Mike Farrell
Founder / President of Smart Firearms
Mike Farrell, President of Smart Firearms Training Devices, is a seasoned entrepreneur, as well as an Airline Pilot. After taking up shooting, Mike found his new passion. Mike enjoyed shooting so much that he eventually became a Firearms Instructor. Mike founded Smart Firearms after being dismayed at the poor quality of training guns available, and the frequency of firearms accidents which take place in the United States (1 every 34 minutes). Mike studied the best way to improve the training guns used to very rugged, training gun. After making his first sale in 2013, Smart Firearms has grown rapidly, more than doubling sales every year. Smart Firearms Training Guns are now found in some of the finest agencies, academies, and companies across the country, and the world. Mike is constantly working to enhance the product and enhance the product and expand its capabilities and performance in firearms training.
Mike is a professional pilot. Early in his career he was based in West Berlin, and as the Berlin Wall fell Mike was the last pilot to land in the divided city. Mike continued flying throughout Eastern Europe providing Medevac support. Mike eventually became deeply involved in pilot training. Mike now works for major US airline where hie is currently a Los Angeles based pilot.
Mike has been a volunteer sworn Law Enforcement Officer since 2005, along with still being 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
John Diaz
Advisor
John Diaz served for over 36 years in Law Enforcement. He joined the Seattle Police Department in 1980 after serving 3 years as Military Police Investigator in the US Army.
As a member of the Seattle Police Department he worked in Internal Affairs, Patrol, Gangs, Homicide and Robbery. As a Deputy Chief he was in charge of Training, Budgets, Human Resources and then transitioned to Deputy Chief in charge of all Operations for the department. He served as Police Chief from 2009 to 2013.
John is a graduate of the FBI National Academy 172nd Session, Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP), FBI National Executive Institute (NEI) and Leadership in Counter Terrorism (LinCT) program. He is a recipient of the Unsung Hero Award from the Youth Law Center for his work on dis-proportionality in the juvenile justice system. He currently is on the board of the Salvation Army and City University.