New Directors Bring Extensive Public
Governance, Legal, Financial Management Experience Along with Deep
Domain Expertise in Automotive, Trucking, Aerospace, and Defense
Markets
AEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIDR), the global leader in adaptive,
high-performance LiDAR solutions, today announced the election of
its board of directors. Board members are Carol DiBattiste, Timothy
J. Dunn, Professor Dr. Bernd Gottschalk, Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann,
company executives Blair LaCorte, CEO, and Luis Dussan, founder and
CTO, and Wen Hsieh of Kleiner Perkins. Carol DiBattiste is chair of
the board, Timothy J. Dunn is chair of the Audit Committee,
Professor Dr. Bernd Gottschalk is chair of the Nominating and
Corporate Governance Committee, and Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann is
chair of the Compensation Committee.
“AEye continues to attract exceptional talent and valuable
public company experience to our executive team and board,” said
Blair LaCorte, CEO of AEye. “AEye’s groundbreaking adaptive LiDAR
system, together with our highly effective partner go-to-market
strategy have allowed us to strongly position the company for the
next level of growth, and to drive the future of safe
autonomy.”
These board appointments follow recent additions to AEye’s
executive team and the expansion of AEye’s global sales footprint
as the company moves into volume production. The expansion includes
the opening of AEye’s office in Japan, the appointment of Eisuke
Miura as Country Manager for Japan, the addition of Global Head of
ADAS Bernd Reichert, and the hiring of North American Vice
President of ADAS Jay Hohauser.
New Board Members
Carol DiBattiste joins as board chair. She is an experienced
public and private company senior executive, with a background in
heavily regulated markets and government agencies. She currently
serves as the Chief Legal & Compliance Officer and Corporate
Secretary of QOMPLX, and formerly served as chief legal and
compliance officer and corporate secretary for NASDAQ-listed
Comscore. She has served in senior leadership positions in five
publicly traded companies.
In addition, Carol has served in senior leadership positions as
Under Secretary of the United States Air Force; Deputy
Administrator of the TSA; Executive in Charge/Vice Chair, Board of
Veterans Appeals (VA); and Director of the Executive Office for
U.S. Attorneys (DOJ). She is also Directorship Certified by the
National Association of Corporate Directors.
Timothy J. Dunn joins as chair of the Audit Committee. He is an
experienced leader in public company financial management and is
currently a senior advisor, and formerly an operating partner, for
TPG, a private equity firm in San Francisco. Previously, he was CFO
of Hotwire.com, CFO for the Gap Division of Gap, Inc., and held a
number of senior management positions during his 12-year tenure
with PepsiCo, Inc. Prior to PepsiCo, he was with Price Waterhouse
& Co., and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) in the
State of California. Tim has served on private and public company
boards, including chair of the audit committee for two TPG
portfolio companies – Ellucian and Vertafore.
Professor Dr. Bernd Gottschalk joins as chair of the Nominating
and Corporate Governance Committee. He is an experienced senior
executive in the German automotive industry, including 25 years
with Daimler AG. He has held numerous executive leadership
positions at OEMs, including as an executive board member for
Daimler AG, where he was responsible for the commercial vehicles
business unit globally. Dr. Gottschalk was also president of
Mercedes-Benz of Brazil, president of the German Association of the
Automotive Industry (VDA), and serves on the Board of Directors of
Schaeffler Group, Plastic Omnium, and Jost Werke.
Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann joins as chair of the Compensation
Committee. He is also an experienced and respected leader in the
automotive industry. He was CEO of the German automobile
manufacturer Opel (formerly GM Europe) from 2013 to 2017, and held
multiple positions with Volkswagen AG, including head of research,
director of electronics strategy, and CEO of Volkswagen Group
China. Neumann was also CEO of the German auto supplier Continental
AG, where he was responsible for the automotive systems division
and took company-wide responsibility for electric propulsion.
Blair LaCorte is the CEO of AEye. Prior to AEye, he served as
global president of PRG, the world’s largest live event technology
and services company. He was also CEO of XOJET, one of the fastest
growing aviation companies in history. He served as a managing
director and operating partner at TPG, a premier private equity
firm with over $91B in global investments. LaCorte has held
numerous executive and general management positions in private and
public technology and investment companies throughout his career,
including: VerticalNet, ICGE, Savi Technologies, Autodesk and Sun
Microsystems.
Luis Dussan is AEye’s founder and CTO. He is a 20+ year veteran
of the aerospace and defense industry. He began his career at NASA
working for the Jet Propulsion Lab in the Deep Space Network that
communicated with NASA planetary and deep space probes. He then
spent the bulk of his career at Lockheed Martin in their Missiles
and Fire Control Division working in the Advanced Concepts group
and developing state-of-the-art ISR and targeting systems. After
Lockheed, Dussan went to Northrop Grumman Laser Systems and took
the post of Chief Technologist where he was responsible for
managing that division’s Electro-Optical Sensors R&D.
Wen Hsieh is a partner at Kleiner Perkins, and an early investor
in AEye. Before joining Kleiner Perkins, Hsieh was an Associate
Principal at McKinsey & Company and a leader of McKinsey’s Asia
semiconductor practice. During his five years at McKinsey, Hsieh
focused primarily on serving leading companies across the global
semiconductor value chain. Earlier in his career, he founded OnChip
Technologies, a startup developing MEMS microfluidic biochips.
