Surf Air Mobility Inc. (“Surf Air Mobility”), which aims to sustainably connect the world’s communities, today announced that Tyrone D. Bland will join its Board of Directors.
Mr. Bland currently serves as the Head of Government Affairs for Creative Artists Agency, LLC (CAA). As CAA’s lead lobbyist, Mr. Bland leads government affairs efforts that impact CAA’s overall business strategy and its clients. In this role, he provided strategic advocacy to the entertainment industry’s effort to secure over $150 million in film tax credits for impacted studios, directed all international governmental affairs policy, and led CAA’s engagement with the White House, United States Congress, and key governors and mayors throughout the country.
Prior to CAA, Mr. Bland was Vice President of State and Local Government Relations for Herbalife Nutrition (NYSE: HLF) where he led the company’s government affairs and stakeholder engagement strategy with responsibility across all state and local elected officials, attorneys general, and state regulatory and oversight agencies. Before joining Herbalife Nutrition, Mr. Bland served as Managing Director for the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm Capitol Hill Consulting Group, where his focus areas included land-use and urban planning, trade, transportation, utilities, and financial services policy.
In 2022, Mr. Bland was appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to serve on the California Water Commission. Additionally, Mr. Bland serves as the Executive Committee Co-Chair on the Los Angeles chapter of the Smithsonian Institution Regional Council.
“With more than 20 years of bi-partisan lobbying experience at the federal, state and local level, Mr. Bland’s breadth and depth of experience will bring invaluable perspective for Surf Air Mobility as we seek to expand our operations across the United States and advocate for the advancement of electrification and regional aviation to combat economic inequality and climate change,” said Sudhin Shahani, Co-Founder and CEO of Surf Air. “We are thrilled Tyrone has agreed to join us in our mission to make regional air travel more accessible and sustainable.”
“I’m thankful for the opportunity to join Surf Air Mobility’s Board of Directors,” said Mr. Bland. “What Surf Air Mobility is aiming to do in point-to-point regional air travel to reduce our reliance on automotive transportation, expand connectivity between regional communities, and lead progress on the electrification of the air transit industry is phenomenal. I believe Surf Air Mobility is a model for how corporations can own social responsibility and use business for good while also creating financial opportunity for all stakeholders.”
Mr. Bland’s appointment will become effective upon Surf Air Mobility becoming a public company.
ABOUT SURF AIR
Surf Air is a Los Angeles-based electric aviation and air travel company reinventing flying through the power of electrification. The company intends to bring electrified aircraft to market at scale in an effort to substantially reduce the cost and environmental impact of flying. The management team has deep experience and expertise across aviation, electrification, and consumer technology. For more information, visit: https://surfair.com.
Forward Looking Statements
The information in this press release includes “forward-looking statements”. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements about: Surf Air Mobility’s expectations regarding its ability to become a public company; Surf Air Mobility’s ability to anticipate the future needs of the air mobility market; future trends in the aviation industry, generally; and Surf Air Mobility’s future growth strategy and growth rate. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may”, “should”, “could”, “might”, “plan”, “possible”, “project”, “strive”, “budget”, “forecast”, “expect”, “intend”, “will”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “predict”, “potential” or “continue”, or the negatives of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Although Surf Air Mobility believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Surf Air Mobility cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements and there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking statements and financial projections. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements or information.
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