CDA Announces its 2026 Board Officers
WASHINGTON, D.C.– February 6, 2026– The Commercial Drone Alliance (CDA), an independent non-profit organization led by key members of the commercial drone industry, is pleased to announce its newly appointed officers for 2026. These leaders were elected to advance the CDA’s mission by advocating for policies and standards that promote U.S. leadership in advanced aviation and support the safe, secure, and scalable integration of commercial uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS or drones) into the National Airspace System.
The 2026 leadership announcement comes at a pivotal moment for the U.S. commercial drone industry, as federal policymakers consider landmark actions related to beyond visual line of sight operations, airspace integration, supply-chain security, and the role of domestic drone manufacturing in national security and economic competitiveness.
The CDA’s 2026 officers are:
- Co-Chairs: Eric Brock, Ondas and Ben Berlin, Zipline
- Vice Chair: Jenn Player, Skydio
- President: Neta Gliksman, Percepto
- Vice President: Ken Stewart, NUAIR
- Treasurer: Heath McLemore, Florida Power & Light
- Secretary: Margaret Nagle, Wing
“Over the past year, we’ve seen meaningful progress in the policy and regulatory environment for commercial drone operations,” said Ben Berlin, aviation regulatory counsel at Zipline, who will continue to focus on policy in his role as co-chair. “The CDA is focused on working with regulators and policymakers to build frameworks that support innovation, operational scale, and responsible integration into the national airspace.”
“A strong domestic commercial drone sector is essential to building the industrial capacity, skilled workforce, and innovation pipeline that power U.S. economic competitiveness,” added Eric Brock, CEO of Ondas, who will continue focusing on industry development as co-chair of the CDA. “That same foundation is what enables the country to meet evolving national security needs over the long term.”
CDA’s Officers serve on the Board together with CDA’s other Directors: James Grimsley (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), Jim O’Sullivan (DoorDash), Jon Damush (uAvionix), Will Wheeler (Southern Company), Jeff Cole (Hidden Level), Marcy Eisenberg (Xelevate), Grant Jordan (SkySafe), Matt McCardle (Amazon Prime Air).
“This is a critical moment for the U.S. commercial drone industry, and I look forward to working closely with our newly elected Board Officers and entire membership to advance policies that promote U.S. leadership in advanced aviation,” said Lisa Ellman, CEO of the Commercial Drone Alliance. “More than ever, industry and government must come together to propose and advocate for policies and standards that enable, rather than hinder, domestic companies’ ability to compete and lead globally.”
About CDA’s 2026 Officers
Eric Brock, Ondas: Eric Brock is the Chairman and CEO of Ondas Inc., a technology company advancing private wireless and autonomous aerial solutions for critical infrastructure, industrial, and public-sector operations. He has more than 30 years of experience in finance and technology leadership, including as a Founder and Partner of Clough Capital Partners, and earlier roles at Bear, Stearns & Co. and Ernst & Young.
Ben Berlin, Zipline: Ben currently serves as aviation regulatory counsel at Zipline, a drone delivery company dedicated to building the first logistics system that serves all humans equally. Prior to joining Zipline, Ben served as counsel at Amazon Prime Air and SkySpecs, represented a wide array of the aviation industry in private practice at Cooley LLP and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and worked at the FAA in various legal and policy roles.
Jenn Player, Skydio: Jenn is Vice President of Aviation Regulatory Affairs at Skydio where she collaborates with customers, regulators, and standards development organizations to advance autonomy and beyond visual line of sight UAS operations. Jenn has more than 10 years of experience in UAS research, testing, and operations. She served as an industry working group lead on the FAA’s UAS BVLOS Aviation Rulemaking Committee and also participated in the FAA UAS Detection and Mitigation Rulemaking Committee. Prior to joining Skydio, Jenn held technical roles at US Naval Air Systems Command, Cessna, and NASA Langley, and also founded Avineer LLC, a consulting firm to help manufacturers in the drone delivery space navigate the type certification process and help enterprises gain operational approvals for complex operations.
Neta Gliksman, Percepto: Neta is Vice President of Policy & Government Affairs at Percepto and works closely with regulatory bodies, such as the FAA and CASA in Australia, customers, and other drone solution providers to secure Percepto’s leadership and influence in drone regulation. Neta brings her vast corporate and military experience combined with comprehensive knowledge in global drone regulation to Percepto’s regulation team. She previously worked at various hi-tech companies and law firms, such as IBM and Shibolet & co.
Ken Stewart, NUAIR: Ken Stewart has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of NUAIR since Dec 2020. Prior to joining NUAIR, Mr. Stewart held several leadership positions at General Electric Ventures including CEO of AiRXOS, a GE aviation company, where he led innovation, development, and commercialization of Unmanned Traffic Management services. Prior to that Mr. Stewart served in executive roles with several venture capital and private equity-backed companies commercializing and scaling start-ups and transforming organizations for growth. In addition to his role at NUAIR Mr. Stewart is the President of board for the Commercial Drone Alliance (CDA) and a member of the Advanced Air Mobility Committee with the National Air Transportation Association (NATA). Mr. Stewart is an inventor of multiple patents in Uncrewed Traffic Management.
Heath McLemore, Florida Power & Light: Heath is the Senior Manager for the Smart Grid & Innovation team supporting Florida Power & Light’s FPLAIR (Aerial Intelligent Response) program. In this role, he is responsible for the safety, training, and regulatory oversight of all uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) operations across the company’s footprint, as well as leading image recognition and data visualization initiatives. He has worked strategically with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through both the Partnership for Safety Plan (PSP) and Integration Partnership Agreement (IPA) Program to help transform how utilities safely integrate highly automated UAS operations into the National Airspace System.
Margaret Nagle, Wing: Margaret is the Chief Government and Aviation Officer at Wing, where she leverages 20+ years of government and advocacy experience to advance new aviation use cases. Previously, Margaret was Head of Americas Policy at X, the Moonshot Factory, and Head of Americas Government Policy at Yahoo. Margaret also has extensive public sector experience, most recently serving as Assistant to the Vice President for Legislative Affairs. In that role, she led the Vice President’s legislative affairs office and served as his top liaison to Congress where she played a key role in crafting and implementing legislative strategies to advance Administration priorities.
About the Commercial Drone Alliance
The Commercial Drone Alliance is an independent non-profit organization led by key leaders in the commercial drone and advanced air mobility industries. The CDA brings together commercial drone end-users, manufacturers, service providers, advanced air mobility companies, drone security companies, and vertical markets including oil and gas, precision agriculture, construction, security, communications technology, infrastructure, logistics, newsgathering, and filmmaking. The CDA works with all levels of government to collaborate on policies for industry growth and educates the public on the safe and responsible use of commercial drones to achieve economic benefits and humanitarian gains.
Learn more at www.commercialdronealliance.org.
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