Site-wide Keyword Search SUBMIT Who We Are Our Solutions Newsroom Careers Investors Suppliers Contact LEADERSHIP TEAM WAHID NAWABI President & Chief Executive Officer Wahid Nawabi has served as our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since 2016. Wahid joined AeroVironment in 2011 as senior vice president and general manager of the EES business segment, where he reshaped the segment’s business strategy, launched several award-winning, innovative new products, and significantly improved its position in the market. Prior to his current role, Wahid served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the company, where he managed all aspects of AeroVironment’s two business segments. Wahid also managed multiple business process improvement projects, which led to significant improvements in customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. He led the integration of the company’s engineering, operations, supply chain and quality functional organizations into a single corporate shared services model across both business segments and all product lines.Wahid spent 16 years of his career at American Power Conversion Corporation (APC) in multiple leadership roles helping the company achieve its business strategy. As a former Vice President of the enterprise business segment at APC, Wahid played a key role in launching the company’s ambitious and successful strategy of entering the data center critical power and cooling infrastructure business. During his tenure, APC became the global leader in designing and manufacturing fully integrated data center power and cooling infrastructure solutions. Wahid played a key role in growing the company from $50 million to more than $2.4 billion in annual revenue, and its eventual sale to Schneider Electric for $6.1 Billion.This was the largest acquisition in the history of Schneider Electric. VIEW MORE KEVIN MCDONNELL Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Prior to joining AeroVironment in 2020, Kevin McDonnell served as chief financial officer of JAMS, Inc., which provides alternative dispute resolution services. During his tenure at JAMS, Kevin helped the company nearly double its revenue and more than double its EBITDA. Kevin brings more than 30 years of experience in financial, IT and HR leadership roles, including serving as chief financial officer for companies in the technology, automotive and health industries. Most notably, Kevin held various senior financial roles at Teradata Corporation during its high-growth phase, where the company grew from $3 million to $300 million in revenue and expanded globally into Europe and Asia. Kevin also served as CFO of Digital Insight, where he was instrumental in significantly growing its annual revenue, taking the company public and leading three acquisitions. VIEW MORE KEN KARKLIN Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ken Karklin has served as our Senior Vice President Operations since 2018 and was named Chief Operating Officer in June 2020. Prior to AeroVironment’s sale of the Efficient Energy System (EES) segment in 2018, Ken served as the company’s Vice President and General Manager of EES from May 2015, and as Vice President of Transition Services, subsequent to the divestiture. From 2009 until 2015, Ken served in a range of leadership roles at AeroVironment, including Engineering, Program Management and Quality. VIEW MORE MELISSA BROWN Vice President & General Counsel Melissa Brown joined AeroVironment in 2015 as the company’s Corporate Counsel. In 2016 she was appointed the company’s Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Prior to joining AeroVironment, Brown served as an associate attorney at K&L Gates LLP in Los Angeles, California and Jennings Strouss and Salmon PLC in Phoenix, Arizona, advising clients on a range of securities transactions, mergers & acquisitions and corporate governance issues. VIEW MORE GORIK HOSSEPIAN Vice President and Product Line General Manager, MUAS Gorik Hossepian has served as our Vice President and Product Line General Manager, MUAS since 2021 and is responsible for developing and executing product and technology roadmaps, and managing the life cycle of AeroVironment’s MUAS portfolio. Gorik has over 38 years of experience in military and commercial aerospace as a business unit leader, program manager and engineer. Prior to joining AeroVironment in 2018, Gorik spent 3 years at Cobham Advanced Electronics Systems as the Vice President of Electronic Warfare Product Line, where he was responsible for ensuring programmatic performance and delivering on customer commitments. Prior to Cobham, Gorik was with Northrop Grumman Electronics for 9 years, at the Navigation and Positioning Systems Business Unit in Woodland Hills, California focused on leading and transforming a multi-national avionics business unit serving both military and commercial markets. VIEW MORE REGINE LAWTON Vice President and Chief Information Officer Regine Lawton joined AeroVironment in May 2020 as Vice President and Chief Information Officer. She