Mike Farrell
Founder / President of Smart Firearms
Mike Farrell is a professional pilot. Early in his career he was based in West Berlin flying for Tempelhof Airways and German Air Rescue. As the Berlin Wall fell Mike was the last pilot to land in the divided city. For the next year Mike flew throughout Eastern Europe providing Medevac support as the former Warsaw Pact countries developed native air rescue capability. Flying into many abandoned Russian air bases gave Mike the inspiration to start Farrell Aviation, a company which imported former Soviet Military aircraft into the United States.
After Berlin his next stop was Business Express Airways in Boston. During this time he also delivered Saab commuter planes from the factory in Sweden to customers in the US.
Before long Mike received the opportunity to fly for an international cargo airline, Emery Worldwide. Mike flew the next 7 years all over the world in DC8s and 727s in support of military, humanitarian and commercial contracts. He rose to become a check airman and became deeply involved in pilot training.
After Emery Worldwide closed down Mike flew corporate jets until he was hired with a major US airline where he is currently a Los Angeles based pilot.
Mike has been a volunteer sworn Law Enforcement Officer since 2005, and is a firearms instructor.
Arno Lippassaar is a recently retired Trooper from the New York State Police, with his most recent assignment being the New York State Police Academy as an ACADEMY TRAINING OFFICER. He had been a Trooper for over 23 years. He was an instructor assigned to numerous subjects, mostly related to Firearms, Active Shooter, and Reality-Based areas of training. He was certified a Master Instructor by the Municipal Police Training Council in June of 2017 and has actively trained other Troopers to become Instructors as well. Trooper Lippassaar had been an ACADEMY TRAINING OFFICER for five years, training a total of 9 classes with a total of over 1400 recruits during his career. Prior to this, starting in 2003 he taught Firearms as a range instructor. In 2008 he was designated Senior Firearms Instructor and was responsible for testing and helping to maintain the proficiency of Troopers assigned to road patrol and Recruit Troopers. He was a road Trooper for 18 years, assigned to all aspects of police work, including crime investigation, Contaminated Crime Scene Emergency Response Team, and traffic enforcement. Arno is also the only Trooper in the history of the State of New York State Police to be a two-time Brummer Award recipient, their highest award for heroism.
The New York State Police Academy is an Academy that employs Adult-Based Learning using a combination of classroom lectures and reality scenario-based training. In 2012, Trooper Lippassaar realized a deficiency in training involving the use of “red guns” during scenarios. Seeing this as a serious training issue, he modified and adapted plastic “Air Soft” pistols as a temporary solution. This was seen as a large improvement to training with almost immediate positive results. Upon Trooper Lippassaar’s return to the Academy in 2016, he learned about Smart Firearms Training Devices. With the support of the Academy staff, Trooper Lippassaar tested and reviewed the product for Academy use. Receiving all positive comments, and after researching all other possible training gun solutions, it was decided that the Smart Firearms Training Device would be ideal for State Police needs. Trooper Lippassaar assisted with obtaining Federal Grant money for the purchase of 200 Smart Firearms Training Devices, not only to be used at the Academy, but also for Active Shooter and Defensive Tactics training in the field. Smart Firearms are now used in all aspects of State Police training throughout New York State.
Prior to working for the New York State Police, Arno was a Category Expert for Ebay Inc. for over 4 years, helping to build categories and be an ambassador for the new web marketplace. He also was a Consumer Marketing Representative for U.S. Tobacco for 4 years, specializing in event promotions and direct consumer marketing.
Arno Lippassaar
Director of Sales and Marketing