WASHINGTON — Atlanta-based EMS Technologies Inc. said Nov. 11 that Paul Dormski is out as the company’s president and chief executive officer effective immediately. He is being replaced by Neilson Mackay, EMS’s chief operating officer, the company said in a press release.
Dormski, who had been on the job since 2006, also gave up his seat on the EMS board of directors, the press release said.
The move comes a week after the company reported third-quarter earnings of $5.8 million on revenue of $85.7 million, both down slightly from the same three months in 2008. Dormski told investors Nov. 5 that market conditions had “hurt the short-term outlook for some of our business areas” but had “not dampened our confidence in the market potential of our products and technologies.”
The third-quarter results were attributed to sharp declines in EMS’s aviation division. The company’s defense and space division, on the other hand, reported third-quarter sales of $23.1 million and an operating income of $2.2 million, the latter representing a year-over-year increase of 46 percent.
EMS attributed the increase to a multimillion-dollar award related to the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite communications system.
John Mowell, chairman of the EMS board, told Space News the management change was effective immediately. In a written statement, he thanked Dormski for his service and praised Mackay for his “experience and in-depth operational and technical skills.”
Mackay ran EMS SATCOM, the company’s satellite communications division, before becoming chief operating officer. He joined EMS in 1993 when it acquired the Ottawa-based satellite communications business he had been running.
Dormski is not the first senior EMS executive to depart this year. In August, David A. Smith abruptly resigned as vice president and general manager of the Defense and Space Division less than two weeks after the unit reported 30 percent growth.
