JoeBen Bevirt

Bevirt was born to Paula Fry and Ron Bevirt. He was raised in the Last Chance community in Santa Cruz County, California. His name was inspired by the character JoeBen in his family friend Ken Kesey’s novel Sometimes a Great Notion.

Bevirt graduated from Santa Cruz High School in 1991. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Davis and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Bevirt had been interested in engineering since his childhood and built one of the world’s first full-suspension mountain bikes while in high school. He co-founded Velocity11 in 1999 to develop robotic laboratory systems for life sciences discovery. The company was later acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2007.

In 2006, Bevirt founded Joby Inc., a consumer products company that developed the Gorillapod flexible camera tripod. Bevirt also started Joby Energy with a focus on airborne wind turbines.

In 2009, he founded Joby Aviation, a company pioneering the development of all-electric aircraft that can take off and land vertically, while cruising like a traditional airplane. In 2020, his company received a signed G-1 Certification Basis from the FAA and airworthiness certification from the US Air Force. On August 11th 2021, the company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, making Bevirt the world’s first eVTOL billionaire according to media reports.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bevirt worked with the genetics team at the University of California, Santa Cruz to launch SummerBio, a company that provides affordable PCR tests.

In March 2022, Bevirt was invited to testify before the United States House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee during a hearing addressing concerns around aviation noise.

Bevirt lives in Santa Cruz with his wife, Jenny, and four children.