To do great things you must surround yourself with great people.
So we have formed an advisory board. James Earl and Josh Valman are its first two members, and we are very glad to have them on our side.
James Earl
James started out as a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot, then moved to the commercial side of aerospace and transport companies.
In 2023 he co-founded AeroMass Technologies. It built production networks for defence hardware out of existing manufacturers across the UK and Europe, many of them from outside defence. STARK acquired AeroMass in 2025, and James went on to scale its drone production, including at its UK factory in Swindon.
Very few people have flown aircraft, started a company and then scaled drone production inside one of the fastest-growing names in the industry. James has done all three, and he has been a huge value to us already.
Josh Valman
Josh was having robot parts made in overseas factories at 13, after UK factories turned him down. He was consulting for public companies at 15 and founded RPD International at 19.
RPD took products from concept to volume production for other companies’ R&D teams. It built a network of more than a hundred factories, making products for Unilever, GSK, Vodafone and Heineken.
He now designs and builds race engines from scratch, including a V8 and a turbocharged V6 of his own design. Someone who knows how to get hardware made at scale and builds his own engines is exactly who we want in the room.
Thank you
Both could spend their time anywhere. They have chosen to spend some of it with us, and that means a great deal to the whole team.
You can see the full team on our About page.
Alex AdamouCo-Founder and Director of R&D, Aira Technology
