The founder and former director of Gyrodyne, Peter James Papadakos (1914-1992), was the pioneer who perfected the American Coaxial helicopter design.
Upon purchasing the assets of the bankrupt Bendix Helicopter company, Mr. Papadakos founded Gyrodyne Company of America in 1946, to "Investigate advanced helicopter designs and development with the goal of producing a better rotary wing aircraft than any other being offered at that time".
On June 14, 1966, he formed the Flowerfield Properties wholly-owned subsidiary of the Gyrodyne Company for the purpose for holding certain assets of the company's property, investments and its limited partnership in the development of a 3,500 acre orange grove in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Gary J. Fitlin, age 56, was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, effective May 1, 2017. Mr. Fitlin joined the Company in October 2009 as its Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. From August 2012 through February 24, 2013, Mr. Fitlin served as interim President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining the Company, he was Director of Accounting Implementation for Lexington Realty Trust, a publicly traded real estate investment trust on the NYSE, from July 2006 to March 2008, where he was responsible for mergers and acquisitions. Prior to that, he served as a senior financial officer for various publicly traded companies where he was responsible for mergers and acquisitions, global accounting, management reporting, tax compliance and planning, financial systems, risk management and contract administration. He is a Certified Public Accountant, an alumnus of Arthur Andersen & Co., and holds a BS degree in Accounting and Economics from the State University of New York at Oswego.
Jan Loeb
Board Member
Jan H. Loeb, age 64, was appointed to our Board in July 2023. Mr. Loeb has more than forty years of business, money management and investment banking experience. He has been the Managing Member of Leap Tide since 2007. From 2005 to 2007, he served as the President of Leap Tide’s predecessor, Leap Tide Capital Management Inc., which was formerly known as AmTrust Capital Management Inc. He served as a Portfolio Manager of Chesapeake Partners, privately-owned hedge fund sponsor investing in the public equity and alternative investment markets, from February 2004 to January 2005. From January 2002 to December 2004, he served as Managing Director at Jefferies & Company, Inc., an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company. From 1994 to 2001, he served as Managing Director at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Inc. (formerly Wasserstein Perella & Co., Inc.), a boutique investment banking firm. He served as a Lead Director of American Pacific Corporation, a chemical manufacturing corporation, from July 8, 2013 to February 27, 2014, and also served as its Director from January 1997 to February 27, 2014. He served as an Independent Director of Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (formerly, Golf Trust of America, Inc.), a specialty pharmaceutical business, from 2006 to August 31, 2011. He served as a Director of aerospace and defense company TAT Technologies, Ltd. from August 2009 to December 21, 2016. He served as a Director of Keweenaw Land Association, Ltd., a subsurface mineral mining company, from December 2016 until May 2019. He has served as President, Executive Chairman and board member of Novelstem International Corp., a biotechnology company, since June 2018. He has served as Chairman of Newstem Ltd., a biopharmaceutical company since June 2018. He has served as President and CEO of Acorn Energy Corp., an energy utility company, since January 2016 and CEO of Omnimetrix, LLC, a subsidiary of Acorn Energy Corp., since December 2019. He currently serves as Chairman and Director of Agudath Israel of Baltimore, Inc., a nonprofit religious organization.
