Changes to the Board

RNS Number : 0309A

Strat Aero PLC

24 September 2015

 



Strat Aero plc / Index: AIM / TIDM: AERO / Sector: Support Services

24 September 2015

Strat Aero plc ("Strat Aero", the "Company" or the "Group")

Changes to the Board

Strat Aero plc, an international aerospace company focused on the rapidly emerging Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ('UAV') sector, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Tony Dunleavy to the Board as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect.  Mr Dunleavy is an international accountant with over 30 years' experience in senior management and advisory roles across a range of global industries including aviation, where he acted as an adviser to Milestone Aviation which was later subject to a US$2 billion buy-out by General Electric.  Mr Dunleavy's appointment, along with those of Mr Paul Ryan and Mr Gerard Dempsey, two seasoned corporate executives who have held high level positions at blue chip technology companies including Vodafone and Microsoft, is in line with Strat Aero's more expansive strategy to build a vertically integrated UAV offering, covering all aspects of the value chain, including software, hardware and services.   

The Company also announces that Captain Russell Peck, the outgoing CEO, and Bob Salluzzo, a non-executive Director, have stepped down from the Board with immediate effect.  Captain Peck and Mr Salluzzo will remain available to the Company on a consulting basis and continue to be supportive shareholders.  The Board wishes them all the best in their future endeavours.

Mr Dunleavy is a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP trained international accountant with over 30 years of Corporate Finance, Business Development, Financial & General Management experience both in a management and advisory capacity.  He has worked in a variety of industries at senior management and board level, including aviation and healthcare.  Specifically he acted as an adviser to Milestone Aviation (bought for US$2 billion by General Electric) and in his role as interim Chief Financial Officer of Creganna Medical Devices, oversaw its transition from a private medical devices start up through to a US$200 million private equity buy-out and beyond.  Mr Dunleavy has a proven track record in executing restructuring programmes, having acted as adviser for Rabobank (Spain and Ireland) as well as executing and integrating M&A transactions.   He was previously a Director, responsible for Corporate Finance, at PJ Carroll PLC and General Manager of Finance at TSB Bank and has advised a number of high growth and start-up businesses.   Mr Dunleavy has also lectured on Corporate Finance at The UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, part of University College Dublin.

Tony Dunleavy, CEO of Strat Aero, said:  "Strat Aero has a tremendous opportunity to become the first fully integrated global solutions provider focused on the rapidly growing UAV market.  UAVs promise to revolutionise the way companies from a wide variety of industries carry out their day to day business, and it is the Board's objective to position Strat Aero at the forefront of this game-changing technology so as to ensure we retain as much of the value chain as possible.   To achieve this we need a management team with the requisite corporate and technology experience and expertise.  With the appointment of Gerard Dempsey and Paul Ryan to the Board earlier this month, we have the right team in place and intend to move swiftly to build a one stop UAV technology offering, which covers all of a client's needs including hardware, software solutions, and services. 

"I would like to thank Russell and Bob for getting Strat Aero to the point at which we can deliver on our objective to transform the Company into the UAV focused solutions provider, and in the process generate significant shareholder value.  This promises to be an exciting period for the Company, one which will not be short of high impact newsflow, and I look forward to providing further updates on our progress."

Tony Dunleavy, aged 53, currently holds or has held the following directorships and partnerships in the last five years:

Current directorships/partnerships	Past directorships/partnerships
	Alcara Limited Zenergy Limited

There is no other information that is required to be disclosed pursuant to Schedule 2 paragraph (g) or Rule 17 of the AIM Rules for Companies.

- ENDS -

Enquiries:

Strat Aero plc	Tel: [phone]
Tony Dunleavy (Chief Executive)
Graham Peck (Chairman)
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP	Tel: [phone]
Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker
Stuart Gledhill Jeff Keating
Beaufort Securities Limited	Tel: [phone]
Joint Broker Jon Levinson
Elliot Hance
St Brides Partners Ltd	Tel: [phone]
Frank Buhagiar Charlotte Heap

Notes

Strat Aero plc is a multi-divisional international aerospace services company, focussed primarily on the provision of complete client solutions in the Unmanned Aerial System ('UAS' market), which is predicted to show exponential growth over the coming decade.  Civilian, law enforcement and military applications in UASs are expected to be a dynamic growth sector in the aerospace industry over the next 10 years with the UAS market forecast to grow to more than US$82.1 billion between 2015 and 2025 (AUVSI Economic Report 2013) and the global airborne Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ('ISR') market estimated to grow to US$19.23 billion by 2023. 

 

END

 

 

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