PIONEERING Glasgow company Clyde Space, which designed and manufactured Scotland's first satellite, has appointed former Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn as non-executive chairman.
A spokesman for the company noted that it had been chaired by director Hugh Stewart, whose Coralinn private equity vehicle is an investor in Clyde Space. Mr Stewart will remain on the board.
Mr Whitehorn’s appointment comes as Clyde Space pursues further growth, including a push into the US market.
Clyde Space noted that, as president of Virgin Galactic, Mr Whitehorn had established the project to “build the world’s first human passenger-carrying commercial spacecraft”. Mr Whitehorn now chairs Scottish Exhibition Centre Ltd, the company behind the SECC and SSE Hydro venues in Glasgow, and is deputy chairman of Perth-based bus and rail group Stagecoach.
Clyde Space, which employs more than 80 people and is building an average of six tiny, fully-functional CubeSats each month in its cleanroom, has also appointed Jennifer Riddell-Dillet as chief operating officer. Ms Riddell-Dillet was formerly managing director of Scottish contact lens company Daysoft.
Craig Clark, who founded Clyde Space and is the company’s biggest single shareholder, said Mr Whitehorn and Ms Riddell-Dillet brought a vast array of worldwide business and technology experience to the company at a critical time in its growth.
Mr Clark said: “Will’s experience will help develop Clyde Space as an innovative global brand. This, coupled with Jennifer’s extensive experience of modern manufacturing best practice, represents significant added value to Clyde Space as we transition the company to support the growing market demands for production of high volumes of advanced small spacecraft.”
Mr Whitehorn said: “Three things that I love amongst many are space, technology and transportation. Clyde Space combines all three and is building some of the coolest, smallest and sexiest spacecraft in the world at the moment. I’m really looking forward to joining Craig, Jennifer and the team in building a world-class global business based in Glasgow, a world-class city.”
Clyde Space designed and manufactured UKube-1, Scotland’s first satellite. UKube-1 was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in July 2014.
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