The JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV) corporate venture capital fund has a new boss. Amy Burr takes over the role of president at JTV after serving three years as the group’s Managing Director of Operations and Partnerships. In that role she built an ecosystem of partners and deployment opportunities for the many technologies of JTV’s portfolio companies.
Amy has done a phenomenal job leading the JTV team over the past several months, and we’re looking forward to seeing her bring her innovation experience to life as part of JetBlue’s leadership team.
– Brandon Nelson, JetBlue’s general counsel and corporate secretary, who also serves as oversight officer of JTV
Burr replaces Bonny Simi who led the group from its founding in 2016 until late last year. Simi served JetBlue for 18 years in a variety of roles, including as a pilot, director, customer service and vice president, talent. She joined JTV portfolio company Joby Aviation in December 2020 as head of people and operations, and remains an advisor to the JTV team.
As head of JTV, Burr will shape the strategic venture investment direction of JetBlue and facilitate integration of successful startup programs into the airline’s overall corporate innovation initiatives. She will report to Brandon Nelson, JetBlue’s general counsel and corporate secretary, who also serves as oversight officer of JTV. Nelson was involved with the creation of JTV in 2016 and has served on the subsidiary’s investment committee as chair for the past several years.
Burr has been a leader in creating, sourcing and implementing innovative technology in the travel space for the last 21 years. As an original founder of Virgin America in 2004, she worked in areas including strategy, corporate program leadership and commercial and revenue development. She ended her time with the company as the leader of the merger integration with Alaska Airlines.
In addition to Simi’s departure, former Managing Director Raj Singh also left JTV last month after five years as a Managing Director with the company.
JTV’s most recent portfolio investment came this morning, with the company taking a stake in Transparent, a vacation rental market intelligence company. Transparent builds and maintains a platform that aggregates data on vacation rental market conditions including prices, occupancy and competition.
Prior to that JTV made an investment as part of a $20.5 million funding for Universal Hydrogen, a company exploring hydrogen-powered flight options. The company also holds positions in more than a dozen other travel-related companies, including Tomorrow.io (formerly ClimaCell), Volantio, Mozio, Redeam, Flyr, Gladly, CoinFlip, and more.
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