26OCT

Red Cat holders reject executive pay

2 min read

15:07UTC

Red Cat Holdings shareholders rejected the company's executive pay plan at its 18 June AGM, 58% against, the company disclosed on 25 June.

← Back to China puts drone-part exports under licence Jump to analysis ↓

TechnologyDeveloping

Key takeaway

Red Cat holders rejected executive pay 58% against, the second drone-sector revolt in six weeks.

Red Cat Holdings shareholders rejected the company's executive pay plan at its 18 June annual meeting, with roughly 58% of votes cast against, the company disclosed in an 8-K filing on 25 June⁠¹. Red Cat is a US-listed drone maker whose Teal subsidiary builds first-person-view aircraft. Two of the five director nominees, Nicholas Liuzza Jr. and retired General Paul Funk II, drew more withheld votes than votes in favour, though plurality rules returned both to the board.

An advisory say-on-pay vote changes nothing on its own. The signal matters more than the ballot: Red Cat raised $225 million and won a Japanese order only weeks earlier, yet its own investors used the first clear vote to register dissent.

The same first-strike pattern hit DroneShield in May, when a majority voted against its remuneration report. Two counter-drone firms, two shareholder revolts in six weeks, as valuations built on order books outrun the governance around them.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Red Cat Holdings is a US drone company. At its annual shareholder meeting on 18 June, investors get to cast an advisory vote on how much the company pays its top executives, called a say-on-pay vote. It is not legally binding, meaning the board can still pay executives what it likes, but a heavy 'no' vote sends a clear signal of investor anger. About 58% of votes cast were against Red Cat's pay plan. Two directors up for re-election, Nicholas Liuzza Jr. and retired general Paul Funk II, actually had more votes withheld than votes in favour, yet both kept their seats because Red Cat's rules only require the most votes among candidates, not a majority, to win a board seat.

What could happen next?

Precedent
A second first-strike-style pay vote at a listed counter-drone company within six weeks makes institutional investors more likely to press governance reform, including majority-voting bylaws, across the sector's other fast-growing names.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: Boeing shareholders voted down its executive pay plan at the 2020 annual meeting, roughly two years into the 737 MAX crisis, the same mechanism at work here: investors use an advisory say-on-pay vote to register dissent over governance and safety failures they cannot otherwise vote on directly.

Counter-parallel: Tesla shareholders instead voted in 2024 to reaffirm Elon Musk's compensation package after a Delaware court had voided it, showing the same advisory-style mechanism can just as easily entrench founder-heavy structures as punish them, depending on how concentrated voting power is among the shareholder base.

Consensus view: Proxy adviser Ownership Matters' Dean Paatsch reads a 58% against vote as the proxy-advisory mechanism working as designed: an advisory say-on-pay failure has no legal force on its own, but it forces the remuneration committee to renegotiate structure before the next AGM or risk an escalating pattern of dissent, the same sequence now playing out at DroneShield weeks after its own first-strike vote.

Counter-view: Shareholder-rights advocates would point instead to Red Cat's plurality voting rule: Nicholas Liuzza Jr. and Paul Funk II each drew more withheld votes than votes in favour yet kept their board seats, because Red Cat has not adopted a majority-voting standard for uncontested director elections, the governance gap that let two clearly unpopular nominees remain despite the arithmetic against them.

Key tension: Whether an advisory pay vote is the meaningful check here, or whether the real governance failure is a plurality-voting bylaw that let two director nominees survive a majority-withheld result.

Sources:SEC EDGAR

Mentions:Red Cat Holdings →DroneShield →Boeing →Tesla →Elon Musk →

First Reported In

Update #14 · UK's £5bn drone bet follows Healey's exit

SEC EDGAR· 5 Jul 2026

Read original →

Causes and effects

Caused by

Red Cat raises $225m and wins Japan

Red Cat's $225m raise and Japan order weeks earlier preceded the shareholder revolt over pay.

Occurred 12 Jun 2026

Read story →

DroneShield AGM draws a first strike

DroneShield's May 50.51% first-strike vote set the pattern Red Cat's 58% vote repeated.

Occurred 29 May 2026

Read story →

This Event

Red Cat holders reject executive pay

Red Cat's shareholder revolt is the second at a listed drone maker in six weeks, a sign governance lags fast-built valuations.

Different Perspectives

Nigerian Air Force

The air force listed 12 Turkish Aksungur and two Chinese CH-4D armed drones on 25 October. No contract has been published, so these are plans.

Civilians in Western Sahara

A UN report of October 2023 records allegations of Moroccan drone strikes east of the berm. An aerial strike there in November 2022 reportedly killed six civilians, the UN said, citing Polisario and local media.

Thunder Tiger

The Taichung company said on 16 October that all 1,520 of its Gauntlet I attack drones passed inspection. Its MoU with AeroVironment covers fitting Switchblade to its uncrewed boats and ground vehicles and exploring joint production in Taiwan.

EDGE Group

The Emirati group said on 9 October it will supply glide bombs and guidance kits for the Royal Moroccan Air Force's armed drones. A separate memorandum explores making small arms and aero engines in Morocco.

Rajnath Singh

India's Defence Acquisition Council, which he chairs, approved about Rs 2.12 lakh crore of proposals on 26 October, including kamikaze drones and tank-mounted counter-drone systems. About 82 per cent of the value is to go to Indian industry, by the ministry's account.

Kongsberg

The Norwegian group said on 13 October it will invest more than 200m zlotys in a Pomeranian plant to build and maintain SAN counter-drone systems. It expects series output to begin in the first half of 2028.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.