Dr. Culkin Steps Down as Chairman Due to Health
Reasons; Nominated Mr. Dee as Chairman
Ms. Hersman Steps Down as Member of the
Board
Velodyne Lidar, Inc. (NASDAQ: VLDR, VLDRW), the leading lidar
company, known worldwide for its broad portfolio of breakthrough
lidar technologies, today announced that its Board of Directors
appointed Michael Dee as Chairman of the Board. Mr. Dee has been a
member of the Board since Velodyne’s debut as a public company. His
appointment follows the decision of Dr. Joseph B. Culkin to step
down as Chairman of the Board due to health reasons. Dr. Culkin
will remain an active director of the Board. The Company also
announced that Kristin Slanina has been appointed to the Board. Ms.
Slanina has been an advisor to the Board and is the Managing
Director of Charge Across America. She brings with her more than 30
years of experience as an automotive engineer, mobility consultant
and senior executive to Velodyne. In conjunction with Ms. Slanina’s
appointment, Deborah Hersman has stepped down from the Board. These
changes are all effective immediately.
“It has been an incredible honor to Chair Velodyne during such
an exciting part of its evolution to expand our leadership position
while delivering significant progress on the Company’s growth
plans,” said Dr. Culkin. “After co-founding Velodyne’s predecessor
company, Velodyne Acoustics, and being involved since the beginning
of Velodyne, I am proud of how far we have come and I will continue
to offer my expertise and knowledge as a Director. While I believe
that it is the right decision to step aside as Chairman due to my
health, I was honored to nominate Michael to replace me and am
pleased that he is stepping up into the role. Michael has been a
valiant steward of Velodyne and its shareholders even prior to our
launch as a public company and I have full confidence in his
leadership going forward as Velodyne continues to consolidate our
role as the leading lidar provider.”
Dr. Culkin continued, “As Velodyne continues as an industry
leader, I believe that Kristin, with her strong engineering,
mobility and automotive experience, is an excellent addition to the
Board. On behalf of the full Board, I am deeply appreciative to
Debbie for her dedication and vast contributions to Velodyne and
wish her all the best moving forward.”
“As Velodyne continues to meet the expanding demand for our
products and solutions, I warmly thank Dr. Brad Culkin and the
Board for placing their confidence in me as Chairman,” said Mr.
Dee. “Brad has been vigilant in ensuring Velodyne accelerates its
position in technology and innovation and I look forward to
assisting the Company in building on our breadth of product
portfolio and scalable manufacturing capability. In 2020, using our
proven technology, we manufactured and shipped almost 12,000 lidar
units with revenues of over $95 million while most of our
competitors have minimal revenues and no manufacturing at scale. I
believe we have the ability to realize the many compelling
opportunities ahead.”
Mr. Dee added, “On behalf of all of us at Velodyne I want to
thank former CEO Anand Gopalan for his leadership over the last 18
months. I also welcome Kristin Slanina, an incredibly talented
transportation sector leader, full of energy and optimism, who
brings decades of relevant experience in the automotive and
mobility industry, as well as an innovative mindset, to the
Velodyne Board.”
“Having worked with and known the Velodyne team for some time, I
am excited to join the Board and collaborate alongside my fellow
directors,” said Ms. Slanina. “I look forward to playing my part in
helping to advance Velodyne’s very important mission in making the
world a safer place.”
About Kristin Slanina
Kristin Slanina has been serving as an advisor on the
transportation sector to the Velodyne Board since May 2021 and
currently is the Managing Director of Charge Across America, the
first of its kind, 10 day race starting October 31st from New York
to Los Angeles, using only electric vehicles and highlighting the
rapid innovations made in EV’s. She is soon to be appointed to be
the Chief Innovation Officer at ParkMyFleet, creating new mobility
hubs for the future. Previously, she served as TrueCar’s Chief
Operating Officer where she led the newly formed solutions group
and helped the company accelerate into its next phase of growth.
Kristin spent the first 21 years of her career at Ford Motor
Company, beginning as a powertrain engineer. For over six years
Kristin worked in Ford’s Research and Advanced Engineering group
before leading the global effort to define Ford’s overall vision on
the future of mobility and address key societal and environmental
issues. She has also held roles at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles after
Ford. Kristin worked at Ernst & Young (“EY”), where she created
and developed their Global Mobility Practice, advising clients on
the future of mobility and smart cities. Her understanding of
autonomous vehicle technology, connected car and electrification
aided her in leading teams to define and implement new mobility
business models, as well as how to scale those businesses. After
EY, Kristin was Thirdware’s Chief Transformation officer from 2019
to 2020, where she led the Emerging Technology group, branching the
company out into new areas such as vehicle software development,
connected vehicles, machine learning and blockchain technology.
