Former Cisco President Rob Lloyd said that he would be joining the Elon Musk-powered Hyperloop Technologies as its new CEO in an announcement earlier today. In addition to joining as CEO, Lloyd is an investor in the company and will be joining the board of directors.
In case you haven't been following, the Hyperloop transportation system proposes to build a full-length tube between destinations, with a controlled environment inside allowing passengers to achieve rocket-fast speeds of up to 800 mph. The project employs a growing team of over 50 full-time employees at the company's three-acre, three-building campus in the downtown Los Angeles Arts District.
Although the project has it's design and application issues, the optimism of investors and now a new CEO is starting to make it look like something more than just a passion project. It got its start when Elon Musk proposed the idea in white paper in August 2013 and encourgaged others to make it happen. JumpStartFund, a startup that helps crowdfund and crowd-source big projects, created Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to get the technology and funding in place and move it from theory to reality.
"I'm hugely impressed by the team and the vision of this company and the brilliant team committed to making the hyperloop a reality," said Lloyd. "This is an incredible opportunity to dramatically impact the trillion-dollar transportation industry — Hyperloop is the fifth mode of transport, and will be the most efficient transportation network ever seen." He also blogged about the company's plans and some of its tech innovations thus far.
Emily White – former chief operating officer at Snapchat, and having previously worked at Facebook and Google – is also joining as a strategic adviser and board observer. Lloyd and White join a board of directors that includes co-chairs Shervin Pishevar and David O. Sacks, Peter Diamandis, Joe Lonsdale and Jim Messina.
The project is long-term and so are the company's goals – Lloyd knows this. In late 2016 and early 2017, HTT anticipates having an operational test track built in Central California, and then hopes to have a family of products ready by 2020. Lloyd replaces former HTT CEO Dirk Ahlborn, who also is co-founder and CEO of JumpStart Fund.
"Rob Lloyd is perfectly suited to lead this company given his incredible 20+ year track record of innovating and disrupting," said Pishevar, HTT co-founder and board co-chair. "Rob helped build the network that moved bits in the digital era, and now he will help change the world again by building the network that will move people and things faster than ever before possible. We are extremely lucky to have him."
According to the announcement, Hyperloop Technologies is backed by leading investers such as Formation 8, Sherpa Ventures and Zhen Capital. The company is currently raising an $80 million Series B second round of funding.
Via: Business Wire
