AeroVironment, Inc. Announces Senior Leadership Changes to Drive Operational Excellence and Long-Term Growth
April 30 2015 - 4:30PM
Business Wire
- Wahid Nawabi promoted to chief
operating officer
- Roy Minson to lead strategy for
commercial UAS market entry
- Kirk Flittie and Kenneth Karklin
promoted to general manager of Unmanned Aircraft Systems and
Efficient Energy Systems business segments, respectively
AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) today announced the
appointment of Senior Vice President Wahid Nawabi as the company’s
chief operating officer, effective immediately. Nawabi served as
general manager of the company’s Efficient Energy Systems (EES)
business segment since 2011 and also led the company’s integrated
engineering and operations functional organizations for the past
year. Nawabi will continue to report to the company’s chairman and
chief executive officer, Tim Conver. The general managers of the
company’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and EES business segments
now report to Nawabi.
Additionally, Senior Vice President Roy Minson has transitioned
from general manager of the company’s UAS segment to lead the
company’s strategic entry into the emerging commercial UAS market,
continuing to report to Conver. Kirk Flittie, previously vice
president and business area leader for large UAS, has assumed the
role of general manager for UAS.
Kenneth Karklin, previously director of quality systems,
manufacturing engineering and services, has assumed the role of
general manager for the EES business segment.
“We continue to cultivate exciting growth opportunities in our
core UAS and EES segments as well as new market opportunities for
large UAS and commercial UAS and are making the right changes to
drive operational excellence and long-term growth as we begin our
fiscal year 2016,” said Conver. “Wahid Nawabi as chief operating
officer provides more capacity and focus on business planning and
operations and is a natural extension of his expanded role over the
past year. Roy Minson leading our commercial UAS strategy commits
greater focus on a large and complex emerging market opportunity
where we have a leadership position and are well positioned to
deliver compelling value to large industries.”
“Appointing Kirk Flittie and Ken Karklin to the general manager
roles puts in place proven leaders to guide our business segments
and demonstrates the quality and depth of our leadership bench,”
Conver added.
About Wahid Nawabi, Roy Minson, Kirk Flittie and Ken
Karklin
Wahid Nawabi joined AeroVironment in 2011 as senior vice
president and general manager of the EES business segment. Nawabi
joined AeroVironment after a 20-year career as an executive with
advanced technology companies in industries spanning clean
technology, industrial/electrical equipment manufacturing, telecom,
and energy. During his 16 years at American Power Conversion (APC),
the company's revenue increased from $50 million to more than $2.4
billion and it became the world leader in power protection. Nawabi
started and led the Enterprise/Data Center business at APC, growing
revenue to $600 million between 2000 and 2008. Nawabi also led
C&D Technologies' Americas business.
Roy Minson joined AeroVironment as vice president of business
development and deputy general manager of UAS in April 2010. In May
2012, Minson became AeroVironment's senior vice president and
general manager, UAS. Prior to joining AeroVironment, Minson served
as vice president and operations manager for a research and
development business within the Tactical Systems and Solutions
division of SAIC, where he was responsible for transitioning
products and solutions. Earlier, as a senior executive at Boeing,
he led various business segments supporting DoD, DARPA, and various
government agencies, and was a key contributor to the development
and capture of several large programs, including Joint Tactical
Radio Systems, Future Combat Systems, Combat Survival Evader
Locater, and classified programs.
Kirk Flittie served in various UAS leadership positions at
AeroVironment since joining the company in 1996. Flittie led the
company’s High Altitude Long Endurance UAS efforts, including the
development, test and demonstration of the Helios solar-powered
unmanned aircraft and the $130 million customer-funded development,
test and demonstration of the Global Observer hydrogen-powered
unmanned aircraft. Flittie has served as vice president of
AeroVironment’s large UAS business since 2008. Prior to joining
AeroVironment, Flittie managed aerospace programs for Northrop
Grumman and American Rocket Company. Flittie earned a Bachelor of
Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of
Notre Dame, a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and
Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
completed the AeA/Stanford Executive Institute’s program for high
technology executives.
Ken Karklin served in a range of functional and customer facing
roles since joining AeroVironment in 2007. For the past year
Karklin has served as the company’s director of corporate quality
systems. Karklin previously held leadership roles at the company in
Engineering, Operations, Program management and in the EES services
group. Prior to joining AeroVironment, Karklin held engineering and
engineering management roles at a venture-funded start-up and at
established technology leaders Intel Corporation, Hewlett Packard
Company and Agilent Technologies. Ken holds a Bachelor of Science
degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute.
About AeroVironment, Inc.
AeroVironment is a technology solutions provider that designs,
develops, produces, supports and operates an advanced portfolio of
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and electric transportation
solutions. The company’s electric-powered, hand-launched unmanned
aircraft systems generate and process data to deliver powerful
insight, on-demand, to people engaged in military, public safety
and commercial activities around the world. AeroVironment’s
electric transportation solutions include a comprehensive suite of
electric vehicle (EV) charging systems, installation and network
services for consumers, automakers, utilities and government
agencies, power cycling and test systems for EV developers and
industrial electric vehicle charging systems for commercial fleets.
More information about AeroVironment is available at
www.avinc.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements in this press release may constitute
"forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are made
on the basis of current expectations, forecasts and assumptions
that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited
to, economic, competitive, governmental and technological factors
outside of our control, that may cause our business, strategy or
actual results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied. Factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from the forward-looking statements include, but are not
limited to, our ability to perform under existing contracts and
obtain additional contracts; our reliance on sales to the U.S.
government; changes in the timing and/or amount of government
spending; changes in the supply and/or demand and/or prices for our
products and services; changes in the regulatory environment; the
activities of competitors; failure of the markets in which we
operate to grow; failure to expand into new markets; failure to
develop new products or integrate new technology with current
products; and general economic and business conditions in the
United States and elsewhere in the world. For a further list and
description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports we
file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our
most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on
10-Q. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
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AeroVironment, Inc.Steven Gitlin+1 (626)
357-9983pr@avinc.com
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