Jim Dukhovny

Jim Dukhovny is an American entrepreneur and innovator, known primarily as the founder and CEO of Alef Aeronautics, a company dedicated to developing electric flying cars. Dukhovny has a diverse background in software engineering, architecture, and transportation technology.

Early life and education
Jim Dukhovny was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. His father, Leonid Dukhovny, was a singer-songwriter, poet, and scientist. In 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, his family immigrated to the Bay Area, settling in Palo Alto, California. Dukhovny attended Palo Alto High School and later pursued higher education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He subsequently obtained a master's degree from Santa Clara University and received a certificate in global business (BUS-217) from Stanford University.

Career
Dukhovny began his professional career in 2002 as the founder and CEO of DjWizard Presentation Promotion, organizing and hosting various events, including a 400-person Intellectual Trivia event. In 2004, he joined Walmart eCommerce as a lead software engineer, contributing to the development of core systems for Walmart.com and the Pricing Management System.

By 2009, Dukhovny had moved to Yahoo! as a senior software engineer, where he led the software datacenter management team and designed a new product. In 2012, he became a schema architect and software engineer at Microsoft, where he worked on schema storage for Cortana, Windows Mobile, Speech, and designed the Relativity API.

In 2013, Dukhovny founded Intellectual Games, a franchise focusing on intellectual live and online games, debates, and science fiction-themed events. In 2014, he established Prezera, an online presentation company, and also founded the Science Fiction Society of Silicon Valley, where he served as president. In 2015, he became president and CEO of Transcoder Systems and a senior software engineer at SAP, developing parts of the backend for the mobile system of Ariba.

Alef Aeronautics
In October 2022, Jim Dukhovny, along with three co-founders, launched Alef Aeronautics, a company focused on developing flying cars. As president and CEO, Dukhovny led efforts to secure multiple rounds of funding and increase the company's valuation. The team unveiled a flying prototype car in San Mateo, California, which represents a new development in personal transportation. Jim Dukhovny led the development of the Alef Model A project, which features an unusual configuration where the car's hollow body and slab-like sides transform into a biplane wing when in flight, while the cabin remains upright.