Randall Warnas resigns as Autel CEO
This morning I resigned as CEO of Autel Robotics. Of course I don’t want to be writing this message, but as publicly as I came into the role I wanted there to be clarity that my affiliation with the brand is over.
The team still at Autel is second to none in the unmanned industry. The ownership of the company, however, is suspect. During the interview process I talked about how DJI is run by Frank and the ‘FOF’ (friends of Frank); they laughed and said how they were different. Right… Autel’s owner is also Frank, but has his own FOF (family of Frank), and for nine whole weeks I have been trying to sort that out. When people have unjust authority and no accountability, bad things are bound to happen. This also entirely undermined my ability to function in the role as needed. So rather than prolong this for weeks or months or years, I am moving on.
Mostly this came down to an unjust evaluation of an employee with the company for five weeks which resulted in receiving a termination letter for that person with me expected to sign. I took the ‘over my dead body’ approach and now we’re both floating down the river together.
Thankfully, this is not the end of what I’m going to be doing in the unmanned space. I’ll be taking on a new role at the start of September. Stay tuned.
