DroneShield bosses cancel shareholder meeting amid share price carnage

DroneShield directors Simone Haslinger and Richard Joffe haven’t copped any flak for the disastrous decisions of their fellow board members.

DroneShield has had a busy week. As its share price merrily burned, its executives have been off touting the company’s projects in Dubai, Berlin, Manila and sponsoring events in Lithuania, North Virginia, Canberra and beyond.

The company’s LinkedIn profile has kept spruiking DroneShield’s wares on close to a daily basis.

And yet, on Friday chairman Peter James and managing director Oleg Vornik couldn’t find the courage front shareholders in the friendliest possible venue – a session with house broker Bell Potter, when questions were going to be vetted ahead of time.

Bell Potter put the word around on Thursday and cancelled on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, Middle East sales director Martin Appel posted about his great day at the Dubai Air Show, commercial director Mike Schut appeared on a panel at the International Airport Summit in Berlin and engineer Paul Maxwell-Walters spoke at a quality assurance conference in the Philippines.

And the company sponsored an emergency services talkfest in North Virginia, an Australian Women in Security event in Canberra, and attended a promotional showcase in Lithuania hosted by Australia’s ambassador to Poland and the region, Benjamin Hayes.

Sure, the business of selling your wares still goes on even when you’re engulfed in a self-inflicted crisis. But we wonder what talking points DroneShield executives were given in case the company’s share price crash and corporate governance concerns came up in conversation.

And, while the DroneShield troika of James, Vornik and non-executive director Jethro Marks have copped all of the flak over this week’s market carnage – sparked by their share sell-off – the rest of the company’s directors are also missing in action.

Honey Insurance founder Richard Joffe and former JPMorgan Australia ECM boss Simone Haslinger both joined the DroneShield board in September 2024, just after the company joined the ASX-300 index.

Joffe, a former McKinsey consultant, was last seen witnessing mortgage documents over Vornik’s North Bondi apartment after the DroneShield boss borrowed money from Marks. But Joffe has been pretty quiet in recent days about his DroneShield involvement.

As has Haslinger, who must surely be able to spot a death spiral when she sees one on the market. Perhaps they’ve been expressing all of their outrage behind the scenes.

They haven’t been selling any DroneShield shares. Props for that, at least.

Difficult to sell shares when you don’t own any, though.

Neither held a single share when they joined the DroneShield board in 2024 and haven’t bought a single line of stock since, given the lack of changes to their director interest notices.

Not a great look in an ASX-200 company, you would have to say.

And the last week has, surely, been a great buying opportunity for those who have faith in the company.

Or not, if you don’t.