AgEagle Announces Key Leadership Changes

Appoints New Chairman of the Board and Welcomes
New Interim Chief Financial Officer

WICHITA, Kan., Oct. 19, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. (NYSE American: UAVS) (“AgEagle” or the “Company”), an industry-leading provider of full stack flight hardware, sensors and software for commercial and government use, today announced key leadership changes to propel the Company’s strategic growth initiatives forward more rapidly, with emphasis on perpetuating deeper penetration of global sales and servicing the expanding needs of the government/defense industry sector.

Grant Begley, an independent member of the Board of Directors since June 2016, has been elected Chairman of the Board; and former Chairman Barrett Mooney will continue to serve as AgEagle’s Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board. In addition, the Board has named Mark DiSiena as the Company’s new Chief Financial Officer, succeeding Nicole Fernandez-McGovern in the position.

Commenting on the appointments, Begley stated, “With serious interest gaining momentum from government and military agencies worldwide in AgEagle’s eBee VISION, our ability to capitalize on opportunities for scaling our future revenue growth on an accelerated basis is dependent on having the necessary infrastructure in place to support it. We believe this shift in board roles will allow Barrett more time to focus on leading the Company’s day-to-day operations and global growth platform. Moreover, as the new Chairman of the Board, I intend to leverage my industry expertise, experience and longstanding relationships within the global defense industry to help advance AgEagle’s strategies to win a much greater share of increasing investments in leading UAS solutions by military and public safety organizations worldwide.”

About Grant Begley

Begley is an accomplished and globally recognized expert in Aerospace, Unmanned Systems and Robotics, currently serving as President of Concepts to Capabilities Consulting, LLC, a specialty consulting firm he founded in 2011 to help lead and guide development of new capabilities in Aerospace and Unmanned Aerial System (“UAS”) technologies for government/defense and commercial clients.

An active Board member of Vaya Space since 2015, Begley also served as the vortex-hybrid rocket company’s CEO from 2018 through 2022. Previous senior leadership roles have included Chief Business Development Officer and SVP of Alion Science and Technology, where he helped develop Alion’s $1 billion annual revenue Business Development Enterprise; Pentagon Senior Advisor for Unmanned Systems at the U.S. Department of Defense; Senior Director of Mission Systems Integration at Raytheon, where he led the Company’s cross-functional and cross-organizational integration of Digital Systems, Avionics, Electronics and Software operations; and Director of Advanced Concepts at Lockheed Martin, where he architected and steered development programs in the areas of UAS, Advanced Energetics and future generation weapon systems.