After 16 Years as CFO/Treasurer, Gary Sidorsky Promoted to CEO
American Defense Systems Inc. (OTC: ADFS) announced on Friday, October 2nd, 2020, the recent promotion of Mr. Gary Sidorsky, from Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer of the company, to Chief Executive Officer / CFO. Mr. Sidorsky has served as CFO and in other capacities in the company since December 2006. Mr. Sidorsky served as Controller from January to December 2006; and served as a member of the board of directors from December 2007 until April 2010. Mr. Sidorsky has 36 years of accounting experience with both accounting firms and manufacturing companies. Prior to joining ADFS, Mr. Sidorsky received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Quinnipiac University and an MBA from Dowling College. He has also earned certificates in Finance from both the University of Chicago School of Business & Logistics and from Defense Systems Acquisition Management (DSAM). He served as Accounting Manager for Diam International, a global manufacturer of merchandising displays, from September 2003 to January 2006.
Founded in 2002, before Mr. Sidorsky joined the company, this small New York-based manufacturer first made headlines by obtaining a much-sought-after contract in 2005 to produce and install armored glass to protect President George Bush Jr. during his second inauguration ceremony. When Mr. Sidorsky joined the company the following year, ADFS’ product lines grew to include “advanced solutions in the design, fabrication, and installation of transparent and opaque armor, security doors, windows and curtainwall systems for use by the military, law enforcement, homeland defense, and corporate customers.”
The company’s numerous products soon included: crew protection kits (including lightweight ballistic resistance combat helmets); VistaSteel transparent armor (a defensive barrier to protect against firearms, physical attack, and explosive blasts); VistaSteel opaque armor (on various military vehicles to form up-armor or add-on protection of operator compartments); VistaGuard windows (anti-forced entry and blast-resistant windows and window frames); blast-resistant curtain walls (including trans-barrier systems, and transparent shield to provide ballistic and blast protection); and mobile, handheld, lightweight police shields (ballistic shields, bullet-resistant transparent shields for riots, hostage or other ‘SWAT-team’ situations). ADSF also designs and/or produced heated ballistic ship windows; proprietary hinges, latches, and locks; and, the ‘T2 Ballistic Range’ (a live-fire interactive training range system for training warfighters and law enforcement personnel).
As the company became a regular supplier of protective systems for operators of military construction equipment being used in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Sidorsky was among the corporate officials who welcomed Gen. James T. Conway, the 34 Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, and Lt Gen. James F. Amos, the U.S. Marine Corps’ Deputy Commandant for Combat Development & Integration, when they visited and inspected ADFS corporate headquarters and facilities in Hicksville on April 13, 2007. He was also part of the team that negotiated the contract for ADFS to “strengthen the physical security at the New York Stock Exchange” in February 2009.
In March 2009, ADFS obtained a contract to manufacture and install armored glass to protect President Obama during his first inauguration ceremony. Ordered by the Secret Service under a contract whose details and cost are classified, the panels were made of “multiple layers of glass bonded with a proprietary substance,” said Roger Ward, the company’s former vice president of marketing and investor relations. The panels are designed to both deflect the paths of, and absorb, projectiles, including bullets and fragments from explosives. “It will stop a lot.”
At that time, as CFO/Treasurer, Mr. Sidorsky managed the company’s filings with the American Stock Exchange, with a payroll of about 90 people in Hicksville; and achieved a 26 percent increase in revenues year-over-year, to about $45 million.
As the defense market started to wind down afterward, Mr. Sidorsky joined other officials to recommend the company relocate to Raleigh, North Carolina in June 2011, as a cost-cutting strategy aimed at saving $1.5 million a year with lower overhead, along with cuts to staff and salaries.
While in Raleigh, Mr. Sidorsky assisted the company in establishing new OEM relationships, which included, but was not limited to working with: MAC Defense on their proprietary prototype Armor Cab
Program; General Dynamics Land Systems on the technical development of a solid propellant fire extinguisher tank for their Combat Vehicle to suppress engine compartment fires; Caterpillar for engineering work on their 279D CTL, and the production of C-Kits; and JCB toward the production of new HMEE B Kits.
As the company seeks to remake a name for itself in a crowded industry, Mr. Sidorsky states that he is “very excited by the new opportunities the company faces to revamp and pursue markets that no one could have anticipated prior to the recent pandemic. We are really focused on capitalizing on uniquely post-COVID19 opportunities to leapfrog ahead of our peers. Hopefully, we can become an industry leader in the next few years. I’m glad to be working alongside some really forward-looking people; and we will build a team that meets the needs and challenges of the future.”
The executive also reiterated the company’s commitment to full regulatory compliance and projected ADFS would have filed their updated disclosures reports with the OTC Board before the fourth quarter 2020.
American Defense Systems, Inc. (OTC: ADSF) develops and manufactures security applications for the physical security industry. The Company designs fabricate and install transparent and opaque armor, security doors, windows, and curtainwall systems for the defense, military, government, and other business sectors throughout the United States. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘EAG’, while its operations were based in Hicksville, New York. The stock symbol was later changed to ‘ADSI’ when the company stock moved to the NASDAQ; and has since been changed again to ‘ADSF’, while the stock trades on the OTC.
Certain statements in this report; statements relating to the development, production, production rates, features and timing of existing and future products and technologies; statements regarding market growth and locations, and repair capabilities; statements regarding growth of our business and the means to achieve such growth; statements regarding growing market opportunities for products and the catalysts for that growth; statements regarding product demand, volume, production, delivery, and market share; statements regarding revenue, cash availability and generation, cash flow, gross margin, product pricing, spending, capital expenditure and profitability targets; statements regarding productivity improvements, cost reductions and capacity expansion plans, such as for customer deliveries, logistics and vehicle servicing; and statements regarding our investment in and the impact of changes to our customer delivery infrastructure, are “forward-looking statements” that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations, and as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those projected.
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