@Strawman You are right. So hard to know what is behind these things.

Oleg's had multiple share sales (or dumps) and he's alluding to personal safety concerns. It's always hard to read where someone in his position is at. It really comes down to a gut feeling on the part of the observer, I guess.

@Strawman I was struck by the last interview you did with Oleg. He spent most of the time looking away from the camera. I found that really disconcerting. Like he wasn't really there or like he didn't want to give something away with his eyes. I have no idea what was going on. But it gave it didn't instil confidence.

A different scenario but, I recall a similar feeling I had with Matt Calahan from BOT, just before he stepped aside. In hindsight, I would have been very happy, had I listened to my gut on that one....

Always learning.

If you looked up the definition of poorly managed investor relations, you’ll find a snapshot of Oleg and Peter wearing DroneShield merch.

The CEO and Chairman of an ASX200 company one that retail investors have backed through years of dilution, doubt, and senior management share dumps and now they decide to simultaneously announce they’re both walking out the door. On the same day. In the same email. Cheers lads.

No lead time. No staged transition announced in advance. No quiet board renewal over two or three AGM cycles like any competently governed company would do. Just a press release grenade lobbed at the market.

Buried underneath the farewell tour and the glossy headshots of the new blokes is an absolute belter of a quarterly update, $63m revenue, $77m cash receipts, up 361% on pcp. Record quarter. Three months in and already sitting on $140m committed revenue. Numbers most ASX companies would sacrifice a limb for.

But nobody’s talking about that, are they? Because the entire narrative is now, CEO and Chair bail at the same time, what do they know that we don’t?

That is what happens when you treat investor communications as an afterthought. You take a genuinely impressive quarter and turn it into a panic event.

Agree wholeheartedly @JohnnyM

I read the entire ASX announcement and…I’m relieved Oleg and Peter have gone. They have demonstrated that they do not know how to run a publicly listed company of DRO’s current size and potential.

As for there being any landmines only Oleg and Peter know about, I seriously doubt that’s the case.

Angus Bean, new CEO, has been at DRO since 2016, and CTO since 2018. If there are issues on the technical side, he would know. Why step up if you know there are issues you are going to be left holding the bag for?

And Hamish McLennan, given his career (News Corp, Ten Holdings, and REA) should, at least on the face of it, be a very steady hand on the helm.

Also, judging from the “following a formal succession planning process” wording, this has been coming for months - possibly even before the share dump episode last year.

Yep. As a longtime shareholder (admittedly after taking out more than 3X what I ever put in), I’m a little more content with my “wait and see” position on DRO than I was yesterday.

I have sold so much DRO this financial year that I am looking at quite a large tax bill. I am now waiting until July 1st to offload some more. I am hoping though that other investors don't have the same plan.