passion, Joby Aviation President of Operations Bonny Simi has enjoyed a unique and fascinating career, including roles as an Olympic athlete and commentator, TV news reporter and airline pilot. Now a leader in the advanced air mobility (AAM) sector, Simi aims to inspire others to follow their passions while helping to establish a new type of sustainable and safe air transportation.
As a child, Simi’s schoolteacher mom graded papers while Simi and her brother watched airplanes take off and land at the local airport café. Although that experience sparked her lifelong infatuation with aviation, as a young girl she never considered airlines as a career option. And even if she had, being an airline pilot was not a realistic goal. At the time, airline jobs for women were typically flight attendant positions.
In a pivotal moment, an adventurer visited Simi’s high school and shared a list of 100 things he wanted to do in his life, which led to an assignment to write life goals. Being an Olympic year, Simi was intrigued by bobsledding events, despite the fact Olympic bobsledding was then only a men’s sport. Nevertheless, she added “Olympic athlete” to her life goals list, along with being an Olympic TV commentator and becoming a pilot.
Olympic Dreams
As a young student at Stanford University, Simi pursued a journalism degree and played field hockey, thinking that would be her ticket to the Olympics. Instead, she won an essay contest for a slot as torch bearer for the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, getting her a front seat to the Games and introducing her to the luge. Eventually, Simi became a three-time Olympian in the luge.
“Luge is not unlike flying,” Simi explained. “It takes a while to get good, but you can very quickly tell if there’s a ‘there’ there, if you have both the aptitude and desire to be successful.”
When the sport opened to women, Simi also competed in the bobsled, where she was ranked third in the world in the early 2000s.
Her experience led to Simi becoming an Olympics commentator, along with her career as a TV reporter. At the ABC station in San Francisco, her weatherman colleague happened to be a private pilot, which led to a few flight lessons. This started her down a path to becoming a commercial pilot, certified flight instructor and a part-time business aviation pilot, all while working as a TV journalist.
‘Follow Your Heart’
When she was unexpectedly asked to work a reporter shift on a Saturday – which would have required cancelling her flight students’ lessons that day – she knew what she had to do: She left journalism to begin a career in aviation. Astonishingly, by the age of 30, Simi had accomplished several of her life goals: becoming an Olympian, Olympics commentator, TV reporter and pilot.
“You have to follow your heart and if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life,” Simi said.
Her aviation career led her to United Airlines and then JetBlue Airways, where she’d have an opportunity to take on roles in addition to flying. Having gained recognition for being innovative and creative, Simi was tapped to lead JetBlue Technology Ventures.
“We were looking to invest in companies that are changing the future of travel, including aviation,” Simi said. “I had a vision that electric propulsion and eventually hydrogen would fundamentally change aviation like jet propulsion did.”
At the time, Joby Aviation was very stealth, running under the radar while quietly designing and building an aircraft in the mountains outside of Santa Cruz, CA. Simi and her team evaluated dozens of electric aircraft companies in 2017 and found that Joby Aviation had the right mix of technology, vision and leadership. After meeting with Joby founder/CEO JoeBen Bevirt and visiting the early stage startup, JetBlue Technology Ventures invested in the company. Simi joined the Joby Aviation board of directors and helped bring the company public, eventually signing on to the company full time to lead operations.
“This model could fundamentally change the pilot workforce and expand it dramatically by making the career attractive to more people.”
Developing New Pilots
At Joby Aviation, Simi is passionate about diversifying the aviation workforce and developing new aviation professionals. The company’s air taxi model for future operations means pilots can live and work in one city, coming home each night.
“We are creating a work-life balance that will make the job of a pilot more attractive to pilots who wish to raise a family, fly during the day and be home every night for dinner. What an amazing shift in a pilot’s career!” Simi said.
To help grow and diversify the workforce, Simi aims to develop new pilots at the lowest cost possible. Under Simi’s direction, Joby Aviation started Joby Academy, which provides free private-pilot ground school, initially to Joby employees, and now to high school students and beyond.
The academy uses light sport aircraft to keep flight hour costs low and is working to help trainees qualify for grants and loans. Eventually, the facility aims to provide training from private pilot to commercial pilot and certified flight instructor, with transition training for the Joby aircraft.
“Once the Joby aircraft is certified, our hope is these trainees will then stay with the company, building a balanced career. This model could fundamentally change the pilot workforce and expand it dramatically by making the career attractive to more people,” said Simi.
Simi also shared her passion for sustainable air transportation, explaining Joby’s commitment to 100% renewable electricity at primary facilities. Joby has also recycled almost 60,000 pounds of manufacturing waste, including tested batteries. As the company heads towards commercial operations, it is focused on renewable electricity at operating facilities. “Renewable energy ensures that the operation is end-to-end sustainable,” she said.
A Commitment to Safety
“Vertical integration provides Joby Aviation a unique opportunity to create SMS throughout the enterprise – from the OEM, to maintenance, to the operator and even training. We are able to look at safety holistically,” Simi said.
Joby’s Part 135 certificate and Part 145 maintenance facilities also participate in Aviation Safety Action Plans (ASAP) and the team is developing an SMS program for both Part 135 and OEM well before the newly mandated deadline.
At the end of the day, Simi hopes her adventurous career encourages other business aviation professionals to think outside the box while driving the industry towards sustainability in a safe way.
“Raise your hand. Follow your passion. Follow your curiosity,” Simi said. “That’s how amazing things happen.”
Bonny Simi is Joby Aviation’s president of operations. Prior to joining the team at Joby, Simi held several operational and strategic roles at JetBlue within Flight Operations, System Operations, People, Airports and Customer Support. Most notably, she founded and led JetBlue Technology Ventures. As a pilot, Simi has commanded Boeing, Airbus and Embraer aircraft at both United Airlines and JetBlue Airways. She is an Emmy-nominated sports reporter and a three-time Olympian in the sport of luge.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.