is responsible for leading the Information Systems teams, securing and scaling the company, and overseeing the path to digital transformation. Prior to joining AeroVironment, Regine held multiple C-Level executive roles at various small and midsize companies. She also worked at larger companies including Spirent Communications, Electronics for Imaging, United Online, Apple Computer, and Technicolor where she held engineering and digital transformation/IT roles, launched multiple ventures as well as new hardware, software and mobile products. She is a global and results-oriented senior executive with a proven track record of rolling out business and technology solutions focused on improving performance, transformation and value creation. She says AeroVironment is a great place to work because: Regine has 25 years of experience in the computer and software industry. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, Masters in Computer Engineering and an Executive MBA degree from Pepperdine University. VIEW MORE SCOTT NEWBERN Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Scott Newbern has served as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of AeroVironment since December of 2018. This includes the leadership of our Pathfinder Program, a technical leadership program which comprises our technical fellows and select exceptional engineering talent. Scott previously founded the MacCready Works Laboratory ­– a focal point for AeroVironment’s continuous innovation, focusing on relentless problem solving and doing what has never been done before. Scott served as the Vice President of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems beginning in 2012. He guided the strategic and tactical activities for the SUAS business area. Scott has served in various UAS leadership positions at AeroVironment since joining the company in 1997. Scott led advanced UAS development activities including establishing high volume SUAS manufacturing capability at AeroVironment. VIEW MORE CHARLIE DEAN Vice President for Global Business Development and Sales, UAS Charlie Dean joined AeroVironment in 2021 as the company’s Vice President for Global Business Development and Sales of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Prior to joining AeroVironment, Charlie served as a vice president at both FLIR Systems and Endeavor Robotics, leading the global sales of unmanned systems. Charlie also held multiple positions over many years at QinetiQ North America related to ground robotics, leading the business development and sales team, product management team, co-led the engineering team, and served as a senior program manager. He also led business development activities at Draper Laboratory and TIAX where he served as an executive vice president. Charlie is DAWIA Level III certified in program management and completed a successful career in the U.S. Army as an Infantry officer and acquisition professional. VIEW MORE JEFF RODRIAN Vice President of AV Ventures Jeff Rodrian has served as the Vice President of AV Ventures since 2021 with a focus on creating a center for market driven innovations by embracing a start-up best practices approach, along with engaging with the vibrant external start-up community to further AeroVironment’s strategic pursuits. Joining AeroVironment in 2010 as a Product Manager, Jeff was responsible for the development and market entry of our Wasp AE UAS. He also led the development of a wide range of novel large hybrid electric UAS for commercial and defense applications. As the General Manager of AeroVironment’s Commercial Information Solutions (CIS) business, he led the creation of a purely commercial focused business with a drone and big data process ecosystem product offering. VIEW MORE ALISON ROELKE Vice President & Chief People Officer Alison Roelke joined AeroVironment in 2017 to lead the People & Culture function with a focus on creating a “Great Place to Work.” VIEW MORE TRACE STEVENSON Vice President and Product Line General Manager, SUAS Trace Stevenson has served as the Vice President and Product Line General Manager, SUAS since 2021. Prior to that he served as Deputy General Manager UAS and was responsible for the leadership of our Emerging Business overseeing our HAPS business and still serves as a Board Member of HAPSMobile, our Joint Venture with Soft Bank. He also was responsible for the integration efforts of any Merger or Acquisition and for the strategic and tactical execution of the UAS P&L. Trace has held various leadership roles within AeroVironment, including leading our International Business Unit where he was responsible for the support of over 40 International customers. He also led and was responsible for the execution of our top strategic initiatives such as the establishment of a Joint Venture in a foreign country. VIEW MORE THOMAS VANECK, PH.D. Vice President and Head of Solution Strategy Thomas (Tom) Vaneck joined AeroVironment in 2019 to stand up the Innovation Center New England where he leads the engineering and product development