OnChip’s target market was high-sensitivity and high-throughput
peptide separation and identification applications.
AEye LiDAR
AEye’s adaptive LiDAR system overcomes the pitfalls of
conventional LiDAR with a uniquely intelligent approach called
iDAR™ (Intelligent Detection and Ranging). This high-performance,
intelligent LiDAR has set standards for LiDAR range, resolution and
speed across all major metrics. iDAR is based on a bi-static
architecture – which keeps the transmit and receive channels
separate: as each laser pulse is transmitted, the solid-state
receiver is told where and when to look for its return – enabling
deterministic artificial intelligence to be introduced into the
sensing process at the point of acquisition. Ultimately, this
establishes the iDAR platform as adaptive – allowing it to focus on
what matters most, while simultaneously monitoring the vehicle’s
surroundings, resulting in greater reliability, safety, and
performance at longer range and lower cost.
About AEye
AEye is the premier provider of intelligent, next generation,
adaptive LiDAR for vehicle autonomy, advanced driver-assistance
systems (ADAS), and robotic vision applications. AEye’s iDAR™
(Intelligent Detection and Ranging) system leverages biomimicry and
principles from automated targeting applications used by the
military to scan the environment, intelligently focusing on what
matters most, enabling faster, more accurate, and more reliable
perception. iDAR is the only software configurable LiDAR with
integrated deterministic artificial intelligence, delivering
industry-leading performance in range, resolution, and speed. The
company was founded in 2013 and is based in the San Francisco Bay
Area.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, including statements regarding the proposed transactions
and CF III. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not
limited to, statements regarding the closing of the combination and
the expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions, plans, prospects or
strategies regarding the business combination, and future business
plans of the AEye and CF III management teams, including AEye’s
products, revenue growth and financial performance, facilities,
product expansion and services. Forward-looking statements are
sometimes accompanied by words such as “believe,” “continue,”
“project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,”
“strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “predict,” “plan,” “may,”
“should,” “will,” “would,” “potential,” “seem,” “seek,” “outlook”
and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or
trends or that are not statements of historical matters.
Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other
statements about future events that are based on current
expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks
and uncertainties. These statements are based on various
assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release. These
forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes
only and are not intended to serve as and must not be relied on by
an investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a
definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and
circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will
differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are
beyond the control of CF III and AEye. Many factors could cause
actual future events to differ from the forward-looking statements
in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) the risk
that the transaction may not be completed in a timely manner or at
all, which may adversely affect the price of CF III’s securities,
(ii) the risk that the transaction may not be completed by CF III’s
business combination deadline and the potential failure to obtain
an extension of the business combination deadline if sought by CF
III, (iii) the failure to satisfy the conditions to the
consummation of the transaction, including the approval by the
stockholders of CF III, the satisfaction of the minimum trust
account amount following any redemptions by CF III’s public
stockholders and the receipt of certain governmental and regulatory
approvals, (iv) the inability to complete the PIPE offering, (v)
the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that
could give rise to the termination of the merger agreement, (vi)
the effect of the announcement or pendency of the transaction on
AEye’s business relationships, operating results, and business
generally, (vii) risks that the transaction disrupts current plans
and operations of AEye and potential difficulties in AEye employee
retention as a result of the transaction, (viii) the outcome of any
legal proceedings that may be instituted against AEye or against CF
III related to the merger agreement or the transaction, (ix) the
ability to maintain the listing of CF III stock on the Nasdaq Stock
Market, (x) volatility in the price of CF III’s securities, (xi)
changes in competitive and regulated industries in which AEye
operates, variations in operating performance across competitors,
changes in laws and regulations affecting AEye’s business and
changes in the combined capital structure, (xii) the ability to
implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations after
the completion of the transaction, and identify and realize
additional opportunities, (xiii) the potential inability of AEye to
increase its manufacturing capacity or to achieve efficiencies
regarding its manufacturing process or other costs, (xiv) the
enforceability of AEye’s intellectual property, including its
patents and the potential infringement on the intellectual property
rights of others, (xv) the risk of downturns and a changing
regulatory landscape in the highly competitive industry in which
AEye operates, (xvi) the potential inability of AEye to enter into
definitive agreements, partnerships or other commitments with
original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, suppliers
and other strategic partners and (xvii) costs related to the
transaction and the failure to realize anticipated benefits of the
transaction or to realize estimated pro forma results and
underlying assumptions, including with respect to estimated
stockholder redemptions. These risks and uncertainties may be
amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused significant
economic uncertainty. The foregoing list of factors is not
exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and
the other risks and uncertainties described in the “Risk Factors”
section of CF III’s Form S-1 Registration Statement, the form S-4
Registration Statement that CF III will file, which will include a
proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed or to be filed
by CF III from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify
and address other important risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual events and results to differ materially from those
contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are
cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements,
and AEye and CF III assume no obligation and do not intend to
update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Neither
AEye nor CF III gives any assurance that either AEye or CF III will
achieve its expectations.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210913005184/en/
Media Contact: AEye, Inc. Jennifer Deitsch
jennifer@aeye.ai 925-400-4366
Investors: Financial Profiles, Inc. Matthew Keating, CFA
AEye@finprofiles.com 310-622-8230
John Brownell AEye@finprofiles.com 310-622-8489
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