About Us

Steve is the former CEO of Brogden Enterprises, and a former Senior VP at QinetiQ North America (Westar Aerospace) where he was responsible for a $300 million aviation logistics management business. Steve is a retired U.S. Army officer where he was the Army’s Fixed Wing Program Manager and the chief of flight test at the Army’s Aviation Technical Test Center. He is a DoD certified acquisition professional and has an MS in Aeronautical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from West Point.

Rob is the former CEO of Westar Aerospace & Defense Group, which was purchased by the Carlyle Group’s QinetiQ North America, where he became President and COO. QinetiQ went public in 2006 on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:QQ) and Rob was responsible for the U.S. business which had $1.2 billion in revenue and over 5,000 employees. Rob started his career at McDonnell Douglas (Boeing). He has Electrical and Computer Engineering degrees from the University of Missouri.

Dan is a founder of Hoverfly and has led the architecture and development of products ranging from embedded controllers to large scale data analytics. He was previously the Director of Technology at the Center for Law Enforcement Technology, Training and Research as well as a Research Associate at the Institute for Security, Technology and Society at Dartmouth College. Dan has designed and led the development of several applications providing information analytics and security for public safety and critical infrastructure protection.

Al is a founder of Hoverfly and an inventor of numerous industry-leading sUAS multi-rotor technologies, including the first autonomous guidance and control solution for multi-rotor drones (HoverflyPro), the first tether-powered drone (LiveSky), and the first non-GPS tether navigation solution (HoverNAV). Al was previously head of R&D at Color Kinetics (Philips) and the former Assistant Dean of Engineering at University of Central Florida. Al has a PhD in Electrical Engineering and approximately 30 US and international patents.

John retired from Lockheed Martin where his 30-year career path went from junior Electrical Engineer to Program Manager for airborne electro-optic targeting systems.  This experience included design of complex control and communication systems and managing a 30-million-dollar sensor development effort. Previously, served in the US Navy before completing a BSEE degree at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  He is instrumental in the creation of the engineering and production departments at Hoverfly and maintains responsibility for the day-to-day operations of these departments.

Kevin S. Cochie is the former VP & GM of FLIR systems’ airborne sensor business and former VP & GM Erickson Helicopter’s Defense business. Kevin is a retired Army officer where he served in multiple capacities in Army Special Operations Aviation from platoon leader to acquisition director. He is a DoD certified acquisition professional and holds a BS and MS in Engineering from the University of Central Florida and an EMBA from the Georgetown McDonough School of Business.

Gerri’s career spans 25+ years in management, operations and sales in a variety of technical industries and corporate settings. She was a former Executive Administrator of FAZ Technology and a Major Account Manager for Verizon Information Services. She held two successive positions at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, first as Administrator of the Liver Research Center and later as Administrator of the Division of Cardiology. At Hoverfly, Gerri has built a strong team and manages all F&A operations. She collaborates with leadership on company policies and contributes to the development of our world-class team. Gerri received a B.S. degree in Health Care Administration and completed some master’s coursework at Iona College in NY.

Stephen is the former Manager of Computed Tomography Power for the Analogic Corp. Stephen has over 25 years of experience in new product development in the field power conversion. His specific expertise is in the development of high voltage/high power systems. He led Analogic’s first development team to deliver a state-of-the-art HV power supply family for use in medical CT applications. Previously, he led the engineering staff of Kaiser Systems Inc while also serving as lead design engineer.

John was former Director of Defense Systems at CyPhy Works, where he helped evolve tethered drone capabilities in 2018. He retired in 2017 from twenty-seven years of naval service as the Special Warfare Operator Master Chief in an Experimental Squadron. John attended the University of Charleston, West Virginia, holds a Federal Aviation Administration, Part 107 Drone License, and has completed other Department of Defense and Federal Government qualifications.