The first time Chris Walton stepped into a cockpit as a flight test engineer, the aircraft had never flown before. It was a freshly built machine, and Chris’s role was to direct the test pilots through maneuvers that would prove whether the aircraft was safe. This task combined technical precision with great risk, shaping his career in taking unproven technologies and making them work in the real world.
“Some of what we were doing could be risky,” he says. “you had to have a precise understanding of the technology and how it works.”
His thirst for adventure and his focus on future technologies are now at the heart of his role as Senior Director of Business Development at VentureOne, the Advanced Technology Research Council’s venture builder. Chris joined about a year ago, with a mission that feels familiar: take promising technologies from the lab and prove they can fly in the real world.
At VentureOne, he specializes in three areas: autonomous robotics, secure systems, and propulsion and space. Much of his current focus is on commercialising drones which perform complex tasks without human supervision, while also ensuring that the systems controlling them stay safe and secure.
“As the world becomes more connected and more reliant on autonomy, we have to make sure these systems are trustworthy and resilient,” he says.
His approach blends market research and market analysis with direct conversations.
“Talking to people is by far the best thing to do to understand clients’ needs,” he says. “Research can tell you where challenges exist, but it’s only in conversation that you discover how a technology can truly be applied.”
Chris’s path to VentureOne began early. He grew up in Cambridge, UK, and was fascinated by aviation from a young age. So much so that he earned his pilot’s license before he could legally drive.
That passion led him to study aerospace engineering, where he was able to combine his love of flying with a natural talent for mathematics.
From there, his career spanned continents and disciplines, from military and business jet testing in North America to geoengineering research at Cambridge University. He held leadership roles in aerospace technology and founded a venture builder that brought renewable energy and drone technologies to market in the UK and Europe.
In 2019, Chris began spending significant time in the Middle East, setting up operations for an aerospace company in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. A few years later, his wife, who had managed an intensive care unit in the UK during COVID-19, was ready for a change, so the couple moved permanently to Abu Dhabi.
“I really fell in love with the UAE for all sorts of reasons,” Chris says. “The openness, the warmth, the ambition. It’s a uniquely supportive place to build and test new ideas.”