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.
Wahid earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Maryland at College Park. He has also successfully completed multiple executive management and leadership training programs.
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.
Kevin earned his J.D. at Loyola Law School and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University.
Sean has served as the Senior Vice President of Global Finance at AV since September 2024. Sean is responsible for the leadership of the Finance team within AV including FP&A, Pricing & Cost Estimating, Program Controls, Business Management, Property, Gov't Accounting Compliance and Cost Accounting. Prior to his current role, Sean served as Vice President of Global Operations Finance and has held various other leadership positions within the Finance organization since joining AV in 2010. Sean has over two decades of experience in the aerospace and defense industry. He has earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from the University of South Florida and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Tampa as well as multiple professional certifications. Sean’s prior employers include General Dynamics and Honeywell Aerospace.
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.
Melissa earned a juris doctor from the Arizona State University College of Law and a Bachelor of Science in microbiology and molecular genetics from the University of California Los Angeles.
Archana Nirwan is an accomplished HR professional with over two decades of global experience, excelling in talent management, people strategy, and HR transformation across various industries, including financial services and high-tech sectors.
Prior to joining AV in 2024, Archana served as CHRO at Cambium Networks, where she oversaw HR operations across 22 countries, focusing on creating a differentiated employee experience and fostering a culture of inclusion. Previously, she served as Vice President of Human Resources at Qualcomm, where she oversaw HR for the global engineering team of 35,000 employees and drove strategic initiatives like M&A, succession planning, employee engagement, and workforce planning. At Fidelity Investments, she was instrumental in scaling operations in India, growing the workforce, driving organization design, leadership development and coaching.
Archana has extensive experience in managing high-growth ecosystems, with deep expertise in value creation and a focus on talent retention. She is a certified coach and holds an MBA in Human Resources and Organizational Behavior from Pune University.
Brad Truesdell has served as Sr. Vice President of Global Sales, Business Development and Inside Sales Operations since 2024. Brad brings over 25 years of military and defense industry experience, where he has held numerous strategic roles in business development, product line management and executive leadership. Brad currently serves as the Sr. VP of Global Sales, Business Development and Inside Sales Operations for AV. Prior to assuming this role Brad founded Tomahawk Robotics in 2018. Tomahawk Robotics, the leader in AI-enabled robotic control and integrated communications systems was acquired by AV in 2023. Prior to this, Brad worked at Harris Corporation in various leadership roles. Before transitioning to private industry, Brad proudly served as a Naval Special Warfare Officer. Brad Truesdell has a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado Boulder.
René Carbone Bardorf joined AeroVironment in June 2024 as the Vice President for Marketing and Communications.
Previously, she has served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, advising three Secretaries of Defense on public affairs and community outreach. She has held roles including SVP for Marketing & Communications at Business Executives for National Security, SVP of Government and Community Relations at Wounded Warrior Project, and Chief Communications Officer for the National Defense Industrial Association. As the founding Executive Director of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, René partnered with ABC News anchor and reporter Bob Woodruff and his wife, Lee, to establish a nonprofit supporting injured service members, veterans, and their families. She also co-founded the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. In addition, René served on the advisory council of the George W. Bush Institute’s Military Service Initiative.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and marketing from Salve Regina University and has completed numerous certificate programs, including from Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, and American University. She was an appointee to the National Security Seminar program at the United States Army War College and is an ICF-certified Executive Coach.
Charlie Dean joined AeroVironment in 2021 and serves as the company’s Vice President of International business. 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.
Charlie earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy in Aeronautical Engineering, a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and graduated from Phillips Academy (Andover). He taught Mechanical Engineering courses at the United States Military Academy where he also coached Army Men’s Crew and conducted ground-breaking high temperature research for Picatinny Arsenal on 155mm cannon-projectile interfaces. In addition while in the Army and in industry, Charlie has earned multiple patents.
He leads five directorates that engage directly with U.S. DoD, COCOMs, and Other Government Agency customers to ensure all needs and expectations are met with the highest standards. His communication strategy ensures domestic customers maintain awareness of AV capabilities that fill critical gaps for the warfighter across ground and air domains. Phil is DAWIA Level III certified in program management and completed a successful career in the U.S. Army as a Program Manager of multiple ACAT 1 programs. Phil retired from the U.S. Army in 2022 with the rank of Colonel after serving for over 30 years. He began his career as an enlisted Infantryman and was later commissioned as a Logistics Officer. Phil spent his last 18 years of service as an Army Acquisition Corps officer serving in multiple Army and Joint program offices. He was the Program Manager for the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile program from 2014–2017 and for Integrated Fires Mission Command from 2018–2022, both within PEO Missiles & Space.
Phil is a Virginia Tech graduate and holds master’s degrees from Chapman University (Organizational Leadership), Naval Postgraduate School (Business Administration), and Air War College (Strategic Studies).
Church Hutton has served as Sr. Vice President of Government Relations, Marketing and Communications since 2024. Previously, Mr. Hutton led all aspects of Mercury Systems’ government relations program. Before that, he ran legislative affairs for Sierra Nevada Corporation and was head of Washington operations for a venture-backed defense technology company. A retired Army officer and combat veteran, Mr. Hutton spent a decade in senior staff positions on Capitol Hill including on the professional staff of the Senate Appropriations and Senate Armed Services Committees and in the offices of Senators John McCain and Joe Manchin. He holds degrees from Johns Hopkins University and George Mason University.
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.
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.
Shane has worked in a variety of industries spanning from precision semiconductor processing to commercial product development. Shane started his UAS journey in 2009 by joining Insitu as a Project Manager and grew to the Director of Engineering for the ScanEagle program. In this role, Shane managed multiple IPTs through the development and launch phases of multiple key capabilities for the ScanEagle UAS, supporting significant DoD ISR services contracts. Shane also held an executive leadership role at Volansi where he was instrumental in setting a new direction for program and product management of group 3 UAS. At Volansi, Shane grew and led a small team which was successful in exceeding customer expectations, capturing additional customer development funding and was the architect for a UAS solution that won a spot on the U.S. Army FTUAS Increment 2 program of record.
Shane has over 20 years of experience in both defense and commercial industries and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Portland State University and a Master of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Idaho. He also earned his Six Sigma Black Belt, holds a Project Management Professional certificate and earned his Project Leadership Certificate from Cornell University. He has successfully completed the Boeing Leadership Training in Program Management and Senior Management.