Melissa Tomkiel is Strata's Co-CEO and General Counsel and serves on Strata’s board of directors. Previously, Melissa served as President and General Counsel of our predecessor company,  Blade Air Mobility, which she joined in 2015.

Prior to Strata, Melissa was co-founder and President of Fly The Whale, a commuter air carrier operating amphibious seaplanes and rotorcraft in the Northeast United States and the Caribbean. Melissa began her career as an attorney at the law firm Pryor Cashman in New York City. 

In 2022, Melissa was appointed by the US Secretary of Transportation to serve on the Federal Aviation Administration’s Advanced Aviation Advisory Committee.

Melissa has a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law where she was a St. Thomas More Scholar and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame where she double majored in Government and American Studies and was a member of Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honors Society.