Post-acquisition, Black Sage appoints new president

Fresh off being acquired, counter-drone technology company Black Sage appoints a new president to chart its next growth phase.

On the heels of its acquisition by a private equity firm, Black Sage Technologies has hired nearly four-decade aerospace and defense market veteran Rick Schmidt as president.

Schmidt joins the maker of counter unmanned aircraft system technologies to steer its next phase of growth under the new ownership, Black Sage said in a release Wednesday.

Acorn Growth Companies acquired Black Sage over the summer to become the investment group’s latest deal for a middle-market company in the aerospace, defense and intelligence markets.

Prior to Black Sage, Schmidt was a senior vice president at Vertex Aerospace and helped lead that business through its sale last year by former parent L3 Technologies to American Industrial Partners.

Schmidt held executive roles at both L3 and Vertex during his 12-year career there after he retired from the Marine Corps after 26 years of service.

Boise, Idaho-based builds sensors, effectors and machine intelligence tools to autonomously take control of and take down small unmanned aircraft.