Perth-based military drone producer Innovaero has appointed members to its Board as the company continues to progress the OWL systems through design, prototyping, and test phases, with the OWL-B system progressing to certification with the Australian Defence Force (ADF), with the aim of meeting the operational requirements for ADF procurement.<\/p>\n
The company has also appointed Euroz Hartleys and Canaccord as Joint Lead Managers in the run-up to an expected mid-2026 Initial Public Offer (IPO).<\/p>\n
The OWL-B is being developed in conjunction with the ADF as part of its Mission Talon Strike program, which is supporting the development of medium-range drone systems that have the precision strike capabilities of a guided missile.<\/p>\n
Former Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Aviation Force Commander Vince Di Pietro has been confirmed as the company\u2019s Chair, bringing 43 years of defence experience to the Board, along with commercial experience as Chief Executive of Lockheed Martin Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the Board we have assembled, the relationships with defence and industry partners we have fostered, the technical team we have developed, plus our OWL products, we are primed to make an impact on Australia\u2019s sovereign defence capability in the coming years,” Di Pietro highlighted.<\/p>\n
Among his many leadership roles, Di Pietro was responsible for strategic planning and operational oversight for Australia\u2019s Naval Aviation Force, including leadership of a multibillion-dollar recapitalisation program focused on modernising the RAN\u2019s Fleet Air Arm.<\/p>\n
At Lockheed Martin Australia and New Zealand, he oversaw the delivery of key military hardware, including Seahawk Helicopters, ADF Aircrew Training System, AEGIS Combat Data System, Future Submarine BYG-1 Combat System and the arrival of the first tranche of F35A Lightning 2 aircraft.<\/p>\n
The company has also announced Rajarshi Ray as a Non-Executive Director. Ray is an experienced company director across technology, financial services and professional services, with ASX experience, having acted as a Chair or NED for ASX-listed entities including Class, CSG and Kyckr. Prior to that, he held senior executive roles at American Express.<\/p>\n
The pair join founder Mike von Bertouch, former army veteran and Asia-focused diplomat Michael Hadlow and former Credit Suisse risk management specialist Gavin Martin on the company\u2019s Board. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Greg Tunny (who led Thales Air Traffic Management operations in Australia-Asia and is a former CEO of Australian Submarine Corp) was appointed Innovaero\u2019s CEO in 2025 after serving for five years as Chief Strategy and Development Officer.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/p>\n
Di Pietro said the Board appointments were an important part of the Company\u2019s plans to complete the next phase of development of the OWL-B with the ADF while preparing for the development of the company\u2019s new headquarters at Jandakot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to be part of this phase of Innovaero\u2019s 20-year journey of aeronautical product development. The Company has a great history of turning innovation into commercialisation,” Di Pietro stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cInnovaero\u2019s OWL-B is in the process of being certified by the ADF and has demonstrated, field-proven capability across several ADF exercises. Under Mission Talon Strike, we are working with the ADF to certify OWL-B and prepare it for manufacture at scale and introduction into service.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth-based military drone producer Innovaero has appointed members to its Board as the company continues to progress the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-716044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}