activities for the greater New England area, focused primarily on small, multi-rotor unmanned aircraft systems. Since joining AeroVironment, he has helped create a new business development activity that aims to focus and mature new market entry strategies. Tom has broad robotics experience (underwater, air, and space) with particular expertise in miniaturization and biomimetics. Prior to joining AeroVironment, Tom cofounded and led InstantEye Robotics, a division of Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), as the Vice President of Disruptive Technologies. Prior to PSI, Tom was the Vice President of Research and Development at Aurora Flight Sciences where he stood up and ran the Research and Development Center based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He says AeroVironment is a great place to work because: Tom earned a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering (focused on controls engineering) from Stanford University, Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering, Master of Arts degree in Mathematics, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering, all from Penn State University. Tom was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT in the Aerospace Engineering Department and the Sea Grant College Program. VIEW MORE COLIN WALKER Vice President of Fulfillment Colin Walker has served as the Vice President of Fulfillment since December 2018 and is accountable for the introduction of new manufacturable products, strategic forecast planning, procurement and inventory management, and operational planning of customer deliverable hardware to contract requirements. Colin previously served in various leadership positions at AeroVironment including Sr. Director of Operational Services and as Director of Corporate Quality. Prior to coming to AeroVironment, Colin served in a variety of industries including enterprise analytics software development, nuclear electronics, medical equipment, aerospace, and automotive manufacturing, and he rounded out his career with new business startups and Fortune 500 companies. Starting his career in engineering, Colin broadened the scope of his responsibilities with management roles in business development, operations, quality, supply chain and continuous improvement. He is certified in both Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing and his guidelines and methodologies for supply chain improvements are known professionally. He is a noted speaker on best-in-class Lean Six Sigma Sourcing and has presented at both domestic and international venues. His methodologies have been published on Purchasing Automation.com, and he has presented his topics at the Boston Top 100 Companies Learning Summit, Supplier Performance Summit, and the American Production and Inventory Control Society. He says AeroVironment is a great place to work because: Colin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Liverpool and earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University Of London. VIEW MORE BRETT HUSH Vice President and Product Line General Manager, TMS Brett has been with AeroVironment since 2010. Brett founded Tactical Missile Systems (TMS) as a business unit and was largely responsible for the building of the business from its early stages to today’s multi-service, multi-missile adoption. Prior to joining AeroVironment, Brett was a Vice President at Teledyne Technologies. With a combined 35 years in the defense industry, Brett has also held various leadership roles at GE Aircraft Controls, Martin Marietta, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems. VIEW MORE BRIAN YOUNG Vice President and Product Line General Manager, UGVs Brian has served as the Vice President of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) at AeroVironment since March 2021. Brian is accountable for the strategic direction, financial performance, and operations of AeroVironment’s UGV business. VIEW MORE COMPANY About Us Leadership Team Board of Directors 50th Anniversary 2021 Corporate Overview Core Values Corporate Social Responsibility Careers Investors Contact Cookies Settings UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SOLUTIONS JUMP® 20 T-20™ Puma™ LE Puma™ 3 AE Raven® B Wasp® AE Quantix™ Recon VAPOR® Helicopter UAS Network Connectivity Crysalis™ Ground Control Solution UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLES SERVICE & SUPPORT SOLUTIONS TACTICAL MISSILE SYSTEMS Switchblade® 600 Switchblade® 300 Blackwing™ HIGH-ALTITUDE PSEUDO-SATELLITE COMMERCIAL SOLUTIONS Quantix™ Mapper VAPOR® Helicopter UAS MACCREADY WORKS ADVANCED SOLUTIONS Mars Helicopter PAYLOADS NEWSROOM News Press Releases Case Studies Thought Leadership Events Media Center Copyright © 2021 AeroVironment, Inc. - All rights reserved. AeroVironment and AV are trademarks of AeroVironment, Inc. | Privacy | Terms | Cookies Policy | Investors | CA Transparency Act | CCPA Privacy Policy By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Cookie Policy. Cookies Settings Reject All Accept All Cookies