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STERLING, Va., August 9, 2023 -- Dedrone, the market leader in smart airspace security, today announced it has expanded its team with three key hires. Sara Devitt joined as Chief People Officer; Ash Alexander-Cooper OBE joined as Vice President Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC); and Carl Landrum has joined as Vice President, Civilian Programs and Strategy.
“The need for comprehensive airspace security is growing exponentially. Dedrone’s strong leadership in the industry and proven track record of deployments around the globe has allowed us to attract some of the brightest minds,” said Aaditya Devarakonda, CEO of Dedrone. “Sara, Ash and Carl each represent the very best within their areas of expertise, and we are delighted and honored to have them on board to support our incredible growth trajectory and strategy to deliver best-in-class airspace security technologies around the world.”
In her role as Chief People Officer, Devitt will lead Dedrone’s global people strategy and continue the company’s legacy of attracting, developing and retaining top, diverse talent to continue enabling its current hyper-growth phase. Devitt brings over 20 years’ experience to the role, first at Harvard Business School Publishing and then at companies including Emotive, Hinge, Industrious and HealthFirst. In her career, she has led a 40% employee base increase, implemented complete onboarding processes and built value and culture norms to enable step-level improvements in companywide productivity.
“I am both honored and excited to join Dedrone’s mission to build a more secure world by protecting people, property and information from drones. I look forward to leveraging my experience to continue building a global team comprised of top-tier talent — and strengthening the team we already have in place,” said Devitt. “Together with Aaditya, Ash, Carl and the rest of the leadership team, I am ready to continue Dedrone’s tradition of excellence and leadership in airspace security.”
In his new role, Alexander-Cooper will be responsible for Dedrone’s growth across EMEA and APAC. He has served as an advisor to the company for the past 18 months, leveraging his experience as a defense, national security and commercial specialist to support Dedrone’s overall growth strategy. During almost three decades in uniform, former Colonel Alexander-Cooper served with the Gurkhas as jungle warfare specialist, flew helicopters operationally and spent seven years deployed on combat operations leading British and NATO forces as a counter-terrorism specialist. Following transition to the commercial sector, Alexander-Cooper served as a senior partner at McChrystal Group and led international business development at Palantir Technologies, before joining General System as Chief Commercial Officer.
Carl Landrum recently retired as the Chief Patrol Agent of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of Laredo, leading over 2,000 agents. In his role with Dedrone, he will oversee the company’s relationships with civilian federal agencies and will spearhead the development of a long-term strategy to integrate and implement all Dedrone’s latest product advances to protect America’s airspace. Landrum was with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for 27 years, beginning as a Border Patrol Agent and ending in one of CBP’s top Senior Executive Service leadership positions. During his time there, Landrum worked closely with other federal and state-level agencies as well as the US Congress to modernize the CBP, migrating IT networks and implementing other technologies to handle mass migration events and enhance front-line operations. He previously served as the Chief of Staff for the DHS – Joint Task Force West and as a Special Agent for the Federal Air Marshal Service following the horrific events on 9/11.
“Throughout my career, I have seen firsthand how implementing cutting-edge technology can have an outsized impact on operations, leading to better-protected communities. The current drug war is a drone war, and there is no company better positioned than Dedrone to help us win that war. I am honored to be joining Dedrone at this pivotal time for counterdrone security,” said Landrum. “The more malicious drones we can stop, the safer our communities and the more we can empower the flights of benign, productive drones to act as first responders and more.”
Dedrone’s technology is implemented across 40 countries and is used by four of the G-7 nation governments; more than 100 critical infrastructure sites; 30+ airports; 50+ stadiums; 30+ US federal entities and 20+ non-US governments. The company actively provides counterdrone solutions for some of the most high-profile events around the world, working closely with over 70 public safety agencies globally.
About Dedrone
Dedrone is the world’s most trusted smart airspace security company. Hundreds of commercial, government and military customers around the world rely on Dedrone’s comprehensive, command and control (C2) solution to protect against the persistent and escalating threat from drones while enabling “good” drones to fly. By leveraging AI/ML, Dedrone is the only solution that provides continuous, autonomous interrogation and verification of drones that enables both multi-sensor and multi-mitigation options onto a single fused "pane-of-glass". Whether on-premise / air-gapped or in the cloud, Dedrone customers can easily detect, track, identify, analyze, and mitigate drone threats. Established in 2014, Dedrone is headquartered just outside of Washington, D.C., and has offices in San Francisco, CA, Phoenix, AZ, Columbus, OH, Bristol, United Kingdom and Kassel, Germany. For more information on drone-related activity visit our global incident center or to reach our airspace security experts, visit dedrone.com and follow us on X, Vimeo, and LinkedIn.
