DroneUp appoints second Walmart exec to board

Virginia Beach-based DroneUp LLC has appointed David Guggina, Walmart Inc.’s senior vice president of innovation and automation, to its board of directors, the commercial drone delivery and flight services company announced Monday.

“DroneUp has been a key player in making customer delivery via drone a reality for millions of customers across the country,” Guggina said in a statement. “I am honored to join the DroneUp board as the company builds on its reputation of reliability and convenience for businesses and consumers.”

During the last four years, Guggina has led the roll out of automation technology in Walmart’s supply chain network and implementation of last mile deliveries. He has also held senior roles overseeing product, engineering and operations with Walmart. He is based in Walmart’s headquarters city of Bentonville, Arkansas, according to his LinkedIn account.

A provider of drone services for Walmart, DroneUp announced a partnership with the retailer in 2021 to provide drone delivery services at 34 sites around the nation with the capacity to reach 4 million homes. Walmart has a minority stake in DroneUp.

Guggina previously worked at Amazon.com Inc. for nine years. He started in fulfillment operations and advanced to general manager of customer service operations. Prior to that, Guggina was a warehouse group leader program at Anheuser-Busch Companies LLC.

“Over the course of his career, David has been at the forefront of transformational changes that have delivered extraordinary warehouse and operational efficiencies to improve the customer service experience,” DroneUp founder and CEO Tom Walker said in a statement. “We are thrilled to welcome David to our board at a time when DroneUp is pushing the boundaries of delivery and customer expectations.”

DroneUp’s other board members are:

• Eric Grubman, chairman of SGHC Ltd.
• Thomas Walker, CEO of DroneUp
• Thomas R. Ward, executive vice president and chief ecommerce officer for Walmart U.S.
• Thomas R. Frantz, chairman emeritus and partner at Williams Mullen
• Jerrold L. Miller, CEO of The Miller Group

Founded in 2016, DroneUp works with more than 20,000 drone pilots. Last week, DroneUp and Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced that DroneUp is adding 655 jobs as part of a $27 million expansion of its headquarters and establishment of a testing, training, and research and development center at Richard Bland College.