Kristin holds an M.S. and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
About Michael Dee
Michael Dee is the Chief Financial Officer of PureCycle
Technologies, where he helped lead the effort to raise over $730
million for future development. Mr. Dee was the President, Chief
Financial Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Graf
Industrial Inc. (“Graf”), the Special Purpose Acquisition Company
which went public on the NYSE in October 2019 and subsequently
merged with Velodyne in September 2020, ultimately raising
approximately $430 million for Velodyne via the merger, a private
investment in public equity and the exercise of the Graf warrants.
Prior to Graf, Mr. Dee was the Senior Advisor to the President for
Finance of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (‘AIIB’) in
Beijing, China from 2015 to July 2016 and also served as a member
of its Management and Investment Committees. The AIIB is a
Multi-Lateral Development Bank initially formed by 57 countries
(now over 100) who initially committed $100 billion to build
infrastructure across Asia. From 2010 to 2015, Mr. Dee managed
various philanthropic and education related endeavors and private
investments. Mr. Dee was Senior Managing Director — International
of Temasek Holdings Private Limited, Singapore’s $380 billion
sovereign investment company, from 2008 to 2010 and also served as
a senior member of its Management Committee and Investment
Committees. Mr. Dee began his career at Morgan Stanley in 1981 in
the Mergers and Acquisitions Department and for the next 26 years
held a variety of senior positions in its capital markets,
investment banking, and firm management divisions, including as
regional CEO for Southeast Asia. Mr. Dee has lived in New York,
London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Houston and Dallas during
his professional career, of which 22 years were overseas, and has
completed transactions in over 50 countries. Mr. Dee was
Singapore’s Honorary Consul General to the State of Texas while
living in Houston. Mr. Dee has served on the Graf Board of
Directors from October 2018, prior to the merger with Velodyne, and
continued on the Velodyne Board of Directors since September 2020
where he is also Chairman of the Nominating and Governance
Committee and a member of the Audit Committee. Mr. Dee received a
Bachelor of Science degree in Economics with Senior Honors from the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1981.
About Velodyne Lidar
Velodyne Lidar (Nasdaq: VLDR, VLDRW), under the leadership of
founder David Hall, ushered in a new era of autonomous technology
with the invention of real-time surround view lidar sensors.
Velodyne, the global leader in lidar, is known for its broad
portfolio of breakthrough lidar technologies. Velodyne’s
revolutionary sensor and software solutions provide flexibility,
quality and performance to meet the needs of a wide range of
industries, including autonomous vehicles, advanced driver
assistance systems (ADAS), robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAV), smart cities and security. Through continuous innovation,
Velodyne strives to transform lives and communities by advancing
safer mobility for all. For more information, visit
www.velodynelidar.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward looking statements" within
the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 including, without
limitation, all statements other than historical fact and include,
without limitation, statements regarding Velodyne’s revenue
guidance, target markets, new products, development efforts, and
competition. When used in this press release, the words
"estimates," "projected," "expects," "anticipates," "forecasts,"
"plans," "intends," "believes," "seeks," "may," "will," “can,”
"should," "future," "propose" and variations of these words or
similar expressions (or the negative versions of such words or
expressions) are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future
performance, conditions or results and involve a number of known
and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important
factors, many of which are outside Velodyne's control, that could
cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those
discussed in the forward-looking statements. Important factors,
among others, that may affect actual results or outcomes include
the uncertain impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Velodyne's and its
customers' businesses; Velodyne's ability to manage growth;
Velodyne's ability to execute its business plan; uncertainties
related to the ability of Velodyne's customers to commercialize
their products and the ultimate market acceptance of these
products; uncertainties regarding government regulation and
adoption of lidar; the rate and degree of market acceptance of
Velodyne's products; the success of other competing lidar and
sensor-related products and services that exist or may become
available; uncertainties related to Velodyne's current litigation
and potential litigation involving Velodyne or the validity or
enforceability of Velodyne's intellectual property; and general
economic and market conditions impacting demand for Velodyne's
products and services. For more information about risks and
uncertainties associated with Velodyne’s business, please refer to
the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition
and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” sections of
Velodyne’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its annual
report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. All
forward-looking statements in this press release are based on
information available to Velodyne as of the date hereof, Velodyne
undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise, except as required by law.
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Investor Relations InvestorRelations@velodyne.com
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