John Abbott

John Abbott is the new CEO of the Satellite Applications Catapult. He joined the Catapult from the Real Estate Registry in Saudi Arabia, where he was Chief Digital Officer. John was instrumental in the delivery of the Kingdom’s first ever registry of land ownership as part of a public-private partnership supported by the Public Investment Fund. John was previously Director of Digital Data and Technology and a member of the Executive Board at HM Land Registry, where he led a successful £200m digital transformation programme and the organisation’s pioneering open innovation programme, Digital Street. Prior to this he was Head of Digital Products at Ordnance Survey where he was responsible for digitising and publishing the organisation’s geospatial data as well as the Innovations Lab and Geovation, a successful start-up incubator, which has supported more than 150 early-stage businesses which together have raised £130m. Earlier roles included Product Director at Mimecast, the UK tech company acquired by Permira for $5.8Bn. He has an MBA from Imperial College London and is married with three children.