The top 50: Amy Burr, president, JetBlue Technology Ventures
JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV), the corporate venture capital (CVC) and innovation arm of US-based airline operator JetBlue Airways, is led by president Amy Burr.
Robin Hayes, JetBlue Airways’ CEO, said of Burr: “JTV allows us to invest in and shape the future of our industry through the strategic partnerships the team is building with startups innovating in travel and hospitality – from solutions alleviating the pain of flight delays to affordable electric aircraft.”
Before assuming her current role in July 2021, Burr had been the unit’s managing director of operations and partnerships for three years beginning in 2018, where she focused on building an ecosystem of partners and deployment opportunities for the many technologies of JTV’s portfolio companies.
As head of JTV, Burr leads JetBlue’s strategic venture investment direction and help integrate startups into the airline’s overall corporate innovation initiatives.
Burr said: “Our role as a CVC firm is to think about how our business can best partner with startups, but competition for time, money, and resources is something that has the potential to hinder leading-edge progress in any organization. The biggest challenge we face is ensuring that our leaders see the value in continuing to research and implement innovative solutions for things they do every day. This is the key value that a dedicated CVC operations team can bring to the parent company.”
Burr has been in the travel ecosystem since early in her career, having joined Continental Airlines in 2000 before shifting in 2004 to rival Virgin America, when it the business was still at the startup stage.
