Suggestions
Mike Jackson
Vice President of Global Operations at Volansi
Professional Background
Mike Jackson is a seasoned leader in the realm of logistics and supply chain innovation, playing a pivotal role at Volansi, where he serves as the Vice President of Global Operations. Volansi, known for revolutionizing logistics with high-speed, long-range drones, is redefining how industries approach on-demand delivery services, significantly enhancing operational efficiency for its customers. Mike's extensive experience encompasses senior management positions in diverse organizations engaging in global operations, showcasing his considerable expertise in delivering strategic leadership. He excels in orchestrating teams to create and implement effective organizational plans, a skill that has proven essential in his current role.
Throughout his distinguished career, Mike has built high-performing teams and has a solid record of improving program management and executing innovative policy and strategy development. His ability to thrive in challenging environments and drive sustainable solutions has not only fortified his professional reputation but also the organizations he has been a part of. Mike has a significant personal history of leading and managing both manned and unmanned aviation operations (UAS), embodying the principles of operational excellence and strategic foresight. Furthermore, he possesses a current TS-SCI clearance, underscoring his trustworthiness and reliability in handling sensitive information.
Education and Achievements
Mike Jackson's academic background is impressive, featuring two master’s degrees and a bachelor’s degree, all of which have equipped him with a robust foundation for his career within the defense and aerospace industries. He studied for a Master's degree in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy at the prestigious National Defense University, honing his skills in military operations and strategic oversight. Additionally, he pursued another Master's degree in Aerospace Management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a globally recognized institution in aviation education. His academic journey began with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the United States Air Force Academy, where he laid the groundwork for his leadership and analytical capabilities.
Career Journey
Before taking on his current role at Volansi, Mike held various critical positions within the U.S. Air Force and other prestigious organizations. His career trajectory illustrates a blend of operational and strategic leadership. At Volansi, he initially started as the Director of Flight Operations, where he was instrumental in overseeing flight operations while also navigating the complexities of air logistics in an evolving technological landscape. His role involved ensuring that all flight operations adhered to the highest standards of safety and efficiency.
Earlier in his career, Mike served as a Special Operations Transition Foundation Fellow and had a significant stint at the Air Force Special Operations Command. He held roles of increasing responsibility, most notably as a Commander of the Joint Special Operations Air Component - Central. This position required a strategic mindset and the ability to lead an organization that operated under pressure. His leadership continued to shine as he took command of the 27th Special Operations Group, where he functioned similarly to a Chief Operating Officer, ensuring that operations were executed flawlessly.
His expansive experience further includes serving as Chief of Staff in the Middle East Policy section under the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. In this capacity, he demonstrated proficiency in military policy and strategic planning at high levels of government. Mike also had a notable tenure at RAND Corporation as an Air Force Fellow, where he contributed to strategic assessments and decision-making processes that affect both national and international security policies.
In the earlier stages of his career, Mike served in numerous command and operational leadership roles within multiple special operations squadrons, establishing a strong foundation in both operational proficiency and tactical acumen. He started as an Operations Officer at the 15th Special Operations Squadron and progressively took on more senior responsibilities, shaping operational strategy and enhancing pilot training programs as the Director of the MC-130 Weapons Instructor Course at the USAF Weapons School.
Notable Achievements
Mike Jackson's impressive list of achievements is underscored by his stellar performance across various leadership roles. His capability to inspire teams and manage complex operations showcases his commitment to excellence in every endeavor. Under his leadership at Volansi, the company has not only evolved but also set new industry standards in rapid delivery services, employing cutting-edge drone technology to optimize logistics.
Moreover, Mike's strategic vision was critical during his time as a Commander, where he oversaw vital operations and coordinated efforts between various military units and agencies to achieve mission success. His focus on building high-performing teams has led to improved operational efficiency and enhanced morale among personnel.
In addition to leading military operations, Mike's transition into the technology-driven logistics sector marks a significant achievement, bridging the gap between traditional logistics and innovative technologies. His ability to successfully manage and execute creative strategies has opened new avenues for operational growth at Volansi.
With a career imbued with critical decision-making, team leadership, and strategic oversight across various sectors, Mike Jackson continues to be an influential figure in the logistics and aerospace industries. His extensive experience and dedication to creating value-driven results mark him as a true leader in his field, and his journey is far from over; it stands as an example for aspiring professionals who wish to make their mark in the world of operations and strategy.
Achievements
Mike Jackson's significant achievements include:
- Leading global operations at Volansi as Vice President of Global Operations, significantly enhancing logistics efficiency.
- Transitioning from military command roles to the logistics sector, demonstrating versatility and innovative thinking.
- Building high-performing teams and improving program management processes across various military and civilian organizations.
- Overseeing mission-critical operations in high-stakes environments, ensuring operational excellence and safety.
tags':['logistics','drone technology','supply chain','military operations','leadership','aviation management','strategic planning','program management','high-performance teams','defense policy'],
Location
People also viewed
Related People
Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
People also viewed