The Advanced Air Mobility Institute is pleased to welcome Dean Rudolph to our Board of Directors.
Dean joins the AAMI Board at a moment when the sector's most-pressing operational question is precisely the one he has already answered at scale: how do unmanned and optionally piloted aircraft actually reach airworthiness certification, and who has the authority to issue it?
As AAM Practice Lead at Collinear Group, a Capgemini Company, Dean has spent his career at the working interface of FAA delegation authority and commercial AAM operations. In October 2024 he was granted expanded delegation as a Designated Airworthiness Representative – Manufacturing (DAR-F) with authority spanning all categories of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Optionally Piloted Aircraft (OPA), a distinction spanning 12 Function Codes earned through rigorous FAA Technical Review Board evaluation. It is an extremely rare delegation.
That is not an incremental credential. It is a structural one. Every AAM operator planning the move from prototype to certified commercial service will work through the exact regulatory pathway Dean has spent his career mastering. Having that expertise inside the AAMI governance conversation strengthens the Institute's ability to speak credibly on the certification and airworthiness questions AAM commercialization actually depends on.
Dean also serves on the board of Xcert AI, advising on airworthiness, public policy, and public safety. A U.S. Air Force veteran who served as a B-52 Offensive Avionics System Technician, he has spent 15 years as a firefighter alongside his aerospace career, working at the intersection of public service and drone / AAM operations. That through-line, safety, regulatory rigor, and service, is exactly the disposition AAMI's governance benefits from as the category commercializes.
Dean's arrival brings the Board additional depth in the technical-regulatory layer where AAM commercialization succeeds or stalls. Combined with our existing governance, policy, and operator expertise, it positions AAMI to continue growing as a trusted voice for the responsible advancement of AAM in the United States and beyond.
Please join us in welcoming Dean to the AAMI Board of Directors.
The Advanced Air Mobility Institute