Juanjo Sola is an aeronautical engineer with more than 15 years of experience. His leadership in the Spanish UAS sector led to the creation of Spain’s drone department and UAS deployment within their airspace.
He is the former Head of the UAS Division of the Spanish CAA (AESA) and was also their ATC Training Manager and ATM/AIS Oversight Inspector for 4 years. He is currently the Director of Regulatory Affairs and Commercial Space at Murzilli Consulting. Murzilli Consulting is a 3-year-old digital aviation and drone consultation firm that focuses on regulatory compliance in existing and emerging aviation sectors.
During his career, Juanjo has been one of the Spanish representatives for the ICAO RPAS panel, a member of the board management of JARUS and contributed to EASA’s UAS Focal Point.
In 2022, he was named TALENTO’s Young Engineer of the Year. He has spoken on and moderated many panels within the aviation industry and taught courses on SORA in collaboration with SENASA, several universities in Spain, and DroneTalks Academy.
After deciding from an early age that he wanted to work in aviation, specifically as an aeronautical engineer, Juanjo left his hometown of Melilla and moved to Madrid to pursue a degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Towards the end of his studies, Juanjo began working at the university as a research collaborator, before beginning his career as a consultant for SENER, a Spanish technology engineering firm. In 2009, Juanjo became the Project Manager for SENER’s Airports and Air Navigation consultancy services.
In 2012, Juanjo moved on to work at ISDEFE, a state-run engineering consultancy firm, as an Air Navigation Consultant and Quality Manager. There, he worked with clients from ENAIRE and AESA, both of which became valuable contacts for his future career in the drone regulatory sector.
After his initiation into the aviation industry, Juanjo returned to his studies to fine-tune his speciality skills. He completed courses from SENASA on Air Traffic Control competencies and obtained a Basic and Advanced RPAS Pilot Certificate. He also completed a Master's programme in Management, Leadership, and Public Affairs at the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo.
Juanjo began his career at AESA in 2012 as an ATC Training Manager and ATM/AIS Oversight Inspector. He held this position for 4 years before becoming the Head of the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Unit (RPAS/DRONES) in 2019. He was selected to lead the expanding drone sector within Spain due to his proven change management skills, which were an integral part of the complex process that the ATC sector underwent in Spain a decade ago.
Juanjo’s role as the Head of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Division at the Spanish CAA, marked several milestones for the Civil Aviation Authority. The department was in the beginning phase of managing and overseeing drone operators. In these early stages, there were no mature regulations in place. This led to the division growing and under Juanjo’s leadership, the development of the UAS unit, including establishing specific processes.
His leadership helped define the processes and governance models to implement several regulations in Spain that are currently in place. This included developing the early stages of stakeholder engagement such as home departments, airport managers and air navigation service providers. Another initiation led by Juanjo was the creation of a National Drone Committee which involved several working groups on technology, security, operations and safety promotion within public and private sectors. He also approved hundreds of drone operations applications for Spain, including eVTOL initial test flights such as Crisalion’s UMILES II and Lilium’s Phoenix at the ATLAS Flight Test Center.
As the developing drone industry grew, so did Juanjo’s passion for disruptive technology and the processes involved in its integration into traditional airspace., and it was during this time that some of his most influential work took place.
In 2016, Juanjo became a member of ICAO’s RPAS panel, an international uncrewed aviation group created to coordinate and develop ICAO standards and recommendations. Juanjo spent 7 years on the panel, as part of Working Group 5, which reviewed Annex 6 - Operations. During his time in the working group, Juanjo contributed to documentation on the international standardisation of air traffic management and airworthiness.
Juanjo joined JARUS in 2016 as a core member of the SRM Working Group and actively participated in developing the Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) Version 1.0. He led the Spanish engagement alongside seven additional people involved in the JARUS Working Groups, 2 of whom also led 2 groups.
In 2020, Juanjo joined the advisory board for SESAR’s demonstrator projects and contributed to the development of two innovative demonstrators within the UAS industry; AMU-LED, an EU-funded project created to develop and integrate a UAM environment and U-ELCOME, which was developed to scale U-space architecture.
Juanjo represented Spain in the TeB, EASA’s technical advisory group. The TeB has several task forces and initiatives, including sandboxes and IAM. Juanjo was part of the working group that developed the EASA initiative to use sandboxes for UAS and IAM in the EU.
In 2023, Juanjo joined long-time friend and ex-JARUS colleague, Lorenzo Murzilli to further develop his innovative aviation regulatory consulting firm, Murzilli Consulting. Juanjo stepped into a new position as the Director of Regulatory Affairs and Commercial Space and set up a business subsidiary at the Madrid Science and Innovation District MaSID in Spain.
Juanjo’s contributions to the aviation and drone consultancy company have already begun to take off. From his expert liaisons with international governments and Civil Aviation Authorities to supporting partnerships with UAS operators and their regulatory approval processes to the expansion of Murzilli Consulting’s Madrid team, Juanjo’s commitment to the IAM industry and dedication to providing services to support regulatory challenges are precisely the core values that represent our Murzilli Consulting team.
The activities developed by M&K UAS & SPACE SPAIN SL according to the requirements expressed in the International ISO 9001: 2015 standard are:
Consultancy and training services on Uncrewed Aerial Systems (Drones) and Flight Procedure Design (FPD).
The main points of action issued by the management in the quality policy statement issued by the management are:
Our quality commitment to all the interested parties (customer, suppliers, stakeholders, employees, competence and public administration) leads us to provide reliable and effective products and services. These product and services are provided worldwide in compliance with the regulatory requirements and in full alignment with our company values.
The Quality culture and mindset is promoted through proper training to each member of M&K UAS & SAPCE SPAIN SL so that everybody has full awareness of the quality importance.
Management makes this policy accessible and available to its customers, its employees, suppliers and the general public
The Policy is kept up-to-date through periodic reviews, coinciding with the management review of the system, in order to take into account changes in environmental conditions and the information received. In this sense, the management provides and will provide all the human, technical and economic resources needed to achieve the objectives and targets established scheduled and periodically.
07/01/2025. Ed. 1.
Chief Executive Office
