About
Airseed
We’re a dedicated team of experienced professionals in engineering, agriculture, marine and terrestrial microbiology, ecology and data sciences.
Our management team has a proven track record in early and growth-stage businesses with the motivation and dedication to building meaningful and significant partnerships towards growing and scaling the company’s positive impact and success.
With a presence and projects in Australia, South Africa and Asia, AirSeed has an emerging global reach addressing and tackling global challenges.
Our management team
Andrew Walker
CEO & Co-Founder
Andrew is a senior leader, mechanical engineer and entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience within the prestigious automotive and aerospace design sectors for companies such as BMW and AirBus Industries. Andrew holds a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering and is experienced in building and scaling international engineering-focused companies.
Andrew leads all AirSeed project initiatives whilst also being heavily involved in the engineering and development of all drone-based systems hardware.
Christian Kirschenpfadt
Chief Commercial Officer
Christian is a value-driven business builder, strategic leader and technology innovator with an over 20-year commercial career across Financial Services, Management Consulting, Energy Transition, and Circular Economy.
He has worked in the corporate world, as well as co-founded, scaled, and successfully exited a number of businesses in New York, London, and Sydney. Christian is all about responsibility, accountability, integrity and amplifying positive social and environmental outcomes.
Christian leads all commercial aspects of AirSeed bringing his expertise and experience to build resilience, mitigate risks and expedite growth.
Pieter Van Zyl
Senior Robotics Engineer
Pieter is a highly skilled engineer specialising in Mechatronics Engineering. He has over 5 years’ experience working with UAV and payload systems and electronic and software development.
Jonathan Dawe
Commercial Director
As a Chartered Accountant originally from Canada, Jonathan brings with him over 15 years of industry experience, having worked in senior finance roles across public and private enterprise, and the not-for-profit sector.
Dr Quang-Duy La
Data Science & Machine Learning
An accomplished data scientist, Quang has a PhD in electrical and electronic engineering, publishing over 30 papers. Quang previously worked at Temasek Labs and Singapore University of Technology & Design where he led a team of researchers and engineers in building machine learning algorithms.
Dr Rachael Gallagher
Research Partner - Plant Ecologist, Western Sydney University
Dr Rachael Gallagher is a plant ecologist passionate about ensuring conservation of the Australian flora. Her work focuses on the vulnerability of plants to human-induced threats, including climate change and invasive species, using a combination of data science and field experiments.
She enjoys working closely with industry partners to create novel solutions to pressing environmental issues, such as restoration, species extinction and urban expansion. As Deputy Chair of the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee, Rachael’s research is used to inform conservation policy and action.
Dr Sasha Tetu
Research Partner - Microbial Ecologist, Macquarie University
Dr Sasha Tetu is a microbial ecologist whose research utilises a variety of modern microbiology and ‘omics’ techniques to investigate important microorganisms in soil, marine and host-associated environments.
Her research seeks to explore the varied yet vital ways that microorganisms contribute to animal, plant and ecosystem health.
Dr Dave Suggett
Research Partner – Marine Ecologist, University of Technology Sydney
Dr David Suggett is a highly-cited marine biologist within the Climate Change Cluster (University of Technology Sydney) specialising in understanding how environments and climate shape the form and function of coral reef ecosystems. He has increasingly worked alongside industry and tourism sectors to use knowledge of coral biology and reef ecology to rehabilitate degraded reefs at scale.
David has coordinated the first scalable coral propagation program on the Great Barrier Reef, integrating activity of the tour operator industry under the Coral Nurture Program, to develop novel reef rehabilitation capacity.
Ruapu Maka
Chief Pilot & Compliance Officer
Ruapu has been working with uncrewed aircraft systems for over 6 years. He has operated under CASA, EASA and FAA guidelines conducting highly complex and innovative operations.
Dr Charlotte Mills
Chief Ecologist
Charlotte has a PhD in ecology from UNSW and almost 10 years’ experience delivering ecological projects in remote environments. She is a highly skilled scientist and has published numerous articles on ecology in international scientific journals.
AirSeed's mission to give Mother Nature a 'kick up the bum'
Aimee Chanthadavong
Journalist - ZDNet
Drones could greatly accelerate reforestation efforts around the world
Madeleine Bower
Journalist - The Sydney Morning Herald
Drones are aiding bushfire recovery and helping in the response to coronavirus
Chris Griffith
Technology Journalist - The Australian
