Management Shakeout at Damon
There is a lot of flux at freshly listed Damon Motorcycles as they struggle to get the promising HyperSport electric superbike to production. Yesterday, they announced a new interim CEO and a new Chairman of the Board.
Jay Giraud is out as CEO. In his place, the board has installed co-founder and ex-COO Dominique (Dom) Kwong, who has returned (he had exited Damon in 2023). Kwong has 25 years of experience in technology companies in the consumer and automotive sectors. He is responsible for developing Damon's CoPilot and SHIFT technologies.
Meanwhile, independent director Shashi Tripathi will take over as Chairman of the Damon board. Tripathi has extensive experience in technology, operations, and manufacturing and is the founder of Nurture Growth Fund and also the current CEO of Sleepiz USA.
Impact
Considering that Jay Giraud is mentioned only once in the very brief media communication, this may have been a sudden, strong decision from the board. Also, Dom Kwong has been named interim CEO, so the board may be hunting for a new CEO as we write this.
Damon's debut on the Nasdaq has been disappointing. We have covered the subject previously—the stock was estimated at USD 12 before listing, but it listed at USD 4, spiked a bit to USD 4.95, and crashed down to sub-USD 1.0 levels, where it sits now.
The IPO has also not helped Damon get the HyperSport into production. The company still needs to raise money and has been looking for investors. With the share price now hovering around USD 0.91, Damon has a market cap of less than USD 18m.
