Shares in DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO) have fallen more than 10% after it announced its US Chief Executive Officer was leaving the company.
In a short statement to the ASX on Wednesday morning, the company said Matt McCrann, who joined the company in 2019 and who had been the US CEO since 2022, "has resigned from the business, effective immediately''.
No explanation was given for Mr McCrann leaving.
DroneShield Chief Executive Officer Oleg Vornik thanked Mr McCrann for his contribution.
As he said in a statement:
DroneShield thanks Matt for his contribution to the business and wishes Matt well for his next steps. Our U.S. business includes talented, highly experienced personnel, with our counter-drone systems deployed with a number of tier 1 U.S. Government agencies. The U.S. represents a very important market for DroneShield, that is anticipated to grow across both military and civilian domains, as drones continue to pose an increasing threat.
The company said it had recently been scaling up its US presence, "including running a process to set up a U.S. product assembly operation, recently appointing a highly experienced U.S. Advisory Board, and growing the size of the team''.
The company said it now had 35 staff in the US out of its total of 440 employees.
Turbulent recent trade
DroneShield shares have been heavily sold off in recent weeks, falling from levels above $6 per share in early October to be changing hands for $2.19 on Wednesday morning, down 10.6% on the day.
The stock fell more than $1 per share in one session last week after it was revealed that Mr Vornik had sold almost $50 million worth of shares between 6 and 12 November, while the company's Chair and another director had also sold off stock.
Droneshield said at the time, the "change of directors' interest notices are unrelated to the growth trajectory of the company, which remains strong, as highlighted in the recent quarterly martket update reflecting record quarter on quarter growth and positive operating cashflow''.
The company also had to retract a statement to the ASX about a new sales contract in the US after management realised the contract had already previously been announced.
As the company said at the time:
The November contracts were inadvertently marked as new contracts rather than revised contracts due to an administrative error. DroneShield is taking steps to prevent this error from reoccurring.
DroneShield was valued at $2.22 billion at the close of trade on Tuesday.
