Blake Scholl is founder/CEO at Boom Supersonic, which he founded in 2014 with the goal of making supersonic flight mainstream. Boom has built and flown XB-1, the first-ever independently-developed supersonic jet and the first new civil supersonic airplane since Concorde. United, American, and Japan Airlines have placed orders and pre-orders for 130 Overture supersonic airliners.

Prior to founding Boom, Blake held leadership roles at Amazon and Groupon and co-founded the mobile technology startup, Kima Labs (acquired by Groupon). He started his career at Amazon as a software engineer in 2001, where he invented an automated ad buying system that in 2004 was responsible for more than 5% of revenue at both Amazon and Google.

Blake’s interest in aviation began in his early childhood years: he grew up in suburban Cincinnati, where his parents often took him to the local airport to watch Cessnas take off and land. He started flying for fun in college, earning his private pilot license in 2008 and instrument rating in 2011.

Blake holds a BS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University; he lives in Denver and is the father of four.