DroneShield has appointed several high profile Australian defence and government strategists to roles at the business, both in executive and advisory roles.
The appointments include Terry van Haren who becomes the vice president of strategy. He joins DroneShield after 35 years in the Royal Australian Air Force as a commander, fighter pilot, and weapons officer. Van Haren is a future-focused strategic thinker and pragmatic business leader. He believes that cooperation between government, defence and commercial industry is the key to national resilience and business success.
Kym (Koz) Osley becomes a strategic advisor at Droneshield. He has over 45 years of experience working within the defence force and the commercial sector. Osley has had many senior roles across defence and aerospace, including with an international consulting firm and as the senior Air Force representative in the UK and senior defence representative in the US. He was the head of the AUD17 billion Australian F-35 program.
Fergus (Gus) McLachlan also joins Droneshield as a strategic advisor. He is a retired major general in the Australian Army, serving for 37 years. His career included operational service in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as a pivotal exchange with the US Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. McLachlan led the recapitalisation of the Australian Army’s air defence and ground combat systems. His tenure as Commander, Land Forces Command, oversaw the operational readiness of 35,000 personnel.
McLachlan serves as a senior advisor for defence and national security at The University of Sydney, holding several directorships, including with the Sir Richard Williams Foundation and L3 Harris Australia. He has advisory roles with early-stage technology firms in cyber security and artificial intelligence.
Kacey Lam-Evans becomes Droneshield’s government affairs director. She is a government affairs specialist who brings a robust background in public policy and strategic government engagement to DroneShield. Lam-Evans has directly advised Australian Government ministers and was senior advisor to the 54th Australian Minister for Defence, where she was instrumental in driving the Australian Defence Export Strategy.
Prior to DroneShield, Lam-Evans held a senior leadership role at a government affairs firm, where she provided strategic corporate advice and government relations support to clients across sectors with a substantial focus on defence.
“DroneShield welcomes Terry, Koz, Gus, and Kacey to our team, as the business rapidly grows in scale,” said CEO Oleg Vornik. “They are world class talent, coming at this important time as counterdrone threats are rapidly growing around the world. They will be involved in ongoing positioning of DroneShield as a pre-eminent defence technology company in Australia and globally. These appointments reflect the significant growth in our capabilities, across business development, technology, and operations.”
